Tag: Food Shortages

Yemen Of A New Year

Another year and still more from the Saudi war on Yemen.

The Saudis are killing civilians with impunity….help cause a humanitarian crisis in the first degree and help cause a pandemic among the surviving children of Yemen….and the famine that seems to have no solution.

But with all that out of the way….what else could possibly be a news story about this conflict?

The famine story has gotten worse as the donated food has been stolen…..

Day after day Nabil al-Hakimi, a humanitarian official in Taiz, one of Yemen’s largest cities, went to work feeling he had a “mountain” on his shoulders. Billions of dollars in food and other foreign aid was coming into his war-ravaged homeland, but millions of Yemenis were still living a step away from famine.

Reports of organizational disarray and out-and-out thievery streamed in to him this spring and summer from around Taiz — 5,000 sacks of rice doled out without record of where they’d gone . . . 705 food baskets looted from a welfare agency’s warehouses . . . 110 sacks of grain pillaged from trucks trying to make their way through the craggy northern highlands overlooking the city.

Food donations, it was clear, were being snatched from the starving.

https://apnews.com/bcf4e7595b554029bcd372cb129c49ab

This story does not necessarily mean the the Saudis are behind these thefts….but we could say that without their war on Yemen and the food would not have been needed thus not stolen……

One of the disgusting things about modern warfare….is the use of child soldiers…..speaking of them….the Saudis are recruiting child soldiers in Sudan……

While Saudi Arabia is already awash in allegations of war crimes against children in Yemen, there are always more reports emerging. Over the weekend, the focus is on the large number of child soldiers fighting for the Saudi-led coalition, and the Saudi kingdom’s efforts to recruit such children.

The offensive against the vital aid port of Hodeidah rested heavily on a large influx of Sudanese troops fighting for the Saudi-led coalition. Sudanese soldiers say that a lot of the fighters sent were children, however, with estimates of at least 20 percent under the age of 18, and as many as 40% in some units.

This was possible because Saudi Arabia put a lot of money into recruitment in the desperately impoverished Darfur region, offering as much as $10,000 to families who agreed to enlist their children to go fight in Yemen. By all indications, many did.

While Sudanese troops confirmed that this was common in Yemen, Saudi Arabia issued a statement of blanket denial, saying that they’d never recruited Sudanese children nor paid Sudan at all, and that Sudan was only in the war “in the interest of regional peace.”

(antiwar.com)

There is NO excuse for the use of child soldiers……others have faced war crimes charges because of the use of child soldiers…..it is time for the Saudis to face the charges as well.

The world has protected these barbaric slugs long enough….time for the world to step up and make Saudi Arabia accountable for the crimes they are embracing.

The Great Cashew Riot

My Sunday and cooler weather it is enjoyable……maybe enjoy some fruit and nuts in the garden….speaking of nuts…….

Did you know there was a great cashew riot?  We have seen all kinds of riots…race riots, Zoot Suit riots, even some milder form of food riots…..but a nut riot?  A Cashew Riot?

In 2013 the shortage of cashew nuts led to about 20 farms being burned down…….well it is happening again….the problem is so severe that the army has been put on call…..

Traders have been given a Monday deadline to buy crops from farmers at an approved price, and not below.

If this does not happen, Mr Magufuli said he will send dozens of military trucks to collect the entire crop.

Cashew nut exports are a major foreign-currency earner for Tanzania.

Farmers have for weeks been refusing to sell their harvests, arguing that the private traders’ offers are too low.

On Saturday, Mr Magufuli accused traders of attempting to rip off thousands of farmers and ordered them to increase their price offers to around $1.3 (£1; €1.15) per kilogram (2.2 pounds).

The president says he is working to ensure thousands of farmers get a fair price for their cashew nuts and also so that the country does not miss out on vital export earnings.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46166985

That is right…..cashew riots are possible…..I love my cashews but I do not think I could riot over the lack of them….but then I do not depend on a harvest now do I?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend…..we will pick up where we left off Friday come Monday morning…..

Be well, be safe!

Hunger: The Saddest Injustice

A good friend and blogger (https://beetleypete.wordpress.com/ ) got me to thinking about the issue of hunger….as always I have an opinion on that issue as well…….

There were times during my life when food was a major concern…..I admit that I had gone to bed hungry…..the saddest injustice for me is hunger.

I have tried to focus on hunger here on IST…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/12/22/hunger-is-growing/

https://lobotero.com/2010/02/03/hunger-is/

Then we have TV shows that waste food for entertainment….pumpkin chunking. bowling with raw turkey, etc.  I find all such “entertainment” disgusting……but let’s look at hunger right here in the US, that shining city on the hill…..

  1. 1 in 6 people in America face hunger.
  2. The USDA defines “food insecurity” as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%.
  3. Food insecurity exists in every county in America. In 2013, 17.5 million households were food insecure. More and more people are relying on food banks and pantries. Collect food outside your local supermarket for a local food bank. Sign up for Supermarket Stakeout GL.
  4. 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.
  5. In the US, hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty.
  1. More than 1 in 5 children is at risk of hunger. Among African-Americans and Latinos, it’s 1 in 3.
  2. Over 20 million children receive free or reduced-price lunch each school day. Less than half of them get breakfast, and only 10% have access to summer meal sites.
  3. For every 100 school lunch programs, there are only 87 breakfast sites and just 36 summer food programs.
  4. 1 in 7 people are enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Nearly half of them are children.
  5. 40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or about $165 billion worth. All of this uneaten food could feed 25 million Americans.
  6. These 8 states have statistically higher food insecurity rates than the US national average (14.6%): Arkansas (21.2%), Mississippi (21.1%), Texas (18.0%), Tennessee (17.4%), North Carolina (17.3%), Missouri (16.9%), Georgia (16.6%), Ohio (16.0%).  (source:  dosomething.org)

Kinda sad from a country that can spend $1.5 trillion on a war that it cannot win.

It is a world problem not just one for the US…..and as the world’s nations grow more wealthy the hunger rate never changes……

It’s impossible to ignore the growth of economic inequality in each corner of the planet. Vulgarity is the order of the day, with the very rich hoarding vast amounts of wealth while the poor scratch the earth for their livelihood. The British-based charity group Oxfam has done an important service by offering an annual indication of the gravity of inequality. This year, Oxfam noted that a mere 42 rich people have as much wealth as 3.7 billion poor people. What is most astounding is that in 2017, 82 percent of the social wealth produced by the world’s people was vacuumed into the bank accounts of the wealthiest 1 percent among us. This is not an ancient problem, in other words, but a current problem posed by the structure of capitalism: goods and services are produced socially, but profit is sequestered privately—and with fewer and fewer hands able to seize this profit.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/09/05/hunger-warning

Every generation wants to end world hunger and very generation fails to do so.

I just cannot see a way to make the elimination of hunger  a priority…..words will not feed anyone…it will take action but where will that action come from?

The Land Of Fruits And Nuts

Saturday and this post is about California’s “fruits and nuts”……No!  Really!  So get your mind out of the gutter……..I don’t know what you were thinking.

First the “Fruits”……

Recently I have written several posts about avocados…they have been in the news a lot….well they are a bit more…..especially in California…..

Things aren’t so easy for avocado growers in California these days. There’s more competition from Mexico and less water. And the old trees just don’t bear fruit like they used to. But the New York Times reports that’s giving rise to a surprising new California crop: coffee. The dense foliage of old avocado trees provides perfect shade for coffee bushes, and suddenly two-dozen avocado farms between San Diego and Santa Barbara are turning to coffee crops. There are now about 14,000 coffee plants in California—about 30 times the amount there were 13 years ago. The Times reports California appears set for the first serious American attempt at homegrown coffee outside of Hawaii.

There is, of course, skepticism that California can produce coffee as tasty as that from the tropical highlands of Brazil and Indonesia. But Jason Mraz points out people didn’t use to think you could grow wine grapes in California either. Yes, the Grammy-winning singer is one of those farmers jumping on the coffee train. San Diego reports Mraz has been growing avocados for years and is now making the switch. Growing coffee can be labor intensive and expensive, but one expert says California growers are targeting coffee lovers “willing to pay for something unusual.” The kind of people who don’t blanch at paying up to $12 for a specialty cup of coffee could provide California growers with sizable profit margins

I love coffee and I do not think that California has the soil for good coffee….especially a $12 cup of coffee….but then we are talking about people that buy flavored water, chewy vitamins and Snuggies….so I guess any thing is possible.

Now the “Nuts”……

I really like walnuts and pistachios and when California learns how to properly prepare them, pistachios, they might have a winner on their hands……sorry got off topic there…..

Ir seems that thieves are making a small fortune off stolen nuts….

Since 2013, more than 35 truckloads of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, worth a combined $10 million, have disappeared in California. In an extensive look at efforts to crack the case, Peter Vigneron at Outside reveals a story that is, well, nuts. It turns out stealing nuts, which are worth a pretty penny, is relatively easy. In one 2015 case, a truck driver drove off with a $450,000 load of pistachios before a nut company realized his paperwork was iffy. Companies don’t always pay close attention to drivers’ documents. But even if they did, it would be hard to find anything suspicious. One convicted thief told Vigneron he was able to get his hands on the Department of Transportation ID number for a legitimate trucking company. He slapped it on a truck, got a fake driver’s license, and started getting jobs. It was that easy.

Though tracking nuts is far more difficult than tracking, say, electronics, which carry serial numbers, the thief was eventually caught delivering a truckload of almonds to a warehouse in Van Nuys, rather than its intended destination in New York. But he served less than a month in jail since those convicted of grand theft in California are to serve their sentences in county jails, which are overcrowded. Authorities are mostly focused on the “bigger fish,” anyway, a detective tells Vigneron; sometimes the drivers involved aren’t even aware of the larger scheme. That same detective says his investigations have revealed a key suspect co-signed a $5 million loan to a Los Angeles County official. Think you’re beginning to understand how complicated a case this is? It only gets more complex. Authorities say their investigations have also revealed links to the Russian mafia. More on that here.

See….fruits and nuts…….happy now?

As per usual this will be my only post today…….unless something major breaks and needs my attention…..

Enough!  Time to enjoy the day…..see you guys tomorrow.  chuq

Closing Thought–02Feb17

Repent!  The End Of The World Is Near!

There is always someone some where that is predicting the end of the world….remember 2012?  The Maya told us that there was nothing after that….or how about when they cranked up the new collider in Switzerland….it would create a black hole that would destroy the earth….and we are still here…doing the same stupid stuff….

But the news yesterday was the most devastating and could possibly signal the end of civilization as we know it……

First, you suffered through a Christmas without whipped cream. Now, you could be facing a bacon-less Super Bowl—unless you’re willing to pay a premium for a crispy slice of heaven. As of December, there were 17.8 million pounds of frozen pork belly, which is made into bacon, in US reserves, according to the Department of Agriculture. That might seem like a lot of bacon, but it’s actually the lowest level since record-keeping began in January 1957. As the Cincinnati Enquirer puts it, “there are literally not enough little piggies going to market.”

Pig farmers are actually “producing more pigs than ever,” says Rich Deaton of the Ohio Pork Council, “yet our reserves are still depleting.” The Enquirer notes foreign buyers may be responsible; 26% of pork produced in the US is exported. Apart from being amazed that a bacon reserve exists, consumers appear terrified by the prospect of a bacon shortage. But Deaton says the “pork industry will not run out of supply.” Consumers should, however, expect to pay more for bacon at grocery stores. Prices have already spiked 20% last month. As for when we were most flush with frozen pork belly, that would be 1988, when there were 113.1 million pounds on hand

OMG!  Will the horrors never end?

Since we are talking about bacon….one of my fave sandwiches is a BLT.  But recently they have not been all that good…..it is the tomatoes.  They just do not have that great fresh taste that they use to have.

I remember as a kid waiting for that first tomato off my grandmothers garden…then a tomato sandwich with mayo and a little salt….NOTHING tasted better than a fresh pulled tomato….what happened?

All this GMO crap has killed the taste of tomatoes….but the “Mr. Wizards” in the lab may have solved that problem…..

It’s high time for tomatoes to taste like tomatoes again, and a group of researchers believes it knows how to make that happen, according to a study published Thursday in Science. The Smithsonian reports tomatoes found in today’s grocery stores are “nearly unrecognizable” from what tomatoes used to look and taste like. They’re up to 1,000 times larger and can last ages without rotting, but they’ve also lost their tomato-y taste. Researchers studying nearly 400 varieties of tomato discovered at least 25 chemicals and aroma compounds that combine to create what we think of as a tomato’s flavor. But they found 13 of those were “significantly reduced” in modern tomato varieties, either because growers were breeding for cheaper, bigger, longer-lasting tomatoes, or because they just weren’t paying attention.

Not only did researchers figure out the chemicals and compounds responsible for a tomato’s taste, but the 100 genes it takes to make sure they’re present, the Guardian reports. According to the Los Angeles Times, researchers believe they can use that knowledge to breed tomatoes that taste as good as they used to. And while that may not be a realistic outcome for mass-produced tomatoes—because capitalism—researcher Harry Klee believes they can still bring back some lost flavor in tomatoes that can stand up to the trip from farm to store to dinner table. He says the science can also be applied to other fruits that have lost their traditional taste, such as strawberries.

May I have an AMEN?

Peace out my friends….I see you guys tomorrow…….chuq

“Tiny Purple Fishes……”

Saturday and I start my restful weekend with a tune by Cream, Tales Of Brave Ulysses…..

(Pause here for a musical interlude)

Fish….that is the subject of today’s post…….

We have been told for many years the the Mediterranean diet is the best diet if one wanted to be good and healthy……lots of fiber with vegetables and such and of course a steady diet of fish……

Good advice from everything I have read on this subject……but there may be a slight hiccup in this plan…..

Global overfishing might be much worse than previously thought, Discovery reports. A new study finds that UN figures have vastly understated the problem and that yearly fish hauls are declining three times faster than realized. According to the study, the UN—using numbers from the Food and Agriculture Organization—stated that global fishing peaked in 1996 at 86 million metric tons, but the researchers say it was actually closer to 130 million metric tons. Since then, the study claims the total amount of fish caught has declined by 1.2 million metric tons per year—not 0.4 million metric tons as the UN had said, the Guardian reports. “Our results indicate that the decline is very strong and is not due to countries fishing less,” study author Daniel Pauly says. “It is due to countries having fished too much and having exhausted one fishery after another.”

The study, which was published Tuesday in Nature Communications, is based on a decade of work by 400 researchers around the world. The numbers used by the UN come from the self-reporting of more than 200 countries and territories, and governments might not always be inclined to give accurate fishing counts, notes the Guardian. Researchers undertook a “Herculean task” to get more accurate counts for the years from 1950 to 2010, says one professor not involved with the study. “The world is withdrawing from a joint bank account of fish without knowing what has been withdrawn or the remaining balance,” Pauly tells Discovery. And while the Food and Agriculture Organization disputes the study’s new numbers, it does agree with its conclusion that countries need to improve their reporting, according to Science.

The best way to crap on anything good is to make it a fad or a trend……

Can you imagine what your seafood meal will cost when the fish are in short supply?  Oh well back to Bugles and Peanut Butter…..

Is there a possible way to reverse this trend……there is one that I found……

Source: One Fish Two Fish, No Fish: Rebuilding of Fish Stocks Urgently Needed | Inter Press Service

Please let me know your thoughts…….

Go!  Enjoy the start to your weekend…….

Life Changing News You NEVER Hear

It is the weekend and I have news that you may not be aware of since it is not BS that the MSM usually has to report…..

We have had deadly viruses attacking us…..we have heard that …..well pick a hot topic and some news people are making it out to be more than it is…..and while they are training us to be afraid of everything they have ignored the MOST important development of 2014……..

Like grabbing a Snickers on the run or savoring a little dark chocolate in the evening? Then brace yourself, because chocolate production is failing to keep up with worldwide consumption and could fall behind by 2 million metric tons annually by 2030, two big chocolate makers tell the Washington Post. Dry weather and fungal disease are partly to blame, but there’s another cause: “Demand for chocolate is great,” an expert told Bloomberg last year. “A lot of the world population is moving to the middle class and will have more money to spend, in particular in emerging markets and Asia.” Yes, the Chinese are eating twice as much chocolate as 10 years ago, and dark chocolate, which uses much more cocoa than regular chocolate bars, is growing more popular.

This has forced up cocoa prices by more than 60% over the past two years. It has also inspired innovation, like trees that can produce up to 700% more cocoa than their traditional counterparts. But this breed of tree—which is also resistant to a devastating fungus called Witches’ Broom—comes with far less flavor, making chocolate “as tasteless as today’s store-bought tomatoes, yet another food, along with chicken and strawberries, that went from flavorful to forgettable on the road to plenitude,” writes Mark Schatzker at Bloomberg. Still, experts say that some African growers are producing chocolate with actual flavor. Hopefully, “better-tasting beans will command higher prices, incentivizing quality, not just quantity,” writes Schatzker.

Come on…..what is more important than the possible loss of chocolate?  It may become more scarce and more expensive…..what could possibly be more newsworthy than that?

What is life without chocolate?

Worst News Ever!

And now the weekend and time for….”something completely different”……..

Okay, I admit it…..I am a wine snob!  California wine taste like it has been soaked in salt……Australian wine smells like a wet dog…….for me it is Spanish and French wines that are the best……Chilean and Argentine well do in a pinch…….and Germ,an wine has lost all its character…..

I have been drinking wine with meals since I was a boy living in Europe……seems like an incomplete meal without a good wine……so this news is the worst news I could ever receive…..

Newser) – A worldwide wine shortage? Technically speaking, it’s already happened, reports Quartz. And what’s more, things are on track to get worse. Stats compiled by Morgan Stanley Research show that the world fell 300 million cases short of demand last year, the biggest in-the-red number in half a century. The problem is rather simple despite the scale: Everyone is drinking more—especially the US and China—even as production is dropping.

Last year, for instance, production worldwide fell 5%, mostly because of lousy weather in France and Argentina, reports CNNMoney. The 2013 harvest will be much stronger, but Roberto Ferdman at Quartz warns that one solid year isn’t going to matter much in the long run. “Europe, which has easily been suffering the steepest decline in wine production (roughly 25% since 2004) will have to reverse its recent bout of poor harvests well into the century to continue supplying the world,” he writes

Hulk sad!

Why The Uproar Over Climate Change?

We hear daily from all sorts of pundits and politicos about the subject of climate change, the politically correct way of saying global warming…….we hear from the right about what junk science it is….we hear from the left about the consequences of doing nothing……you choose your side….but before you do please investigate both sides both making some bonehead statements……

Me?  I am on the side that we humans are gonna f*cked this planet until there is nothing left to save…..but that is my opinion….and I do what I can to help….I realize it may be too little but at least I am trying to make change….how about you?

But now back to the original question……why the uproar?

Maybe this will help to explain why………

UN scientists see bad things happening to the world’s food supply in the next several decades even as demand increases, reports the New York Times. A draft report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007) predicts that climate change will cut agricultural production by 2% per decade through the end of the century. That reduction comes as demand rises 14% per decade thanks to the ever-growing world population. The panel’s previous report in 2007 was more optimistic, notes the Times. That one said that while some areas of the world would see less production, those losses would be offset by gains in colder climes. Now, the UN scientists predict a net loss, reflecting new research that shows crops are more sensitive than thought to hot temperatures. Another tangible sign of the times: President Obama yesterday ordered federal agencies to help state and local governments better prepare for rising sea levels, storms, and droughts, reports the Washington Post.

Okay, believe it or not….that is up to you….but if you are a gardener you have experienced some changes in growing habits of the veggies…….and if this is true……expect massive price increases to the point that some foods will be price prohibitive for some people……

If the food source suffers…how long will it be before the aquifers begin to show problems?

Finally, when the food runs out….in which direction will the fingers point?

Now here is where I would like everyone’s thoughts on this situation…..

The War On Coke

Billions and billions of dollars have been spent over the years trying to get coca farmers to turn away from the narcotic and move on to a more legal crop.  And now they have.  But it had little to do with the US War On Drugs and its policies.

Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine’s raw ingredient.

But rising grain prices and food shortages have made him reconsider. He’s now asking coca farmers to supplement their crops with rice and corn as a way of holding down coca production while helping to feed South America’s poorest country.

U.S. programs have often banned the planting of coca — a small green leaf sacred to Andean peoples and the base ingredient of cocaine — as a condition for farmers to receive aid to try new crops.

In his own twist on alternative development, Morales is willing to split the difference: Growers can maintain up to one “cato” of coca, or about a third of an acre, which earns them about $100 a month while they receive a loan to plant other products as well.

The cato limit — in practice since 2004 — is seen by U.S. drug officials as a questionably legal concession to drug smugglers, but it has become the linchpin of Morales’ strategy to fight narcotics while supporting the leaf’s traditional use as a mild stimulant with medicinal qualities.
If they limit their coca crop to just the cato, growers are entitled to $500 loans to plant rice, corn and other increasingly lucrative foodstuffs, and even a $2,000 grant to build a house.

Experts say Morales’ plan may help keep growers afloat while alternative crops have a chance to take hold — and global food prices continue to climb
But rice will have to compete with rising demand for cocaine in Brazil and Europe — both top destinations for Bolivian products. Bolivia’s coca crop, the world’s third-largest after Colombia and Peru, still increased 5 percent last year, though government officials say that’s a victory compared to 27 percent growth in top-producer Colombia.