Food prices jump will hit poor, World Bank warns
A severe drought in the US has led to many farmers having to abandon their 2012 harvestGlobal food prices have leapt by 10% in the month of July, raising fears of soaring prices for the planet's poorest, the World Bank has warned.
The bank said that a US heatwave and drought in parts of Eastern Europe were partly to blame for the rising costs.
The price of key grains such as corn, wheat and soybean saw the most dramatic increases, described by the World Bank president as "historic".
The bank warned countries importing grains will be particularly vulnerable.
From June to July this year, corn and wheat prices each rose by 25% while soybean prices increased by 17%, the World Bank said. Only rice prices decreased - by 4%.
In the United States, the most severe, widespread drought in half a century has wreaked havoc on the corn and soybean crops while in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, wheat crops have been badly damaged.
The World Bank said that the use of corn to produce ethanol biofuel - which represents 40% of US corn production - was also a key factor in the sharp rise in the US maize price.
Overall, the World Bank's Food Price Index - which tracks the price of internationally traded food commodities - was six percent higher than in July of last year, and one percent over its previous peak, in February 2011.
'Lifetime of perils'
The organisation is urging governments to bolster programmes to protect their most vulnerable communities from the increase in the cost of food.
"We cannot allow these historic price hikes to turn into a lifetime of perils as families take their children out of school and eat less nutritious food to compensate for the high prices," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said.
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Colin Roche OxfamThis 'wait and see' attitude is unacceptable”
He said countries in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East were among those most exposed to such price increases because much of their food was imported and food bills make up a large proportion of average household spending.
Already, the bank said, maize prices had increased by 113% over the past quarter in Mozambique, while sorghum had risen 220% in South Sudan.
Although the bank said that it did not foresee the kind of price increases which led to riots in many countries in 2008 there were, it said, other potential risks which could push grain prices higher.
These included exporters pursuing panic policies, a severe El Nino, disappointing Southern hemisphere crops and strong increases in energy prices.
The G20 group of leading economies has said it will not take any decision on joint action until after the US agriculture department's September estimate of this year's harvest.
But aid charity Oxfam said it was not acceptable for governments to delay acting on food prices until the situation had deteriorated further.
"This 'wait and see' attitude is unacceptable," Colin Roche said.
"Oxfam is already seeing the devastating impact of food price volatility in developing countries that rely on food imports."
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As western banking has fallen and the continued sinking of the Anglo American financial slave system is being played out in what I call plebian theater with characters the likes of Soros and Rothschild begin to make public declarations on the fall of a currency (Euro) that they have months ago moved out of. I thought it was prudent for me to outlay the post collapse world that many of you will emerge in.
First and foremost cash is dead. The new means of exchange will be all digital. As I write this the framework and outlays are already in place that will have all digital transfers/transactions occurring on the highest speed data networks. This will be supported by the new smart chipped credit and debit cards as well as those smartphones that many of you are fond of. The smartphone payment system will be called NFC (Near Field Communication). These systems will conjugate into a thorough algorithmic predictable digital database that will allow the banks, corporations and governments to have a clear understanding of who you are. In the monetary world you are what you BUY us bankers can tell the very person and character you are by the very things you purchase. This means it will not simply be your credit score that a bank will look at before giving you a loan. How about a character score to see if your an enemy of the state? Or responsibility quotient to see if your a frivolous spender? The smartcard/NFC system will coincide with internet ID that we are working on as well. Meaning you will not be able to get online without identifying yourself, your web logons will be tracked and will be looked at along side your purchases, all digitally controlled and maintained.
I fear that this system that is already birthing out before us will eventually evolve into some sort of implantable chip. You see these are all moves for the sake of ubiquitous computing and what transhumists and futurists call singularity. These two movements or fields of thought are funded and fueled by the eltes of banking. Your freedoms will be conditional and your privacy non existent. Long ago you Americans and much of the western populations have become the human collateral and as your economies are being killed off by design you will emerge as the new serfs on the new plantation we call Earth.
There are no further warnings that I can give any of you that I have not said already. If you still have money on paper your a fool of fools. If your still sitting around wondering the “if” and not preparing for the “WHEN” then you are a bigger fool. What more signs can you seek? The accounts are be swept, metals are being suppressed even at $1650 plus, war is in the air, your country is about to declare martial law, many of the elites have left or have emergency relocation plans already activated. I myself am hunkered down. Prepare, if you have read my alerts from the beginning you will see a clear progression of events that is playing out right before your eyes. You would see the handwriting on the wall that Steve Quayle has been warning you about for years. Now I too am warning YOU.
Ignore the main stream media, ignore the talking head pundits, do not listen to those who say all is well and the markets will come back. We HAVE entered into the final phase before collapse the only sign to watch is the final financial solution. The only thing you can do is prepare, watch and wait. I promise you it won’t be long now.
V
www.stevequayle.com