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Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

People Of Earth: Prepare For Economic Disaster

March 9, 2011 Comments off

theeconomiccollapseblog

It is not just the United States that is headed for an economic collapse.  The truth is that the entire world is heading for a massive economic meltdown and the people of earth need to be warned about the coming economic disaster that is going to sweep the globe.  The current world financial system is based on debt, and there are alarming signs that the gigantic global debt bubble is getting ready to burst.  In addition, global prices for the key resources that the major economies of the planet depend on are rising very rapidly.  Despite all of our advanced technology, the truth is that human civilization simply cannot function without oil and food.  But now the price of oil and the price of food are both increasing dramatically.  So how is the current global economy supposed to keep functioning properly if it soon costs much more to ship products between continents?  How are the billions of people that are just barely surviving today supposed to feed themselves if the price of food goes up another 30 or 40 percent?  For decades, most of the major economies around the globe have been able to Read more…

Rising world food prices may soon hit Africa hard, but could be a future boon

February 21, 2011 1 comment

Damaged rice is seen in a paddy field destroyed by flood- waters near a village in Manmunai West in Batticaloa district, about 199 miles east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 26. The floods inundated rice paddies, and according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, at least 15.5 percent of the main annual rice harvest could be lost.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters

Johannesburg, South Africa

Global food prices reached a historic high last month, a fact that may cause even the most comfortable of Americans to cinch in their belts and cut back on spending.

But what about the world’s poor?

“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world,” World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said Tuesday as he announced the bank’s findings that about 44 million people in developing countries have been pushed into poverty since Read more…

3 Ways to Prepare for Inflation

February 19, 2011 Comments off

In case you haven’t heard,inflation is on its way. Unprecedented levels of government debt and deficits will likely weaken the value of the dollar at some point, thus raising the prices of everything it buys.

But, the Federal Reserve says there’s no significant inflation yet. In fact, it recently said there might be too little inflation and will likely keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future, further increasing the money supply. Meanwhile, commodity prices are going through the roof.

The price of copper has more than tripled since the end of 2008, oil is near $90 a barrel (also near the high since the financial crisis) and prices of several food commodities like corn and wheat are near all time highs. These materials are in turn used to make many consumer goods. It’s only a matter of time before higher input prices come out the other end in the form of higher prices for consumer goods.

In fact, inflation has started to Read more…

The USDA Says Americans Need More Sugar…and More GMOs

February 17, 2011 Comments off

By Josh Corn

Sugar BeetThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is worried about an impending nationwide sugar shortage. This is the reason, officials said last week, that they gave farmers the green light to plant Monsanto’s previously outlawed genetically engineered Roundup Ready sugar beets. Currently, 30% of the world’s sugar is produced from beets.

Ironically enough, the USDA just weeks ago released its latest set of dietary guidelines for Americans, which place stronger emphasis on the importance of reducing calorie consumption and avoiding things like trans fats, refined flours — and added sugars.

“The 2010 Dietary Guidelines are being released at a time when the majority of adults and 1 in 3 children is overweight or obese and this is a crisis that we can no longer ignore,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in an official press release.

So in light of this crisis and these new recommendations, why is the Read more…

World Bank: Food prices at “dangerous levels”

February 16, 2011 Comments off

Global food prices have hit “dangerous levels” that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries, according to a new report from the World Bank.

The bank released a report Tuesday that said global food prices have jumped 29 percent in the past year, and are just 3 percent below the all-time peak hit in 2008. Bank President Robert Zoellick said the rising prices have hit people hardest in the developing world because they spend as much as half their income on food.

“Food prices are the key and major challenge facing many developing countries today,” Zoellick said. The World Bank estimates higher prices for corn, wheat and oil have pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty since Read more…

Fresh produce prices to double or triple following freak freezes – is Earth in a magnetic pole shift?

February 15, 2011 Comments off

In an article posted on January 3 of this year, I predicted a rise in food prices resulting from freak weather events (http://www.naturalnews.com/030903_p…). Here’s what I said in that article:

By the end of 2012, I predict significant food supply disruptions in North America, brought about either by radical weather affecting crop yields or perhaps the invasion of disease indirectly caused by the over-use of pesticides or GMOs. The number of people in America struggling to feed themselves and their families will rise along with food prices. …Expect to see food prices climb with alarming speed over the next two years. While food won’t disappear, it will become significantly more expensive, causing more people to shift to subsidized foods (corn, sugar, etc.) which also happen to be some of the worst foods for your health.

Now there’s news from Mexico that the fresh produce normally shipped to U.S. grocery stores has been largely destroyed by the freak cold weather snap that struck the continental United States over the past 10 days. As a result, prices on cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and asparagus are set to double or triple starting right now.

Even worse, it looks like the supply of many of these items will be completely wiped out. You won’t be able to buy them, in other words, at any price!

This is the fallout from the worst freeze event recorded in Read more…