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	UN predicts fall in global cereal production as record numbers go hungry by UN Food and Agricultural Organization   12 February 2009   Bad weather, violent conflict and volatile market prices could force a drop off in the global production of cereal crops this year, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) predicted today after already warning that some 1 billion people worldwide are going hungry.   Drought and high food prices in much of the developing world coupled with a diversion to bio-fuels and the disincentive of high planting costs in the West look likely to reduce grain production in most of the world’s major producers.   The latest issue of FAO’s Crop Prospects and Food Situation Report warned that acute food shortages persist in 32 countries worldwide and pointed to the situation in the Gaza Strip as cause for particular concern.   In Eastern Africa more than 18 million people face serious food insecurity due either to conflict, unrest, adverse weather or a combination of the factors, while in Southern Africa the total number of food insecure is estimated at some 8.7 million.   The report stressed that in Kenya, Somalia and Zimbabwe, the situation is very serious citing drought, civil unrest and economic crises as causes.   The outlook for cereal crop production in low-income countries with food shortages is gloomy, with a likely reduction in maize crops in Southern Africa, and prolonged dry spells affecting wheat farmers in Asia. Almost half of China''s winter wheat harvest is already suffering from severe drought and India is experiencing a lack of rainfall.   In South America, 2008 wheat production was halved by drought in Argentina, and persistent dry weather is damaging prospects for the region’s 2009 coarse grains.   The report noted that despite the decline in international food prices in the second half of 2008, domestic prices remain very high in several developing countries, making food unaffordable for low-income groups.   In Southern Africa and Central America, prices of their main food commodities have continued to rise or have not decreased in recent months, and in Western and Eastern Africa January prices were significantly higher than at the same time last year.   Imported rice and wheat prices, staples in these sub-regions, are also on the increase, and remain high in several poor Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.   The FAO report pointed out that while conditions are generally favourable for winter wheat throughout Europe and the United States, the amount of planted area in these countries has declined, reflecting the prospect of sharply reduced profits compared to last year and persistently high input costs.   FAO also forecasted further increases in the use of cereals for bio-fuel production with a total of 104 million tons, up 22 per cent from the 2007/08 estimated level, representing almost 5 per cent of world cereal production. The United States alone is expected to increase production of bio-fuels to roughly 93 million tons, which is up 19 percent from the 2007/08 level.
	Tide of Anger by Naomi Klein Canada   Feb 2009   Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."   Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn"t know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina"s 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn"t directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.   It"s taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its Que se vayan todos! moment.   The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I"ve just had enough of this whole thing. I don"t trust the government, I don"t trust the banks, I don"t trust the political parties and I don"t trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."   Another echo: in Reykjavik, the protesters clearly won"t be bought off by a mere change of face at the top. They want aid for people, not just banks; criminal investigations into the debacle; and deep electoral reform.   Similar demands can be heard these days in Latvia, whose economy has contracted more sharply than any country in the EU, and where the government is teetering on the brink. For weeks the capital has been rocked by protests, including a full-blown, cobblestone-hurling riot on January 13. As in Iceland, Latvians are appalled by their leaders refusal to take any responsibility for the mess. Asked by Bloomberg TV what caused the crisis, Latvia"s finance minister shrugged: "Nothing special."   But Latvia"s troubles are indeed special: the very policies that allowed the "Baltic Tiger" to grow at a rate of 12 percent in 2006 are also causing it to contract violently by a projected 10 percent this year: money, freed of all barriers, flows out as quickly as it flows in, with plenty being diverted to political pockets. (It is no coincidence that many of today"s basket cases are yesterday"s "miracles": Ireland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia.)   Something else Argentina-esque is in the air. In 2001 Argentina"s leaders responded to the crisis with a brutal International Monetary Fund-prescribed austerity package: $9 billion in spending cuts, much of it hitting health and education. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Unions staged a general strike, teachers moved their classes to the streets and the protests never stopped.   This same bottom-up refusal to bear the brunt of the crisis unites many of today"s protests. In Latvia, much of the popular rage has focused on government austerity measures--mass layoffs, reduced social services and slashed public sector salaries--all to qualify for an IMF emergency loan (no, nothing has changed).   In Greece, December"s riots followed a police shooting of a 15-year-old. But what"s kept them going, with farmers taking the lead from students, is widespread rage at the government"s crisis response: banks got a $36 billion bailout while workers got their pensions cut and farmers received next to nothing. Despite the inconvenience caused by tractors blocking roads, 78 percent of Greeks say the farmers demands are reasonable.   Similarly, in France the recent general strike--triggered in part by President Sarkozy"s plans to reduce the number of teachers dramatically--inspired the support of 70 percent of the population.   Perhaps the sturdiest thread connecting this global backlash is a rejection of the logic of "extraordinary politics"--the phrase coined by Polish politician Leszek Balcerowicz to describe how, in a crisis, politicians can ignore legislative rules and rush through unpopular "reforms." That trick is getting tired, as South Korea"s government recently discovered. In December, the ruling party tried to use the crisis to ram through a highly controversial free trade agreement with the United States. Taking closed-door politics to new extremes, legislators locked themselves in the chamber so they could vote in private, barricading the door with desks, chairs and couches.   Opposition politicians were having none of it: with sledgehammers and an electric saw, they broke in and staged a twelve-day sit-in of Parliament. The vote was delayed, allowing for more debate--a victory for a new kind of "extraordinary politics."   Here in Canada, in October the Conservative Party won national elections on an unambitious platform. Six weeks later, our Tory prime minister found his inner ideologue, presenting a budget bill that stripped public sector workers of the right to strike, canceled public funding for political parties and contained no economic stimulus. Opposition parties responded by forming a historic coalition that was only prevented from taking power by an abrupt suspension of Parliament.   * Naomi Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
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