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Resource speculation driven by financial markets, climate change and biofuels threatens starvation for the world’s poor.
Submitted by: Hazel Henderson Posted: Nov 29, 2012 – 09:16 AM EST CSRWire
Tags: ethics, commodities, food prices, sustainability, economics, economy, fiscal cliff, european debt crisis, gri, necsi, esg, united nations
Recent spikes in prices of rice, soy, wheat and corn have driven many poor people in developing countries into hunger and malnutrition. In 2011, then World Bank president Robert Zoellick estimated that 44 million people fell into poverty in 2010 due to rising food prices, adding, “Food price inflation is the biggest threat today to the world’s poor…one weather event and you start to push people over the edge.”
The United Nations (UN) FAO Food Price Index jumped 25 percent in 2010.
The dots connecting world hunger, weather events and speculation on global financial markets are obvious. Yet, well-meaning officials at UN agencies, including the FAO, World Bank and IMF, are curiously blind. Instead, their many urgent meetings over the past three years have focused on raising more money to pay these rising prices for food staples, urging more productivity from agriculture and opposing nations curbing exports to protect their domestic foods …. MORE A VIP READ: The Economics of Curbing Speculation In Food, Water and Vital Resources
WATCH
“THE FOOD SPECULATOR”
Food Speculation and The Stockmarket
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/food-speculator/
-▶ THE WORLD IS SITTING ON A CONSUMPTION TIME BOMB http://sco.lt/7sR3eT
▶ FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY: MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS? http://sco.lt/6jtrlJ
-▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides/p/2299601530/who-owns-nature-corporate-power-and-the-final-frontier-in-the-commodification-of-life
-▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE http://sco.lt/7uGWKv
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM — DESTRUCTION OF LIFE ALL IN THE NAME OF “GROWTH” http://sco.lt/6HLK77
Real News One, June 10, 2014
-▶ PUTTING THE ECONOMY BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT IS ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM AND SUICIDAL http://realnewsone.com/2014/06/10/putting-the-economy-before-the-environment-is-environmental-vandalism/
FastCoExist:
-▶ SHAKING UP THE CORPORATE STRUCTURE TO GO BEYOND THE PROFIT MOTIVE http://www.fastcoexist.com/3024770/world-changing-ideas/a-public-company-will-become-a-benefit-corporation
▶ PROSPERITY WITH LESS: WHAT WOULD A RESPONSIBLE ECONOMY LOOK LIKE? Guardian Sustainable Business, October 4, 1013. The founder of Patagonia Inc discusses the value of the simple life, and growing an economy based on buying less, not more http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/patagonia-founder-responsible-economy-with-less
▶ PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES LIMITING ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION http://sco.lt/8Aq0AL
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by Shanny Basar, Financial News 22 Jun 2012
Nature – The Great Teacher
Michael O’Malley, vice-president of human capital at Sibson Consulting, took up beekeeping as a hobby and was surprised to find that it provided insights into his day job of advising on risk management.
WE NEED OUR BEES, ALIVE NOT DEAD
O’Malley writes in the Harvard Business Review that beehives are structured for long-term growth and as a result the pollen gatherers have become masters of risk management, unlike many “too big to fail” banks.
He writes: “When a colony gets too large, it becomes operationally unwieldy and grossly inefficient and the hive splits. Eventually, risk is spread across many hives and revenue sources in contrast to relying on one big, vulnerable “super-hive” for sustenance.”
Other lessons he has taken from his hobby are that queen bees do not appear to be subject to short-term quarterly pollen and nectar targets. “No queen bee is under pressure for quarterly pollen and nectar targets. The hive is only beholden to the long term. Indeed, beehives appear to underperform at times because they could collect more,” he writes.
Instead, decision-making is decentralised with individual bees empowered to take decisive action, bolstered by a “disciplined career development program”: “By the time bees are sent into the field, they are prepared — and, even then, novice foragers are frequently accompanied by veterans who show them how to efficiently and productively move among, and work, the flowers.”……More
Read O’Malley’s full article at Harvard Business Review Why bees are better risk managers than banks.
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Is This Insanity Or What?
The Objectification of Life – and The Huge Price We Are Paying
By @pdjmoo March 10, 2012
What is it about the human psyche that is willing to destroy the very foundations of life that humanity (and all species) depends upon for survival? Aren’t we supposed to be the most “intelligent” species on the planet? Sadly, facts are showing that we have far less understanding of the natural balances required for the planet than our arrogance and intellect would suppose.
It seems this disease is pervasive right across the globe. Like a swarm of locusts, we are ravaging and razing the earth to a point where life can no longer survive. We continue to over-fish our oceans until 90% of the big fish are gone, devastating the natural ocean systems and their biodiversity. Why? For profit and under the guise of “feeding the people” Overfishing leaves swaths of Mediterranean barren
We continue to ravage the forests that hold so much life that maintains the natural balance and biodiversity of our lands, often displacing indigenous peoples from their homes, creating dependency. For What? Profit and the hunger/demand for timber and clearing of forests for non-regional monocrops, destroying thousands of species and their habitat in the process. Our Disappearing Forests. (It takes 100 years to grow a 100 year-old tree)
We continue to “drill baby drill” even as we are faced with horrific oil disasters world-wide, destroying land and ocean life and ecosystems and costing billions in cleanups. Why? For profit and the hunger for cheap fossil-fuel energy, oil and gasoline. Effects of Oil & Drilling on the Environment AND A Tough-Oil World: Why 21st Century Oil Will Break the Bank — and the Planet Read the rest of this entry »
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WATCH THIS IMPORTANT MOVIE HERE: ethosthemovie.com http://ow.ly/3YFPT
Hosted by twice Oscar nominated actor and activist Woody Harrelson, Ethos lifts the lid on a Pandora’s box of systemic issues that guarantee failure in almost every aspect of our lives; from the environment to democracy and our own personal liberty: From terrifying conflicts of interests in politics to unregulated corporate power, to a media in the hands of massive conglomerates, and a military industrial complex that virtually owns our representatives.
@CSRwire Talkback ARTICLE By Sal Cirnigliaro:
There is no doubt corporations have brought many boons to our society, from cheap and readily available technologies to employment for the masses. The profit motivation of business has accelerated the industrial age into the new millennia at a staggering pace, and for some it isn’t easy to see the negative effects of a system that has given us medicines and comforts that certainly seem to improve our lives.
However, many consumers don’t know corporations have been structured, through a series of legal decisions, to have a particularly disturbing characteristic: they are required, by law, to put the interests of their investors ahead of everything else, even the public good! Ethos is a powerful new documentary that sets out to examine the logical outcomes of a system that places the bottom line ahead of everything else.
The downside of this system can be distilled down to one driving phenomenon: CONSUMERISM
CSRwire Talkback – Ethos: a new film about consumer responsibility.
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 disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only |
SEE ALSO
Africa: ‘Land Rush’ (Land Grab) as Threats to Food Security Intensify #allAfrica.com http://ht.ly/1Lkox
FOOD AND WATER DRIVE AFRICAN LAND GRAB
by Staff Writers, Seed Daily Nairobi, Kenya (UPI) Apr 29, 2010
Rich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have bought huge tracts of land across Africa in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and feed their burgeoning populations.
But now the scramble for Africa is intensifying, with investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds, corporations and business tycoons out to grab some of the world’s cheapest land — for profit.
China has leased 6.91 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the world’s largest oil palm plantation.
South Korea’s Daewoo conglomerate planned to buy 2.9 million acres of Madagascar until the deal collapsed when rioters toppled the Indian Ocean island’s government.
“Philippe Heilberg, CEO of the New York-based investment fund Jarch Capital … has leased between 998,000 and 2.47 million acres in southern Sudan from the warlord Paulino Matip,” Le Monde Diplomatique reported.
“Foreign direct investment in agriculture is the boardroom euphemism for the new land grab and those promoting the grab spin it as a win-win situation.”
It quoted Heilberg as saying, “When food becomes scarce, the investor needs a weak state that does not force him to abide by any rules.”
According to various assessments, up to 123.5 million acres of African land — double the size of Britain — has been snapped up or is being negotiated by governments or wealthy investors. Read the rest of this entry »
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2008 REVISITED
“The Hidden Battle for the World Food System”
an interview with Raj Patel – Author of “Stuffed and Starved”
How Industrialization has changed our relationship to Food and Agriculture
The Commodification of Food | Global Oneness Project.
The Natural Eye Project 