Tag Archives: Food Shortage

Mexico’s poor get food cash bonus

Posted on by

Right, this was also suggested in a prior email- the political response towards a food shortage would be cash distributions.
Assuming there actually is a world food shortage and the prices are indicative of a world market allocating by price, this doesn´t create any new food but simply adds upward pressure on prices, triggering an international inflation.

Politically, there is no other choice but to add to inflation like this to at least be seen to be doing something.

Mexico’s poor get food cash boost

The Mexican government is to give its poorest citizens a monthly cash payment of 120 pesos ($11.55; £5.85) to help them cope with rising food prices.

The news came a day after the country said it would cut tariffs on imported crops such as corn, wheat and rice.

In a further sign of the impact of rising food and fuel costs, inflation in Vietnam jumped to 25% in May, the highest rate for 10 years.
Average food costs have risen by 42.4% in a year, the Statistics Office said.

Growing demand
In Mexico, official figures show consumer prices rose by 4.55% – the fastest rate for three years – in the 12 months to 30 April, led by increases in the cost of tomatoes, chicken and cooking oil.

Growing demand from fast-expanding countries such as India and China has been blamed for spiralling food prices, along with record fuel costs and the use of grain to produce bio-fuels.

Governments around the world are under pressure to intervene to help the poorest cope with the sharp food price rises.

There have been public demonstrations about food prices in a number of countries including Egypt and South Africa.

Mexico’s monthly cash payment, which will go to 26 million people in the Latin American country, equates to just over twice the national daily minimum wage of 50 pesos.

The government faced street protests last year when the price of tortillas doubled.

Rice restrictions
Vietnam has seen the price of rice, its staple food, jump 67.8% in the last 12 months, according to government figures.

One of Vietnam’s most important sources of imported rice, Cambodia, stopped exporting the grain in March.

It is one of a number of rice-producing countries, including India, Egypt and Indonesia, to have either banned or restricted exports in recent months to secure supply for domestic customers.

On Tuesday, Cambodia was set to resume exports of rice after its two-month ban ended.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said only rice that was not needed for domestic consumption could be sold for overseas consumption until the new harvesting season began in December.

Last year, that amounted to 1.6 million tons of milled rice.

Share

Food

Posted on by

On the current food shortages and protests created by biofuels (as feared):

The mainstream ‘Malthusian’ world is one where the population grows to the size of the food supply.

Now we have a new twist on that theme.

The monetary system burns up the food supply as fuel to the point where the marginal agent facing starvation has sufficient political influence to stop this process.

The first phase is happening as politicians around the world are allocating more funds to people who can’t afford to eat.

This only drives up the price further as markets continue to allocate by price, with no sign of a sufficient supply response to keep many from starvation.

In fact, newly emerging nations are producing income distributions that allow their higher income groups to reduce the aggregate food supply by both consuming more fuel and also by increasing meat consumption.

I expect a lot worse before it gets better.

Share

Re: Food prices (cont)

Posted on by

(a set of interoffice emails)

Sanjiv to me
9:10 AM Reply
See the riots in Haiti over food prices?

Mike to me
9:03 AM Reply
Much of it caused by financial intermediaries

YES, TO THE EXTENT THERE ARE EXCESS INVENTORIES.

BIOFUELS, TO THE EXTENT THE FOOD/ACREAGE HAS BEEN USED FOR FUEL

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 9:02 AM, Brian wrote:

Did you see the news in the Philippines last night? The government is going to start increasing wages to help people deal with rising food and energy costs. Interesting approach toward combating inflation.

Yes, the mainstream calls that ‘monetizing’ the price increases. Given a shortage, giving people more funds doesn’t add to supply in the short run, and, (twist on Keynes coming) when it comes to food shortages in the short run we’re all dead.

Share

Bloomberg: Egypt’s Soaring Food Prices Bring Bread Lines, Deficit Pressure

Posted on by

This is destabilizing and escalating.

Egypt’s Soaring Food Prices Bring Bread Lines, Deficit Pressure

By Abeer Allam and Daniel Williams

 

(Bloomberg) Atyat Musa Bakri, a Cairo mother of nine children, was waiting in line to buy subsidized bread for the third time in one day.

“The more cheap bread I can get, the better,” she said as a crowd of about 30 women jostled at a bakery in the Boulaq district. “The price of everything is going up and up, so I save on this. I spend all morning buying cheap bread.”

Bread is just about the only affordable food these days in Egypt, where rising commodity and energy prices have sent unsubsidized food prices up 20 percent or more in the past year. The rising cost of subsidies is damaging the government’s efforts to reduce its budget deficit.

About 500 political activists and textile workers at the Mahallah El-Kobra factory in northern Egypt were arrested and dozens were wounded in clashes with police on April 6 as the government clamped down on a one-day national strike to protest food inflation. In Mahallah itself, demonstrators threw stones at police phalanxes and set fire to trash.

The government-owned Egyptian Gazette newspaper said April 1 that seven people have died since the beginning of the year in brawls in bread lines.

Egyptian inflation accelerated to 12.1 percent in February, the fastest pace in 11 months, the Cairo-based Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics reported March 19. Food and beverage prices increased 16.8 percent, while non-subsidized bread and grain prices jumped 27 percent. Dairy products and eggs rose 20.1 percent.

Share