The re-balancing of food prices in relation to the price of energy is likely to cause severe social distress. People across the world are becoming frustrated at the escalating food prices and are more and more are choosing to vent their anger at their governments.

Countries and cities that were rocked with mass protest, in the recent past, include Milan, Afghanistan, Egypt, El Salvador, Mexico City, Russia, Bucharest, Bukina Faso, Scotland, China, Croatia, Cameroon and India. Most of these protest actions turned violent leaving a number of protesters dead and scores arrested & imprisoned. Retail stores were looted, buildings damaged and production disrupted.
Climate change is also playing a role and appears to be increasingly destructive as massive droughts and storms, such as a cyclone last year, destroyed R4 320 million worth of rice in Bangladesh. Harvests have been seriously disrupted by freak weather, including prolonged droughts in Australia and the Southern African region with floods in West Africa. The past winter’s deep frost in China and record-breaking warmth in Northern Europe have all contributed to the food crisis.
The rising cost of oil is the major contributor to the food crisis, affecting the cost of production, transport and fertilisers. This is driving the switch to biofuel production as an alternative to hydrocarbons and the race among western countries to produce Biofuels is responsible, in significant part, for the escalating food costs. The logic is simple: When countries put corn aside for energy, the amount available for food is in greater demand, and prices rise. If demand is already high, the effect is amplified.
Generous government subsidies for ethanol in the U.S. have lured thousands of farmers away from growing crops for food. George Bush recently signed an energy bill that will require the U.S. to double annual ethanol production by 2022. Bush also used his 2007 State of the Union address to propose a mandatory target for the replacement of about a fifth of oil-based transport fuels with 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017. Nearly a third of the corn output in the U.S this year will be used to make an estimated 9.3 billion gallons of ethanol.
South Africa has broken ranks with the South African Development Community by approving Genetically Modified Cultivars even though South Africa is party to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol,

There is enough food in the world for everyone but it is the pursuit of profit that stops people from having enough to eat. The working class and poor across the world are being forced to pay for this capitalist crisis.

The world-wide displeasure and anger is now spreading to South Africa as more and more citizens feel the pinch. COSATU, the biggest trade union federation, started embarking on protest action and have called on civil society to join in the campaign against escalating food prices. The Competition Commission in South Africa announced the formation of a crack team to investigate price fixing in the food industry.
The price increases are a disaster for workers, the unemployed and poverty stricken communities around the world. Capitalist governments and the imperialist powers who are complete servants of multinationals will not raise an eyebrow if not pushed by mass protest. These giant corporations are prospering and profiteering at an alarming rate in an environment of neo-liberal policies.
There is no long-term solution under capitalism, because the overriding interest of food manufacturers and distributors is profit.
Corruption, governments’ collusion with profit-hungry traders, food manufactures and multinationals coupled with drought & bad weather, high oil prices stocking transport costs, spiking bio-fuel demand and low reserves are the contributors to this malaise.

There is no guarantee that governments will positively respond, but public attention can often illuminate otherwise ignored problems. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as in Latin America and West Africa, millions are growing dissatisfied with their governments.

The South African populace needs to be vigilant as our cabinet has approved the development of an Industrial Biofuels Strategy in late 2005 and released its draft strategy in late 2006. Biofuel developments are seen primarily as being in support of the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (AsgiSA), which aims to increase growth to 6 percent and perform a capitalist miracle to merge the First and Second economies. AsgiSA puzzlingly suggests that job creation through the biofuels sector will achieve this and alarmingly claims that 55,000 new jobs will be created in rural areas.

It is estimated that the very poor in South Africa spend over 62 percent of their income on food if they live in the rural areas and over 51 percent if they live in the towns. Even the middle income group spends a lot on food with 53 percent in the rural areas, 44 percent in the towns.

Our government has a constitutional obligation, as expressed in the Bill of Rights, to ensure socio-economic rights for all it citizens, especially the poor. These rights include access to sufficient food, water and social security including social assistance for the poor if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants.

The constitution prohibits the state from adopting or maintaining retrogressive measures such as depriving the people of access to food, water and social assistance. The government, through people driven campaigns, must be compelled to adopt laws, policies and programmes to fulfill these socio-economic rights of the people.

The demand must be made for the government to swiftly implement policy measures that include (1) price controls on most staple food items, (2) the establishment a State-owned Commodity Marketing Board that must be the sole buyer of particular commodities and/or operate a guaranteed price/purchase scheme for others, (3) the sale and transfer agricultural inputs & technologies to farmers, at subsidized prices, that lower input cost but contributes to higher yields and increased productivity and (4) a state entity for the production of some basic commodities.

These policies and programmes must allow for (1) market interventions to alter the food prices directly, (2) support to improve competitiveness of the agricultural sector and above all safety net interventions in support of poor households. The cry for the Basic Income Grant must grow louder and louder.

Governments around the world must come under pressure from protest movements to fix food prices and even nationalise some food production. The organs of state, including parastatals, must implement and prioritise programmes to alleviate the plight of the poor and improve the quality of life of the people.

It remains that people driven global campaigns must be embarked upon by organised formations of the people to force governments to act swift, ensure food security for all and attain the Millennium Development Goals.

Let us all join hands and fight against this crime against humanity.

Wilfred Alcock
Pretoria
http://www.live.blat.co.za

hope this interests you, the full text is as follows:
Adopting a policy whereby all paper used by public companies is post-consumer recycled paper from British sources would: 1) Create an untold number of jobs domestically in the recycling industry. 2) At little inconvenience make a huge leap towards the enironmental sustainability of our county. 3) Be a milestone that made headlines, paving the way for other nations to follow. 4) Set a good example for children in schools, public sector employees, private corporations and other nations. 5) Protect our fragile environment and wildlife, as well as yielding many other benefits.

The current system of take/make/throw away is doing the world little good, destroying the life of humans and animals alike. Cutting down trees to make paper when there are better alternatives results in a reduction in the quality of our air. Sustainable forrests dry the land, robbing it of resources and preventing it from sustaining life therefore they are not an apt solution, neither are many of the recycling processes which use bleach or chlorine, and so it is post-consumer recycled paper (preferably from British sources) which is prescribed to deal with this problem.

thanks very much for your time,

best wishes,

Antony of the Campaign for Integrated Sustainability