Tag Archives: farmers

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government, Corporate & Farmer Incompetence: MF Global scandal will destroy U.S. Agriculture! “Christmas is canceled.” Is it all about creating the Great Global Food Crisis?

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.”-Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global

On December 8, all those investors got their answer from the former boss of investment company MF Global.  Jon Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he doesn’t know what happened to the billions of investment dollars from clients, that include single moms and a lot of the country’s farmers.

“I can’t start my business at all because I have absolutely no capital…my twins’ birthday is December 9th, we can’t have a party now, Christmas is canceled.”-Jennifer DaRuzza, invested with MF Global in the hopes of raising enough money to start a business

The bigger concern is the fact that so many U.S. farmers were using investments with MF Global to fund their operations.  Historically farmers do not make enough money to “pay as you go”, they must deficit spend.

Senator Pat Roberts, who leads the Senate Agriculture Committee, told PBS’s Nightly Business Report that the MF Global scandal is bringing U.S. agriculture to a screeching halt: “…think of the farmer that was driving back to Kansas from Colorado, heard about this on the news, all of a sudden found out $30,000 of his assets were frozen. He was getting prepared to buy seed, fertilizer, was talking to a local realtor in regards to some land he might want to purchase or rent, that just stops it like that!”

Roberts also gave a dire warning for the country’s food supply in 2012: “…gonna have an impact on crops. This is gonna have an impact on our food prices. It is pretty broad across all the farm country and I’m hearing more about this than I am with what’s gonna happen in the farm bill!”

Try this:  Incompetent and greedy Corporate America just shot the United States in the Bread Basket!  Remember the Dust Bowl and Okies of the 1930s?  This time, instead of Mother Earth destroying U.S. agriculture it’s the hand of our divinely inspired leaders!

The destruction of the 1930s agriculture industry, in the bread basket of the U.S. (Midwest), is talked about as only one aspect of the Great Depression of the United States, but it should be discussed much more because people gotta eat!

(here’s a link to an interesting timeline of the Great Depression, where you should notice some ominous similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now)

It’s such a concern that United Nations officials have been warning of a coming Global Food Crisis for the past several years.  In 2008 UN officials called it “a silent tsunami” that was about to wash over the world.   This year the UN is stepping up preparations for long term famine relief (sinisterly involving the World Trade Organization): “My High Level Task Force is working to ensure that the UN system, international financial institutions and the WTO are ready to provide robust and consistent support to countries struggling to cope with food insecurity. This is a long term effort and it will require a comprehensive push to back solid partnerships, strong strategies and well financed actions that empower communities to become food secure.”-Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

The strange thing about Ban Ki-moon’s statement; notice the emphasis is on “financed actions”.  What happened to growing food?  This is even more reason for individuals to try and grow their own, remember Victory Gardens? We’re at war people, and it’s not one country against another, as our 1% Elitist leaders claim, it’s the We the 99% against the 1%!

Here’s another scary part concerning the UN preparations, I don’t think the UN had taken into account the possibility that the Japanese would destroy their agriculture with radiation, or that the U.S. agriculture industry would be done in by their own financial system!  If the UN was predicting, back in 2008, that more than 100 million people are going to be starving to death, what about now?

Conspiracy theorists blame the coming Global Food Crisis on the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, UN Article 21, and more.  Why?  Because all these organizations and proclamations are about one thing: Destroying existing systems for the purpose creating an all powerful one world government.

Oh, don’t worry, there will still be national and local governments, but they’ll answer to one single world government.  As the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said, regarding the formation of CELAC, it’s all part of “…the formation of a polycentric world and the strengthening of the role of regions in the system of global governance…”

Business/Economics, International

Global Economic War & fighting Global Food Crisis: Communist Cuba starts Credit program for farmers

“The regulations ruling the new credit policy and other banking services will enter into force on December 20, aimed primarily at stimulating domestic production, which could generate incomes of foreign currency or replace imports.”-Cuban government statement

In July the Cuban banking sector started granting small loans to farmers, but in December much bigger loans will be made available.  The move is meant to increase local food production and decrease reliance on imported food.

The plan is part of more than 300 proposals adopted at the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in April.  Cuba’s current leader, Raul Castro, is pushing to update the Cuban economic model.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Bannock County, Idaho, jacks up property taxes on farmers, by 90%

“We’re trying desperately to hold to these farms and we are paying our share. And if we haven’t been paying our share, it’s because assessors haven’t been doing their job.”-Grant Olson, wheat farmer

In a surprise announcement, Bannock County officials said they messed up and failed to properly assess farmland.  They will now hit farmers with a property tax bill that’s at least 90% higher than last year!

Grant Olsen, a farmer in Robin, Idaho, says his tax bill has gone up year after year.  Olsen is highly suspicious of the county’s reasons: “They say the reassessment hasn’t been done for 10 years, and now they have to obey the law. Why haven’t they been obeying the law?”

As a resident in Bannock County I can say that property taxes have gone up yearly, even with the decline in residential property prices.  When I’ve complained to the assessor they’ve blamed increased fees due to the passage of school levees.  That’s part of the problem, but the specific “property” tax has gone up as well.

County officials told the public that they would provide a better explanation of why they have to increase farmland property tax so much.  Bannock County has a reputation for having higher than average property taxes.


Idaho, International

Food Prices Up, Crop Yields Down

27 September 2010

Signs of a coming food crisis are everywhere. Most notably at the source, the farms that grow the basic crops. Here on the east side of Idaho, farmers had to deal with a spring that was too cool too long, resulting in crops being planted weeks late, and then a short summer (www.noaanews.noaa.gov) (www.kidk.com).

It’s not just Idaho, but many of the crop growing states in the U.S. are experiencing lower yields, and you can blame the weather. Any type of extreme weather will affect crops (sciencepolicy.colorado.edu).  In Idaho it’s too cool & too dry. In other parts of the United States it’s too wet (just look at all the flooding in the southern states), or too hot & dry. And it’s not just the U.S.; Canada & Mexico, South America, Eurasia & Africa as well as Australia, are all dealing with the adverse affects of weird weather on their crops. Pakistan can kiss most of their crop production goodbye after the incredible floods they experienced. Russia is loosing crops due to record heat & fires (www.voanews.com) (rt.com) (rt.com). Just in the past couple of days flooding in Nigeria has destroyed 240 acres of farmland (www.cnn.com).

The result is that overall, globally, less product is heading towards the markets, which means higher commodity prices paid for those crops (Law of Supply & Demand). This is good for farmers who can still produce big crop yields, as farmers in Colorado are finding out (www.agweek.com), but it’s bad for the average consumer. Coffee retailers have finally started passing on the higher costs they’re paying for the beans (starbucks.tekgroup.com). This will only add to the specter of inflation, a three pronged attack caused by governments printing too much money, precious metal prices blasting off and food prices soaring.

Here’s what has happened to wheat commodity prices: In March 2010 Hard Red Winter Wheat was at a value of 191.07,  by August 2010 it hit a value of 246.35 (www.indexmundi.com).  Not all commodities have experienced such a big increase, a few have actually dropped. But, there is a trend of reduced availability & increased cost, so much so that the UN held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue (www.guardian.co.uk). Some UN officials blame inexperienced commodity speculators for the increases in prices. One example of that is that it looks like the December 2010 Corn futures were “overbought” (Idaho Grain Market Alert 9.23.10). This is a double whammy for the average consumer; not only will some foods become limited but some food will be too expensive. So the coming food crisis may probably be more about people not being able to buy the food, than it’s limited availability.

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