How capitalism is causing a global famine

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 1:22pm

David Beasley, the Chief of World Food Programme, warned that “a wave of hunger has turned into “a tsunami”.

The WFP chief argued that under threat of growing mass starvation and famine, “we are facing a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude”...up to 345 million people in 82 countries are “moving towards starvation”.

As many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night.
People usually associate famines with a shortage of food. So the solution is to produce more food. Some people recognize that wars disrupt food distribution and cause famines. So the solution is to impose security on the region through military force.

The global famine we are now facing largely wasn't caused by wars or a shortage of food.
The global famine we are now experiencing was caused by capitalism.

“Corporations and the billionaire dynasties who control so much of our food system are seeing their profits soar,” the report said, noting that 62 food billionaires had been created in the last two years.
The report directed particular attention to the global food giant Cargill, one of the world’s largest private companies and one of four firms that control more than 70 percent of the global market for agricultural products.

The combined wealth of Cargill family members has increased by $14.4 billion since 2020, a rise of 65 percent. It grew by almost $20 million a day during the pandemic, driven by food price rises, especially for grains.

The company had a net income of $5 billion during 2021, the biggest in its history, and paid out $1.13 billion in dividends, largely to family members. It is expected to make record profits again this year.

Cargill is not the only one raking in the money. One of its main rivals, the agricultural trading firm Louis Dreyfus reported that its profits surged by 82 percent last year, on the back of rising grain and oilseed prices.

Tens of millions of people are starving to death, while the billionaires that control the food supply are raking in bigger profits than ever before. From the point of view of a human being it's sick. From the point of view of a capitalist, it makes perfect sense.
Of course this is only one indicator. We aren't facing a conspiracy here. There is nothing to hide. This is a case of a systemic flaw in capitalism. All you need to do is go down to the docks.

In Egypt, one of the world's top wheat importers, shortages have plagued private sector mills that supply flour for bread that isn't part of the country's subsidy program. About 80 percent of millers have run out of wheat and stopped operations as some 700,000 tons of grain remain stuck at the country's ports since the start of last month, according to the Chamber of Cereal Industry.
The supply ministry said Wednesday it would provide wheat and flour to private sector mills and pasta factories. Cargill's Sanfeliu said he expects global wheat trade flow to shrink by as much as 6 percent in the upcoming months, with corn and soybean meal flows dropping by as much as 3 percent, as developing countries struggle to pay for food and animal feed. In Bangladesh, business conglomerate Meghna Group of Industries may have to cut the amount of wheat it had planned to import before the war broke out amid at least a 20 percent jump in wheat import costs due to the stronger dollar, said Taslim Shahriar, the company's procurement official. "Currency fluctuations are creating huge losses for the company," said Shahriar. "We have never seen this before."

To put it simply, people aren't starving because there is no food to eat. They are starving because they can't afford to buy the food that is readily available.
A prime example of this is Afghanistan. When the Taliban took over, the U.S. took $7 Billion of cash from the Bank of Afghanistan with us as we left. By U.S. law the Taliban were terrorists and under sanctions.
So instead of changing our laws, we stole all of the money in Afghanistan. This has caused one of the worst famines in the world.

Acute malnutrition is entrenched across Afghanistan, even though food and basic supplies are available in markets throughout the country. An Afghan humanitarian official told Human Rights Watch in mid-July, “People have nothing to eat. You may not imagine it, but children are starving…. The situation is dire, especially if you go to the villages.” He said he knew of one family who had lost two children, ages 5 and 2, to starvation in the last two months: “This is unbelievable in 2022.” He said that he knew of no shortages in food supplies and that the causes of the crisis were economic: “A functioning banking system is an immediate and crucial need to address the humanitarian crisis.”
Almost 20 million people – half the population – are suffering either level-3 “crisis” or level-4 “emergency” levels of food insecurity under the assessment system of the World Food Programme (WFP). Over one million children under 5 – especially at risk of dying when deprived of food – are suffering from prolonged acute malnutrition, meaning that even if they survive, they face significant health problems, including stunting. Recently, the WFP reported that tens of thousands of people in one province, Ghor, had slipped into “catastrophic” level-5 acute malnutrition, a precursor to famine.

During the Great Depression people began questioning the capitalist system because farmers were going broke because they couldn't sell their crops, often forced to plowing their crops under, while people in the cities starved. It made no logical sense.
We are witnessing something similar today. The differences this time is that Big Ag is raking in billions in profits, and that people are slow to question capitalism.

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Famine

food prices

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Comments

Submitted by soryang on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 7:02pm

From my limited perspective

...having been forced out into the daily workaday world by the recent natural disaster, I'm observing things that I couldn't really understand from withdrawal in retirement. I have generally refrained from major purchases and shopping generally for several years, mostly because I'm not very materialistic and definitely dislike consumer culture. Because we now have to rebuild some kind of living circumstances from scratch I am now suffering from sticker shock in virtually every market dimension.

There are shortages of everything here. When I comment on it to others, the reply I generally get is that these circumstances have existed since the pandemic started. There are various rationalizations. The first is the so called "supply chain crisis" which causes intermittent shortages of various foods, meats, grains etc. This is here in the US that I'm talking about. When one goes to the market, there are invariably empty shelves here and there of basic foods and other items.

Then there is the general rise in prices, characterized as "inflation," for goods that are in high demand. This includes manufactured goods, like appliances and certain kinds of automobiles which are either popular because of market preferences among the well to do for style or status reasons, or among the public generally because of their economy or high utility value. Immediately after returning to the scene of our disaster, I was shocked to find that one could drop more than 25 dollars in quarters, doing a few days worth or laundry for two people.

With respect to cars dealers now add 10,000 dollars to the full recommended sticker price for a vehicle. This includes used vehicles. This is for a more or less ordinary vehicle, like an SUV. Vans are almost impossible to obtain. One dealer asked us to pay over 34 thousand dollars for what was essentially a four year old dodge van with 74k miles on it. Additionally, there is an artificially imposed scarcity of cars and pickups, that simply has no explanation other than that the manufacturers and distributors are creating a supply shortage, which they blame on "the supply chain." I simply don't believe these explanations and believe everyone in the distribution network, is constricting supply and artificially inflating the prices for a so called "market premium." Insurance companies don't recognize the local market "premium" but pay consumers afflicted with losses "national average prices" with de minimis market adjustments. A wealthier executive we know, told us when hearing our account, that premiums on high end luxury cars were as much as 100K over sticker price. They recounted that in their experience, this situation has been going on since the covid, and has been getting progressively worse. In addition to outrageous premiums added to the sticker price, one is expected to wait 3 to 5 months for delivery. This is similar to the "queing society" sobriquet applied to the soviet economy years back. One is basically paying a bribe to the local retailer to obtain what used to be a readily available product. So much for free market competition mythology. The dealers claim the US distributors are rationing the cars in demand.

I've heard politicians like Biden and governor deMantis say that companies better not take advantage of consumers who are suffering from the effects of the natural disaster here. This is a joke, there is nothing else but exploitation as victims are victimized again, and again at every turn they take. I won't dwell on it here much more other than to say the utter corruption of capitalism is compounded when one enters a new contract for purchase or lease, and finds oneself forced to sign contracts engineered by despicable corporate attorneys, which strip the consumer from every right they ostensibly have under state, federal or common law because shortages of goods and services are so severe and conditions so desperate one literally has no choice. So a car purported sold with various warranties, 3, 5, or more years, has to be accepted "as is." Rights to defective products litigation for vehicles sold which may cause serious injury or death are waived etc.

Isn't it wonderful when the corporate capitalist plan to strip the little people of what little they owned or have comes together? What will a government owned and controlled by the very same interests do about it? Nothing.

The attitude of the businesses and people selling or serving these products or services at the retail level are despicable as well, because most don't even recognize that they are handmaidens of grift and will sooner or later become the victims themselves. In the performance of their services when you can reach them thru the phone tree or online "app" designed to keep you from getting service from an actual human that knows what they are doing or talking about, they actually try to do all the talking, don't want to hear any complaints, and play the superior or dictator in terms of the business or consumer relationship. In other words, if you don't like it, go F yourself and do without.

Forgive me for making another edit on an important dimension to this, in dealing with some companies that provide services, leases, or other products, it is often difficult to tell who exactly you are dealing with. Often the person with whom you are dealing, negotiating or paying, is the subcontractor of a subcontractor of the principal, shielding them from culpability for what they do and the misrepresentations they make, adding another Kafkaesque corporate twilight zone dimension to the whole experience.

In the past, I used to say, anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all, so I don't mind if people think I'm over reacting. The politicians pretend they are going to do something about these trends, but I've never seen anything quite like this before. This is the epitome of the capitalist dictatorship. People wonder if its really happening to them.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 4:49pm

Might be worth considering...

@soryang

shopping for a car in say Georgia or Alabama and avoid the price gouging. It is true everything is costing more, but the profiteers are taking advantage of those of you affected by natural disasters.

Wishing you the best in your recovery!

...having been forced out into the daily workaday world by the recent natural disaster, I'm observing things that I couldn't really understand from withdrawal in retirement. I have generally refrained from major purchases and shopping generally for several years, mostly because I'm not very materialistic and definitely dislike consumer culture. Because we now have to rebuild some kind of living circumstances from scratch I am now suffering from sticker shock in virtually every market dimension. There are shortages of everything here. When I comment on it to others, the reply I generally get is that these circumstances have existed since the pandemic started. There are various rationalizations. The first is the so called "supply chain crisis" which causes intermittent shortages of various foods, meats, grains etc. This is here in the US that I'm talking about. When one goes to the market, there are invariably empty shelves here and there of basic foods and other items. Then there is the general rise in prices, characterized as "inflation," for goods that are in high demand. This includes manufactured goods, like appliances and certain kinds of automobiles which are either popular because of market preferences among the well to do for style or status reasons, or among the public generally because of their economy or high utility value. Immediately after returning to the scene of our disaster, I was shocked to find that one could drop more than 25 dollars in quarters, doing a few days worth or laundry for two people. With respect to cars dealers now add 10,000 dollars to the full recommended sticker price for a vehicle. This includes used vehicles. This is for a more or less ordinary vehicle, like an SUV. Vans are almost impossible to obtain. One dealer asked us to pay over 34 thousand dollars for what was essentially a four year old dodge van with 74k miles on it. Additionally, there is an artificially imposed scarcity of cars and pickups, that simply has no explanation other than that the manufacturers and distributors are creating a supply shortage, which they blame on "the supply chain." I simply don't believe these explanations and believe everyone in the distribution network, is constricting supply and artificially inflating the prices for a so called "market premium." Insurance companies don't recognize the local market "premium" but pay consumers afflicted with losses "national average prices" with de minimis market adjustments. A wealthier executive we know, told us when hearing our account, that premiums on high end luxury cars were as much as 100K over sticker price. They recounted that in their experience, this situation has been going on since the covid, and has been getting progressively worse. In addition to outrageous premiums added to the sticker price, one is expected to wait 3 to 5 months for delivery. This is similar to the "queing society" sobriquet applied to the soviet economy years back. One is basically paying a bribe to the local retailer to obtain what used to be a readily available product. So much for free market competition mythology. The dealers claim the US distributors are rationing the cars in demand. I've heard politicians like Biden and governor deMantis say that companies better not take advantage of consumers who are suffering from the effects of the natural disaster here. This is a joke, there is nothing else but exploitation as victims are victimized again, and again at every turn they take. I won't dwell on it here much more other than to say the utter corruption of capitalism is compounded when one enters a new contract for purchase or lease, and finds oneself forced to sign contracts engineered by despicable corporate attorneys, which strip the consumer from every right they ostensibly have under state, federal or common law because shortages of goods and services are so severe and conditions so desperate one literally has no choice. So a car purported sold with various warranties, 3, 5, or more years, has to be accepted "as is." Rights to defective products litigation for vehicles sold which may cause serious injury or death are waived etc. Isn't it wonderful when the corporate capitalist plan to strip the little people of what little they owned or have comes together? What will a government owned and controlled by the very same interests do about it? Nothing. The attitude of the businesses and people selling or serving these products or services at the retail level are despicable as well, because most don't even recognize that they are handmaidens of grift and will sooner or later become the victims themselves. In the performance of their services when you can reach them thru the phone tree or online "app" designed to keep you from getting service from an actual human that knows what they are doing or talking about, they actually try to do all the talking, don't want to hear any complaints, and play the superior or dictator in terms of the business or consumer relationship. In other words, if you don't like it, go F yourself and do without. Forgive me for making another edit on an important dimension to this, in dealing with some companies that provide services, leases, or other products, it is often difficult to tell who exactly you are dealing with. Often the person with whom you are dealing, negotiating or paying, is the subcontractor of a subcontractor of the principal, shielding them from culpability for what they do and the misrepresentations they make, adding another Kafkaesque corporate twilight zone dimension to the whole experience. In the past, I used to say, anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all, so I don't mind if people think I'm over reacting. The politicians pretend they are going to do something about these trends, but I've never seen anything quite like this before. This is the epitome of the capitalist dictatorship. People wonder if its really happening to them.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by soryang on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 6:46pm

prices are probably somewhat less

@Lookout in other regions. But this trend began before the recent hurricane disaster.

on the car issue the NY Times had an article on the car market:

For nearly two years, automakers have been unable to produce as many vehicles as consumers were willing to buy. The manufacturing shortfall resulted from coronavirus-related shutdowns and the chip shortage.

The imbalance of supply and demand has enabled dealers to continue selling almost every new vehicle they receive, even as prices have climbed higher.

Rising prices, however, remain a concern and could eventually cause some shoppers to defer purchases of new vehicles, said Jessica Caldwell, a senior analyst at Edmunds.

She noted that the average purchase price of a new vehicle in September was $47,257, an increase of 6 percent from a year ago. The average monthly payment on new vehicles rose to $703 in the third quarter, from $630 a year ago.

“At some point, the consumer may not be in the best position to accept these higher prices,” she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/business/general-motors-auto-sales.html

I do appreciate the well wishing and suggestions of any kind. I don't really know of a forum to express my observations with regard to specific instances without the prospect or risk of some kind of legal retaliation.

When you have lost all your material things, home, car, etc., you are not in a position to shop around. My internet search on price gouging in florida produced zero results with respect to car sales or rentals. Maybe I'm missing something here. The law mentions commodities, storage, etc. Filing a complaint potentially results in legal jeopardy, if all the t's aren't crossed and i's dotted. So I won't bother.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by on the cusp on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 8:05pm

Anectotal evidence shouldn't be discounted.

@soryang After all, it is the life around you that you learn about, and learn from.
I will say I made a vehicle purchase before the pandemic hit. I looked at a vehicle in a very upscale suburb of Houston. $58k. I found the same vehicle in a part of the state that is a very blue collar, lumber industry environment. Lufkin, TX. It was $38k at that dealership.
My example is an exemplar of capitalistic evil.
What I believe is going on now is to own nothing, and be happy. If I can be of help, do not hesitate to send me a pm.
Best wishes to you, and I hope all will be well for you.

...having been forced out into the daily workaday world by the recent natural disaster, I'm observing things that I couldn't really understand from withdrawal in retirement. I have generally refrained from major purchases and shopping generally for several years, mostly because I'm not very materialistic and definitely dislike consumer culture. Because we now have to rebuild some kind of living circumstances from scratch I am now suffering from sticker shock in virtually every market dimension. There are shortages of everything here. When I comment on it to others, the reply I generally get is that these circumstances have existed since the pandemic started. There are various rationalizations. The first is the so called "supply chain crisis" which causes intermittent shortages of various foods, meats, grains etc. This is here in the US that I'm talking about. When one goes to the market, there are invariably empty shelves here and there of basic foods and other items. Then there is the general rise in prices, characterized as "inflation," for goods that are in high demand. This includes manufactured goods, like appliances and certain kinds of automobiles which are either popular because of market preferences among the well to do for style or status reasons, or among the public generally because of their economy or high utility value. Immediately after returning to the scene of our disaster, I was shocked to find that one could drop more than 25 dollars in quarters, doing a few days worth or laundry for two people. With respect to cars dealers now add 10,000 dollars to the full recommended sticker price for a vehicle. This includes used vehicles. This is for a more or less ordinary vehicle, like an SUV. Vans are almost impossible to obtain. One dealer asked us to pay over 34 thousand dollars for what was essentially a four year old dodge van with 74k miles on it. Additionally, there is an artificially imposed scarcity of cars and pickups, that simply has no explanation other than that the manufacturers and distributors are creating a supply shortage, which they blame on "the supply chain." I simply don't believe these explanations and believe everyone in the distribution network, is constricting supply and artificially inflating the prices for a so called "market premium." Insurance companies don't recognize the local market "premium" but pay consumers afflicted with losses "national average prices" with de minimis market adjustments. A wealthier executive we know, told us when hearing our account, that premiums on high end luxury cars were as much as 100K over sticker price. They recounted that in their experience, this situation has been going on since the covid, and has been getting progressively worse. In addition to outrageous premiums added to the sticker price, one is expected to wait 3 to 5 months for delivery. This is similar to the "queing society" sobriquet applied to the soviet economy years back. One is basically paying a bribe to the local retailer to obtain what used to be a readily available product. So much for free market competition mythology. The dealers claim the US distributors are rationing the cars in demand. I've heard politicians like Biden and governor deMantis say that companies better not take advantage of consumers who are suffering from the effects of the natural disaster here. This is a joke, there is nothing else but exploitation as victims are victimized again, and again at every turn they take. I won't dwell on it here much more other than to say the utter corruption of capitalism is compounded when one enters a new contract for purchase or lease, and finds oneself forced to sign contracts engineered by despicable corporate attorneys, which strip the consumer from every right they ostensibly have under state, federal or common law because shortages of goods and services are so severe and conditions so desperate one literally has no choice. So a car purported sold with various warranties, 3, 5, or more years, has to be accepted "as is." Rights to defective products litigation for vehicles sold which may cause serious injury or death are waived etc. Isn't it wonderful when the corporate capitalist plan to strip the little people of what little they owned or have comes together? What will a government owned and controlled by the very same interests do about it? Nothing. The attitude of the businesses and people selling or serving these products or services at the retail level are despicable as well, because most don't even recognize that they are handmaidens of grift and will sooner or later become the victims themselves. In the performance of their services when you can reach them thru the phone tree or online "app" designed to keep you from getting service from an actual human that knows what they are doing or talking about, they actually try to do all the talking, don't want to hear any complaints, and play the superior or dictator in terms of the business or consumer relationship. In other words, if you don't like it, go F yourself and do without. Forgive me for making another edit on an important dimension to this, in dealing with some companies that provide services, leases, or other products, it is often difficult to tell who exactly you are dealing with. Often the person with whom you are dealing, negotiating or paying, is the subcontractor of a subcontractor of the principal, shielding them from culpability for what they do and the misrepresentations they make, adding another Kafkaesque corporate twilight zone dimension to the whole experience. In the past, I used to say, anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all, so I don't mind if people think I'm over reacting. The politicians pretend they are going to do something about these trends, but I've never seen anything quite like this before. This is the epitome of the capitalist dictatorship. People wonder if its really happening to them.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by soryang on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 9:45pm

@on the cusp thanks for your

@on the cusp thanks for your comments.

I too am an own nothing type person. At least that it what my principle is. Divest oneself of attachment to the material world (a Buddhist aspiration I'm fond of). As I got older I wanted to divest myself of material possessions to the point practical.

When it comes to the basics, like food, shelter, electricity, communications and transportation, you have to have something. Nothing fancy, just the basics with the emphasis on utility. Going to the zero state from a relatively stable life in a day or two was a shocker. At present, I'm relating most to survival training in the military, ironically enough, not in a prepper mode, or in the country boy can survive mode, because that is not where I am culturally, but in the mental attitude of survival mindfulness, not just as to myself but those around me, in similar circumstances. Some have more resources than others, some have had more luck than others, and others are more resourceful than myself in terms of skills needed in this situation (homo faber v. homo sapiens. In times like these one wishes to have McGiver like skills). One of my neighbors is a construction worker/ craftsmen and is really doing a nice job by himself saving his home. Each is presented with different challenges. I could never have survived this without my wife and daughter and others in the community who have come to our aid and helped us through to this point. One cannot give up.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by Anya on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 5:33pm

Catherine Austin Fitts re. the Fed

People here know more about finance and economics than I do, which isn’t saying much, except you understand Catherine Austin Fitts better than I. She seems interesting, knowledgeable, and scary to me. Here is her commentary today on Zero Hedge (or usawatchdog.com) if this doesn’t work…
https://usawatchdog.com/fed-defending-dollar-no-matter-what-crashes-cath...

—

Anya

Submitted by ovals49 on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 8:29pm

That’s a sobering assessment, to be sure

@Anya
I am posting here the Rumble link to the full CAF interview from which the quoted material in the usawatchdog piece originated. I have yet to listen to the whole interview (about an hour long) but hope to get to it tomorrow.

Thank you for sharing the link to the article!

—

“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 6:23pm

a starving slave isn't much worth, so whoever

wants to profit from slave work, needs to make sure they don't starve from hunger, I believe. But what do I know.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 6:27pm

All profit comes from scarcity

@mimi
So if a quarter of the planet goes hungry, then you are talking BIG profits.
Even if the result is a collapse of society.

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 11:05pm

No, but --

@mimi starving populations keep the wages down for that segment of the population that is not starving.

—

“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Sun, 10/16/2022 - 11:03pm

This needs to be sent to all of the people --

who are arguing that "we don't have time to wait to end the capitalist system -- we need to solve Problem X"...

—

“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Submitted by Snode on Mon, 10/17/2022 - 4:59pm

Capitalism used to be a glorified

barter system, pretty much unchanged for centuries. Today it's a mental illness imposed on us. Being poor is redefined, being wealthy is redefined. Widespread poverty married to inconceivable individual wealth is acceptable. Our government condones this behaviour...even encourages it with our tax system. Citizens with no way out of poverty, homeless, lacking reliable medical care, food insecure begging for help is acceptable. Actually bringing them out of poverty is not.

We think this system on some level works for us and that's where the mental illness comes in. Part barter system, part political system, part religion, capitalism is now asymmetrical warfare, and we lost.