Surprise!
The World Bank says food prices are rising!
Read the Saturday, May 31, 2014 article
“World Bank sounds alarm on rising global food prices” here.
Now Mr. Bill Gates must be happy.
Very happy. Because when food prices rise, guess who benefits?
Monsanto, on whom Bill Gates has
invested, and whose stock price rises are now $120 per share. Its all uphill
from here for the richest man in the world. Never mind of the rest of the world’s
starving poor.
Meanwhile in Argentina, where
Monsanto has taken over the control of agricultural land in unprecedented ways
(with the help of countries like America which have managed to put Argentina in
serious 100 billion debt and unable to negotiate much about these issues), the
maize is taken in small plastic packs, and flown all the way to… Nepal.
Where I saw the maize at my local
store a fortnight ago, sitting pretty and waiting to be turned to popcorn. Of course,
I didn’t buy it. First because I like the Argentineans and I don’t want to
participate in the decimation of their economy. Second, because buying Argentinean
maize in Nepal has destroyed our local maize crops. American government and
American diplomats are out en masse, offering free corn seeds and other GM
enticements to unsuspecting farmers in Nepal’s hills. A corncob now takes Rs.30
to grow, with all the money people spend on seed, artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Before they used organic cow manure. This poor people’s staple food is now a
luxury.
And thirdly, I simply don’t like GM corn. Do you?
Argentina is clearly a case study
country in what not to do in agriculture. If you allow a tiny minority to seize
all control of land, and then this tiny minority then decides to lease out this
land to Monsanto , which has great dreams of taking over the world’s food
supply and enslaving the world’s 7 billion to its own imperatives, then guess what
happens?
Food prices rise, obviously.
According to the article above:
“Other countries in the grip
of political and economic stresses also saw prices shoot higher. In Argentina,
for example, wheat prices were up 70 per cent from a year ago.”
Returning to Nepal: poor people who
once used to grow their own maize are subtly discouraged from growing their own
food, through dirty tactics that include decimating their live seeds by
offering them seeds that don’t regrow. Instead, you offer them hybrids and GM
seeds that have to be bought, year in and year out, enriching a few companies
to the tune of billions of dollars.
In fact, the development industry has
long ago been highjacked to the imperatives of big corporations, who dictate
the terms in poor countries. With diplomats and the US government at their
back, Monsanto doesn’t find this too difficult.
Food prices have soared in Nepal. I was
at a small store in Bhaktapur, where the man told me that he’d never seen food
prices rises as he’d seen this year. Nepal produces elaichi, a spice. “It used
to cost Rs.150,” he said. “Now it costs Rs.1500. The price soared 10 fold
within a year. I’ve seen a lot of food prices rises in the past, but this year
has been exceptional.” Most of it is getting sold to India, where
people have the purchasing power to buy expensive spices. From
India it gets refined and processed and is sent outwards to the markets of
Western countries.
The answer is clear. Stop the
monopolies of massive corporations on food. Stop speculating on food prices—make
it illegal to bet on food prices on stock exchanges. Allow local, organic and
small scale agricultural economies to thrive. Make GM illegal. And then food
prices will normalize.
If Monsanto has its way, food will
not just become an expensive commodity that only the rich can afford. It will
also ensure that all rainforests are gone in its insatiable question to grow
more corn, soy and other ingredients that are added to America’s Stale Food Industry. In case you missed it, check out the National Geographic coverage of
food in their recent issue. It has a stunning photograph of an entire
rainforest decimated as people plant it with these monster corporate crops.
Mr. Bill Gates, master retailer,
must be happy. Finally those GM seeds are showing some profits!
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