How sad the rain sounds On the cardboard roofs How sad that my people live In cardboard houses

1. Children the color of earth With their same scars Millions of tapeworms And that's why The children live sadly In cardboard houses How happy it is that dogs live in The exploiter’s house You are not going to believe it But there are schools for dogs Where they train them Not to bite the newspapers But the Boss! For many, many years He’s been biting the worker How sad the rain sounds On the cardboard roofs How sad that my people live In cardboard houses The worker is coming down Almost dragging his feet From the weight of suffering Look how much he suffers Look how much the suffering weighs

2. The World Food Crisis Fred Magdoff fmagdoff@uvm.edu

3. 1.) There is a catastrophic food crisis. 2.) In addition to “routine” hunger. 3.) It is interacting with a longer term underlying food crisis and making it worse.

4. A Broad Overview Total world population = 6 billion people In cities = 3 billion people In rural areas = 3 billion people

5. The Wretched of the Earth • 3 billion live on less than $2 per day • 1 billion live on less than $1 per day • 1 billion live in slums • 25 million per year migrate to cities • 1 billion have no access to clean water • 2 billion have no electricity • 2.5 billion have no sanitation systems

6. Hunger • The UN estimates that 840 million people suffer from undernourishment, although the number may be considerably higher. • The number suffering from mineral shortages, food insecurity and temporary food shortage may approach 3 billion.

7. World Bank Counts More Poor People Washington Post Staff August 27, 2008 Far more people around the world live in severe poverty than previously thought, with the global underclass now numbering an estimated 1.4 billion, up from around 1 billion, according to a landmark World Bank report released yesterday.

8. Hunger amid plenty in the U.S. • In 4 million U.S. families (with 9 million people) someone skipped meals because of lack of food. • 12 million U.S. families (with about 34 million people) are “food insecure.” • Huge increases in the last decade in those using food pantries, food shelves, soup kitchens, etc.

9. Hunger frequently occurs amid plenty in poor countries too Poor in India Starve as Surplus Wheat Rots(New York Times, 12/12/02) Want Amid Plenty, An Indian Paradox: Bumper Harvests and Rising Hunger (Wall St. Journal, 6/25/04)

10. There is enough food produced world wide—and usually within most countries—to feed everyone.

11. Why are people hungry? Because they are poor (working or not) and living in an economic system that a) needs, creates, and maintains an underclass, and that b) does not admit a “right” to basic necessities such as food.

12. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. —Adam Smith

13. Survey offers glimpse into lives of state’s 170,000 farmworkers Seattle (AP), August 14, 2008 …sub-par housing conditions plagued by mice, cockroaches and lack of electricity or water. … workers have an average annual household income of around $17,500 - below the federal poverty line. Nearly 6 percent of the 2,800 workers described themselves as homeless, living in cars or sheds.

14. Food is no different than any other commodity— Automobiles Jewelry Clothing Books, etc., etc. The availability of food to people reflects very unequal economic and political power relationships within and between countries.

15. Percent of total U.S. national income (2001) 49.2 23.2 15.0 9.0 3.6 Quintile Highest Fourth Third Second Lowest

16. Household distribution of net worth in the United States (2001) Percent of families Top 1% Top 5% Top 10% Top 20% Bottom 80% Bottom 40% Percent of net worth 33.4 59.2 71.5 84.4 15.5 0.3

17. Richest 400 Americans have a net worth of $1.6 trillion More than the wealth of the bottom 150 million people

18. The Current Crisis Bangladeshi demonstrators protest over high food prices and low wages

19. Rioting in response to soaring food prices recently has broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to deter food theft from fields and warehouses.

20. Food Inflation, Riots Spark Worries for World Leaders — Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2008

21. Rioting in response to soaring food prices recently has broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to deter food theft from fields and warehouses.World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned in a recent speech that 33 countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices.Those could include Indonesia, Yemen, Ghana, Uzbekistan and the Philippines. In countries where buying food requires half to three-quarters of a poor person's income, "there is no margin for survival," he said.

22. The world's poor ``are living very close to the edge as it is…If they are pushed further, they are typically the first who will spark unrest.'’ — Robert Zeigler, director-general of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

23. Rising prices threaten millions with starvation, despite bumper crops The Independent (UK) Sunday, 2 March 2008 There has never been anything remotely like the food crisis that is now increasingly gripping the world, threatening millions with starvation. For it is happening at a time of bumper crops.

25. 20% 39% 122% 40% 51%

26. WSJ, Oct. 15, 2008

27. Effects in U.S. are less than in poor countries Ingredients are small part of price of highly processed foods. In U.S. people have higher incomes and spend less a % of their income on food (10-20% vs 70-80%+).

28. Causes of Current Crisis

29. Increase in fuel prices • a) Use of significant amount of crop land to produce crops for biofuels (20 % of U.S. corn used for ethanol production in 2007). b) Conventional large scale agricultural production is VERY energy intensive: machinery, fuel, irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers (esp. N — DAP has close to tippled in price), drying, etc.

30. But it’s not just ethanol: also problems with biodiesel primarily from soybeans and oil palm

31. Increase in meat consumption(Per capita consumption has more than doubled in last 50 years.) • Formerly self-sufficient countries now importing food. • Weather(Australia, Bangladesh) • Speculation(local hoarding as well as speculation in the “commodities super cycle.”)

32. Wall Street Grain Hoarding Brings Farmers, Consumers Near Ruin Bloomberg April 28, 2008 Commodity-index funds control a record 4.51 billion bushels of corn, wheat and soybeans through Chicago Board of Trade futures, equal to half the amount held in U.S. silos on March 1.

33. Governmental Responses • Emergency imports • Eliminating import duties • Freezing exports of foods • More food subsidies • etc.

34. Governmental Responses Bush Orders $200 Million in Food Aid By Associated Press 4:31 PM EDT, April 14, 2008 (A congressional analysis shows the Iraq war costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week.)

35. Food crisis billions failing to arrive, warn reports guardian.co.uk, Oct. 16, 2008 Two Ugandan women drag sacks of food relief

36. Business Responses • Rapid increase in land prices in US and abroad • Increased deforestation in Amazon • Corporations and private capital purchasing land abroad (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, etc.) • Large profit possibilities

37. Profit increase for some of the world’s largest fertilizer corporations CompanyProfits 2007 (US$ million)% inc. from 2006 Potash Corp (Canada)1,10072% Yara (Norway)1,11644% Sinochem (China)1,10095% Mosaic (US) 708141% ICL (Israel)53543% K + S (Germany)4202.8%e

38. The long-term crisis

39. The long-term crisis The “Washington Consensus” (The “Neoliberal” Approach)of the IMF, World Bank, and aid agencies —one size fits all— • Eliminate tariffs (that protect local industries) • Allow free flow of capital (in andout of country) • Concentrate on industries/products for which country has a “comparative advantage.” • Decrease government spending (especially food and agricultural production subsidies, privatize government services).

40. Let the “free market” work.

42. In most reforming countries, the private sector did not step in to fill the vacuum when the public sector withdrew. — Independent Report Commissioned by the World Bank (Fall 2007)

43. The whole thing was based on the idea that if you take away the government for the poorest of the poor that somehow these markets will solve the problems....But markets can’t step in and won’t step in when people have nothing. And if you take away help, you leave them to die. —Jeffery Sachs, 2007

44. The long-term crisis “Neoliberal” Economic Policies Decreased support to small farmers Lowered food production by small farmers Increased migration to city slums Increased number and size of larger farms Increased penetration and control by transnational agribusiness

46. UAE, Saudis Seek Supply Wall St. Journal August 26, 2008 DUBAI -- The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are seeking agricultural-investment opportunities in a handful of developing countries, including Sudan and Pakistan, in an effort to meet rising food demand, according to officials.

47. The Future? • Fewer than 20 million highly productive and mechanized farmers can grow all the world’s food. • (Note: one person in Brazil — the governor of the state of Mato Grosso, the “soybean king” — controls about 500,000 acres.)

48. The Future? If 20 million farms can produce all world food needs — regardlessofwherethefarmsarelocated — what will be the fate of billions of people that will not find other employment?

49. How can poor nations keep the large mass of people in rural areas productively employed in agriculture? One of the great moral, economic, and political issues of the 21st century.

50. A healthy food supply should be recognized as a human right. • Policies should be implemented to ensure that people have access to sufficient food—in all countries.