CAFE VOLTAIRE

View: Text & Photos | Photos only | Text only

Entries: 1 - 5 of 5 First | < Prev | Next > | Last

Multinationals Make Billions Out of Global Food Crisis

without comment...... it speaks for itself. Jan

Published on Sunday, May 4, 2008 by The Independent/UK

Multinationals Make Billions In Profit Out of Growing Global Food Crisis

Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger

by Geoffrey Lean

Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world’s poor - who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food - into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world’s richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February rise more than 12-fold, from $42.2m to $520.8m, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The prices of some kinds of fertiliser have more than tripled over the past year as demand has outstripped supply. As a result, plans to increase harvests in developing countries have been hit hard.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that 37 developing countries are in urgent need of food. And food riots are breaking out across the globe from Bangladesh to Burkina Faso, from China to Cameroon, and from Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, called the escalating earnings and profits “immoral” late last week. He said that the benefits of the food price increases were being kept by the big companies, and were not finding their way down to farmers in the developing world.

The soaring prices of food and fertilisers mainly come from increased demand. This has partly been caused by the boom in biofuels, which require vast amounts of grain, but even more by increasing appetites for meat, especially in India and China; producing 1lb of beef in a feedlot, for example, takes 7lbs of grain.

World food stocks at record lows, export bans and a drought in Australia have contributed to the crisis, but experts are also fingering food speculation. Professor Bob Watson - chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who led the giant International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development - last week identified it as a factor.

Index-fund investment in grain and meat has increased almost fivefold to over $47bn in the past year, concludes AgResource Co, a Chicago-based research firm. And the official US Commodity Futures Trading Commission held special hearings in Washington two weeks ago to examine how much speculators were helping to push up food prices.

Cargill says that its results “reflect the cumulative effect of having invested more than $18bn in fixed and working capital over the past seven years to expand our physical facilities, service capabilities, and knowledge around the world”.

The revelations are bound to increase outrage over multinational companies following last week’s disclosure that Shell and BP between them recorded profits of £14bn in the first three months of the year - or £3m an hour - on the back of rising oil prices. Shell promptly attracted even greater condemnation by announcing that it was pulling out of plans to build the world’s biggest wind farm off the Kent coast.

World leaders are to meet next month at a special summit on the food crisis, and it will be high on the agenda of the G8 summit of the world’s richest countries in Hokkaido, Japan, in July.

Additional research by Vandna Synghal

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/04/8710/

Click here to print.

2008-05-05 03:44:25 GMTComments: 1 |Permanent Link

At World's End

2007-03-26 18:48:12 GMTComments: 3 |Permanent Link

Quid Pro Quo - Campaign donations and Council Votes

Thank You Tom Campbell and Dan Smith – former Benicia City Council members – who both wrote Letters to the Editor in the March 1^st issue of the Benicia Herald. The loss of the Valero/City of Benicia water recycle plant because of indifference and inaction shouldn’t be ignored - $15M dollars supplied by Valero to help Valero use recycled water rather than Benicia drinking water for its industrial uses was agreed upon as mitigation when Valero sought approval for a 25% expansion in August of 2003. Now that stalling and rising costs have caused the project to be cancelled, Valero is released from its $15M obligation.

Dan Smith is correct in bringing up the Valero support for the election of Schwartzman and Hughes. I worked on a report about the sources of their campaign contributions from documents supplied to me by the City Managers’ Office. Not only did Valero (along with Business Park Developer Albert Seeno) fund an independent PAC which then spent $31,000 promoting the election of Schwartzman and Hughes (as well as another $13,000 advocating the defeat of Smith), but Hughes also received $2,500 from Valero/ San Antonio TX as well as $2,500 from a Valero Plumbers PAC in December, a couple months AFTER the election.

It was troubling to see Schwartzman and Hughes vote to cancel proposed safety regulations for Valero when we know that Valero spent $43,000 to help insure their elections.

It was troubling to see Schwartzman and Hughes vote for pay raises for our firefighters when we know that their union, Vallejo Firefighters local 1186, spent $24,673 promoting their elections.

It was troubling to see Schwartzman and Hughes vote to include Richard Bortolazzo’s housing proposal when considering the Arsenal draft EIR plans. Bortolazzo contributed $2,500 to both Schwartzman and Hughes’ campaigns (AFTER the election).

All of these practices may be quite legal (voting on measures that benefit contributors or independent supporters, receiving very large contributions from NON-LOCAL individuals, businesses, and PACs, and receiving contributions AFTER the election) – but they do not serve the needs of constituents, voters, and local small contributors. Unfortunately, it appears that Schwartzman and Messina’s currently proposed campaign finance ordinances will do nothing to prevent these practices from recurring in our upcoming 2007 elections.

Sabina Yates

(707) 746-6428

redfoxred@earthlink.net

2007-03-10 00:58:31 GMTComments: 2 |Permanent Link

The "Sleeze" Element in Benicia Campaigns

My recent guest column warning about the dangers of the proposed Seeno Industrial project prompted an angry Councilmember Schwartzman to burst into Cafe Voltaire and accuse me of not getting my facts straight.

Schwartzman took issue with my revelation that Seeno developers sneaked large, last-minute campaign donations to council candidates in the last election to secure passage of their project. Of course, he knew I was referring to him and Mark Hughes. I will let the public record speak for itself.

The "Recipient Committee Campaign Statement & Late/Supplemental Expenditure Report" (filed 11/03/05 in accordance with the FPPC), discloses campaign contributions from the following political action committee (PAC):

COALITION FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT SPONSORED BY PLUMBERS AND STEAMFITTERS LOCAL 343 AND THE VALERO REFINING COMPANY IN SUPPORT OF ALAN SCHWARTZMAN/MARK HUGHES ID# 1280947

10/27/2005      Valero                       $35,000

11/03/05         West Coast Homebuilders (Seeno)    $15,000

TOTAL                                                                  $50,000

These huge corporate campaign contributions are unprecedented in our local council elections; they make a mockery of our democratic election process. Worse, the public was unaware of them until AFTER the election was over. This is BUYING council seats, plain and simple.

Schwartzman claims that because he was supposedly ignorant of Valero and Seeno's PAC money and because it did not go DIRECTLY to him, that he is somehow off the hook. After all, he can't control what Seeno and Valero do.

Really? Playing ignorant and innocent is convenient.

But as a councilmember, Schwarztman has a lot of control over development proposals, fees and expansion projects put forward by Seeno and Valero. Favorable council votes could be very profitable for them. Of course, Schwartzman is supposed to be making decisions on behalf of the PUBLIC interest.

Why would Valero and Seeno spend so much money backing these two candidates unless they were reasonably certain that they would receive favorable consideration from them?

Should Schwartzman and Hughes recuse themselves from council votes that would benefit Valero and Seeno, based on moral grounds, and to protect the public interest? I believe so. I also believe that if Schwarztman deplores this practice as much as he says he does, he will use his power as an elected official and take immediate steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Here's the bottom line: council candidates who turn a blind eye to Valero and Seeno's sleezy campaign contributions are not honest enough to be our councilmembers. Council candidates that can't control what these PACs are doing on their behalf are not competent enough to be our councilmembers. People are watching closely now, and political candidates will NOT be able to play this game.

If Schwartzman and Hughes, or anyone else who runs for public office, want to take money from Valero or Seeno or any other corporate interest, that's fine.   Let them. But let the public know BEFORE the election where your money is coming from --it's important for us to know who is buying our council seats. It makes our decision a lot easier.

Schwartzman would do well to redirect his anger at Valero and Seeno's underhanded campaign practices instead of the people who point them out. The $50,000 campaign contributions from Seeno and Valero have tainted his council tenure and cast a shadow on every vote he takes in regards to these wealthy and powerful special interests.

I stand by my statements--- I do not make them lightly and I will not be intimidated or silenced by an angry councilmember whose corporate backers have been exposed.

Jan Cox Golovich

179 Harbor Vista Ct.

Benicia, CA 94510

2007-03-08 13:16:46 GMTComments: 1 |Permanent Link

Here Comes the Seeno Industrial Project - "Sky Valley Lite w/Big Trucks"

Have you heard about the Seeno Project (aka Benicia Business Park)? Most people in town haven’t. Nevertheless, it is the largest development proposal to come along in a long while. The huge impacts of this project will affect every Benician everyday. Yet the project is moving along rapidly under the radar screen, not giving the community much opportunity to fully examine, much less digest, what it will all mean. The Draft Environmental Impact Report has been released and the public has until Monday, March 12^th to make comments on it. Here’s a quick overview:

Imagine:

* A huge industrial area, located along East Second from Industrial Way to Lake Herman.

* Nine million cubic yards of grading – cut and fill - (equal to 100 Coliseums filled with dirt) Most of the hills flattened and most of the wetlands obliterated. One million gallon water tanks sit upon the two remaining hills.

* A 16 to 40 foot embankment along East Second St. from Reservoir Road to Lake Herman.

* Our beautiful views from the Benicia Community Park and WatersEnd destroyed.

* A large commercial area- ripe for big box, fast food at the corner of East Second and Lake Herman Road.

* Lake Herman Road, no longer a quiet, rural country road, but a busy industrial/commuter thoroughfare.

* Over 7,000 more cars and trucks per day on East Second St., Lake Herman Road, I-780, I-680, and the Bridge as industrial/low wage workers commute in and out of the Seeno project.

* Taxpayers subsidizing the widening of I-780 from East Second to Columbus Parkway in order to accommodate added Seeno traffic.

* Downtown urban decay due to construction of outlying big box and other competing commercial ventures at Lake Herman Road.

* Seeno developers sneaking large last-minute campaign donations to council candidates to secure passage of their project (this already happened in last election!).

Is this what you envisioned for the future of Benicia?

Recently, we woke up to find that that we were stuck with five Starbucks in our little town and there was nothing we could do about. Let’s not let this happen again. After all, Starbuck stores come and go, but our beautiful rolling hills will soon be gone forever if we don’t act fast. If you have a better idea about our future, now is the time to let City Hall know.

Send your comments, questions, worries and concerns to Cindy Gnos, Contract Planner, City of Benicia, 250 East “L” Street, Benicia, CA 94510, or Cindy Gnos, cindygnos@raneymanagement.com and Charlie.Knox@ci.benicia.ca.us

Jan

2007-03-01 00:54:35 GMTComments: 1 |Permanent Link

View: Text & Photos | Photos only | Text only

Entries: 1 - 5 of 5 First | < Prev | Next > | Last

Site Home