June 12, 2008
By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
Flooding in Iowa may impact your grocery bill before you know it. And the world-wide crisis for food has turned into a world-wide crisis of food and fuel. “This could be a 500-year type of event,” said Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, noting that three weeks of storms had left nine rivers in the state at or above record water levels, and had closed or washed out hundreds of roads, highways and bridges. “Very few people could anticipate or prepare for that type of event. … We're dealing with something that's historic in proportion. ”The flooding in Iowa and the Mississippi River downriver from there is becoming an increasing threat to corn, wheat and other crops, raising the possibility that the storms there could contribute to already spiraling prices for food, fuel and other commodities. Besides ruining crops, the flooding has led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to plan on closing a 200-mile stretch of the Mississippi - the nation's primary trade waterway - to agriculture and cargo ships.
Photo: CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first lock and dam on the upper Mississippi River closed to barge traffic on Thursday due to flood conditions that have destroyed homes and thousands of acres of corn and soybeans, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Lock and Dam 17 in New Boston, Illinois, closed at 3:53 a.m. EDT).
In Thailand, tens of thousands of heavy trucks are threatening to cause havoc in Bangkok while fishermen began burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials, protesters said Thursday. Thailand is the world's number one rice exporter. Yet just when the world needs Thai rice the most, Thailand has restricted exports to make sure it can feed itself. In South Korea, an antigovernment and anti-American protest about beef continued. Truckers in South Korea have voted to go on strike on Friday.More expensive food and fuel drove eastern European inflation in May and increased the pressure on the region's central banks to continue tightening monetary policy. Hungary's inflation accelerated sharply to a higher than expected 7.0 percent, Slovak inflation leapt to a 20-month high while in Romania it eased slightly, though analysts said it had yet to peak. The cause? Food and fuel prices in the main.
Soaring commodity prices are lifting consumer prices around the world and making it more and more difficult for central bankers struggling to keep growth alive in a global slowdown. In London, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Wednesday that high food and fuel prices are major and pressing challenges for Malaysia.Speaking at Chatham House in London, Razak said that thanks to subsidies on goods such as rice and cooking oil, "by and large, food prices in Malaysia are quite stable" for the average worker. But how long can the subsidies last? Malaysian interest rates have been static since April 2006, with the central bank viewing taming steadily rising inflation as secondary to supporting economic growth. "The fuel and food crises facing the world are two major pressing challenges facing Malaysia," Razak said. Spanish truck drivers blocked the border with France on Monday, halting the flow of all goods traffic as fuel price protests in Spain, France and Portugal raised fears of food and fuel shortages.
Spanish and Portuguese drivers began indefinite strikes, and lines of trucks up to 5 miles long formed on the French side of the border after Spanish picketers smashed the windshields of foreign goods drivers who tried to enter Spain.
French and Spanish truckers also staged 'go-slow' protests, causing traffic jams of 20 miles in Bordeaux, France, and 15 miles or more around Madrid and Barcelona. In Portugal, air transport ground to a halt as authorities at Lisbon airport banned planes from refueling, except those on high priority flights.
"We cannot refuel any planes, except those on urgent, military or state flights," a spokesman for the airport authority, Rui Oliveira, told Lusa news agency. There is just not enough fuel. Dutch truckers announced plans to block roads at 18 points across the country for 30 minutes on Thursday. In Africa there are 200 million people today who don't get enough to eat. You have 33 million children who are malnourished. Although this has been an ongoing problem, the world-wide food and fuel crisis can only make matters worse. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “the high oil prices, which …. impact on transportation cost. It has an impact on cost of fertilizers. The cost of fertilizer in some countries has quadrupled in a year.
Some farmers are planting a quarter or half of their land because they can't afford to buy the fertilizer at a time when they need to increase production.
You also have the question of biofuel. I know there's a debate about this, but, obviously, if you're diverting corn, which can be used for human consumption...you have a food problem….ethanol to fuel, you cannot claim that it has no impact on the availability of food or food prices.”
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