Thursday, April 03, 2008

Riders of the Apocalypse: Famine

A 'Perfect Storm' Of Hunger
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-food1apr01%2C0%2C5185698.story

Kissinger's 1974 Plan For Food Control Genocide
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2249_kissinger_food.html

Analyst Predicts Corn Rationing In 2008
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5662307.html

Food Crisis Being Felt Around The World
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=412984

and writers saying things like this:
Then I got this really interesting email about UG99 wheat rust:
The best article is the farmandranchguide. I included some old sat. photos of how dust is moving around the planet. The one of Gobi Desert dust landing in Colorado, is particularly important. The rust has already spread globally. It will take about two years to fully become threatening. Once the spores reproduce, they will infest those areas for decades. Also note, the rust kills oats, barley and wheat. Few populations will be spared. Beer could also become expensive (there are severe restrictions on using fungicides on barley/hops, the residues kill the yeast).
There are some fungicides that can prevent or suppress the fungus, but those areas that are the most vulnerable, are least able to afford the cure. With so much of the global population dependent on 5-10 acre plots, they will be unable to utilize "modern technology as a North American farmer looking at $600 profits/acre. Spending $25 an acre is possible logistically and economically. That amount is insurmountable to a Pakistani farmer.
There exists a belief that Monsanto, Dupont and others, have nefarious reasons for including "suicide genes" into their proprietary seed strains. I personally know why they do it. It is business, not conspiracy. Let me explain.
I personally worked for several years, doing one very small part, in developing what was the world's best rice herbicide. We spent altogether, $230 million and 6 years bringing it to market. It was the most effective and safest discovered to date.
Consider developing a chemical that selectively kills only certain weeds or insects, while being able to spread it over large areas of the environment, on the very things people will eat, it is scientifically challenging beyond belief.
The herbicide was a money maker for sure. And of course we wanted to sell it in China. China stipulated that to sell it there, it had to be made there. Ok. So we built a plant. The workers (selected by the Chinese gov.), worked like dogs for 6 months. Then one day, nobody showed up for work.
Two weeks later, they were building "their" plant to make our chemicals that they had reversed engineered. They worked just long enough to steal everything they needed. They did not have time or money invested, so they undercut our price and drove us out of the country.
Again, I have worked helping to develop GMO seeds. If you do not include a "suicide gene", they just steal the hybrid. As you have said, the Global Business Environment is not a level playing field. If we steal from them, they sue us in our own courts. We are unable to do the same back. Separate case.
We have another well known product which we intentionally left out some key information in the patent. Sure enough, the Russians, Japanese and Chinese all reversed engineered the patent. They marketed their (ours) product as proof we were price gouging. Shortly afterward, theirs started to fail during use. All three went bankrupt and we ended up with a monopoly.
We also doubled our prices. Our little way of saying "f* you". Let me point out, we spent 23 years developing that product. That's right, 23 years. Little hard on the ATOI. (*methinks he meant ROI as we all know ATOI is ASCII to integer conversion in C++ - G)
Some background. I've spent 24 years doing Ag research, 12 of it doing Environmental Modeling of all economically relevant agriculture areas (globally). I looked at primarily Off-Target Impact of pesticides. This is how I learned about Global Warming before it became a buzz word. It is also why I put it all on the line, to jump into Fuel Cell research (reaction kinetics modeling), where I put in 6 years.. Bad move, different story.
Forget CO2 and global warming, it ain't us, but did not know it at the time. I still keep my hand in the modeling part. Which is why your time monks might be seeing a little of what I'm seeing. I think it is going to get real hungry out there, starting next year. (<----!!!!!! Note this point seriously!!!!! - G) 1. Severe food shortages in about two years. 2. The weak link in the food chain is not what you think. You'll have to "Google" it. Start with "Grain Elevators, bankrupt". They use Bridge Loans (credit) to buy billions of dollars worth of grain each year. Extrapolate this out to cattle feed lots (what do you think 100K head and feed cost x 1K feed lots). The credit is no longer there and you may see global famine, while bumper crops rot in the fields. The credit is from lower and mid-tier local banks. 3. One bushel of wheat for one barrel of oil 4. Commodity futures sounds swell, until the other side can not cover and walks on you. http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

Clean up your act, get ready, the Lord stands ready at the door, will He find faith on earth when He comes? Grace and Peace