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    Food Scarcity

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    bob villa
    This document discusses various causes and factors related to food scarcity around the world. It begins by outlining traditional causes like population growth, competition for land, and climate change. It then examines how modern economic forces can exacerbate food scarcity, highlighting the role of financial speculation in food commodities markets driven by firms like Goldman Sachs seeking profit. This speculation can drive up global food prices and cause food riots even when harvests are bountiful. The document also analyzes how conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank can limit developing nations' ability to ensure food security.

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    Food Scarcity

    Uploaded by

    bob villa
    89 views13 pages
    This document discusses various causes and factors related to food scarcity around the world. It begins by outlining traditional causes like population growth, competition for land, and climate change. It then examines how modern economic forces can exacerbate food scarcity, highlighting the role of financial speculation in food commodities markets driven by firms like Goldman Sachs seeking profit. This speculation can drive up global food prices and cause food riots even when harvests are bountiful. The document also analyzes how conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank can limit developing nations' ability to ensure food security.

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    Food scarcity presentation

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    This document discusses various causes and factors related to food scarcity around the world. It begins by outlining traditional causes like population growth, competition for land, and climate change. It then examines how modern economic forces can exacerbate food scarcity, highlighting the role of financial speculation in food commodities markets driven by firms like Goldman Sachs seeking profit. This speculation can drive up global food prices and cause food riots even when harvests are bountiful. The document also analyzes how conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank can limit developing nations' ability to ensure food security.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    89 views13 pages

    Food Scarcity

    Uploaded by

    bob villa
    This document discusses various causes and factors related to food scarcity around the world. It begins by outlining traditional causes like population growth, competition for land, and climate change. It then examines how modern economic forces can exacerbate food scarcity, highlighting the role of financial speculation in food commodities markets driven by firms like Goldman Sachs seeking profit. This speculation can drive up global food prices and cause food riots even when harvests are bountiful. The document also analyzes how conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank can limit developing nations' ability to ensure food security.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 13

    FOOD SCARCITY

    Agenda
    Watch a video regarding relationship between food

    scarcity and world market


    Discuss Traditional Causes of Food Scarcity
    Food Scarcity a la the economy
    Wall Street
    IMF and World Bank
    Food Aid Relief

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWJmq4XC2s

    Causes of Food Scarcity


    Population growth
    Developing world will increase consumption
    Competition for agricultural land
    Climate change or Natural Disasters
    War
    Poor Infrastructure

    The world

    produces 1
    times enough
    food to feed every
    person
    Sustainable

    agriculture can
    sustain up to 10
    billion people
    (planets
    expected peak
    population

    Food Scarcity a la Wall Street


    Began in 1991 when Goldman Sachs created the

    Goldman Sachs Commodity Index Fund (GSCI)


    Tradable index which lumps together basic agricultural goods with

    oil, gas. And metals


    Turns basic necessities to life into a speculative asset to be
    hoarded and traded by financial firms seeking to buy low and sell
    high

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyhCWC2ONbc

    Food Scarcity a la Wall Street


    Consequences of buying and selling commodities
    Speculative profit, not demand for food drives food prices
    Holding Commodities
    By refusing to sell futures they create a virtual scarcity of food

    Commodity Futures Modernization Act (2000)


    Allows investors to trade commodity futures contracts with
    No position limits
    The highest number of options or futures contracts an investor is allowed to hold on
    one underlying security.

    No disclosure requirements
    Do not have to public report holdings

    No regulatory oversight

    Food Scarcity a la Wall Street


    Mozambique (2010)
    Food riots caused by high wheat prices
    UN Food and Agricultural Organization estimates 3rd highest wheat yield
    High prices caused by speculation on the market

    Food Scarcity a la the IMF/World Bank


    Competition on the global market, regulation, and loan

    requirements force countries to engage in economic


    specialization

    Developing countries cannot compete with industrialized

    agriculture
    Jamaica & Haiti

    Food Scarcity a la Aid Relief


    The Alliance for a Green Revolution
    Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
    Rockefeller Foundation
    Mission: To achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa

    Monsanto
    a publicly traded American multinational agricultural biotechnology

    corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri


    Gives free genetically modified seed to farmers in Africa
    Produces better yields and more resilient
    Only free the first year
    More soil intensive

    Gates Foundation purchased $23.1 million in Monsanto Stock in 2010

    Conclusion
    Food scarcity a myth?
    Economic considerations impact food scarcity

    Homework
    Read: Ross, Michael L. 2008. Blood Barrels: Why Oil

    Wealth Fuels Conflict. Foreign Affairs. (May/June).

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