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July 2008
- Biofuel Caused Food Crisis: Secret Report
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Jul 4, 08 3:45 PM CDT
  
  Biofuel production has been the driving force behind the growing food crisis, pushing prices up 75%, according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian . The most detailed research ever conducted on the issue emphatically contradicts the US position that biofuels are responsible for a mere 3% price bump. It hasn’t been published, sources say, for fear of embarrassing President Bush. More »
  
  Tags
  
  George W. Bush • Bush administration • food prices • World Bank • biofuel • ethanol • hunger
June 2008
- Americans Have Less in Their Shopping Carts
  
  newser | Time | Jun 30, 08 1:04 PM CDT
  
  Food prices are rising, but thanks to some chicanery on product labels, many Americans may not realize it. Instead of raising prices, manufacturers are slimming cereal boxes, juice cartons, and bars of soap, and they’re doing it very quietly. If asked, they’ll say it offsets rising fuel and commodity costs, but most keep quiet and hope consumers don’t notice. Time goes shopping. More »
  
  Tags
  
  US economy • economy • food prices • weakening economy • grocery stores • label • portions
- Export Bans Push Food Costs Even Higher
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 30, 08 7:23 AM CDT
  
  Alarmed by high food prices and shortages worldwide, some 29 countries are banning or reducing exports of foods to make sure they have enough at home. Such limitations pose a threat to countries that rely on imports, forcing prices up further, the New York Times reports. What’s more, the restrictions are in turn fueling private hoarding. "People are in a panic, so they are buying more and more—at least, those who have money are buying,” a Philippine rice vendor tells the Times. More »
  
  Tags
  
  food prices • exports • food shortage • rice • World Trade Organization. • food scare
- Floods Ruin Midwest Economy
  
  newser | MSNBC | Jun 20, 08 2:30 PM CDT
  
  The floods ravaging the Midwest are taking a catastrophic toll on the region's farmers, and consumers across the country will feel the pinch in higher food prices, MSNBC reports. Even if waters recede quickly, farmers will lose a sizable chunk of the season—they need about 120 growing days—and it may take some farms years to recover. Summed up an official in Illinois: “Livestock was affected. Farmhouses were affected. Machinery was affected, and the land was affected.” More »
  
  Tags
  
  flood • food prices • farming • Midwest • corn • Midwest floods • grain
- Consumer Mood More Downbeat Than Economy
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 18, 08 3:17 PM CDT
  
  The economy, statistically speaking, is sluggish, but hardly Great Depression-like—though American consumers seem to disagree, the Washington Post reports. They're paying more for everything from gasoline to grapefruit, are watching the value of their homes decline and fear their jobs may be disappearing—which, policy-makers worry, could breed behaviors that will make all the doom and gloom come true. More »
  
  Tags
  
  recession • gas prices • credit crisis • housing market • food prices
- As Prices Soar, Congress Aims at Speculators
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 13, 08 8:30 AM CDT
  
  Congress is blaming rampant commodity speculation for rocketing gas and food prices, and berating regulators for letting it happen, the New York Times reports. Unless watchdog groups like the Commodities Futures Trading Commision crack down, Carl Levin says, "we don’t have a cop on the beat.." Joe Lieberman has even introduced a bill to ban institutional investors from commodity markets. More »
  
  Tags
  
  Congress • oil price • food prices • commodities • Carl Levin • New York Mercantile Exchange • speculation • speculators • Joseph Lieberman • commodities exchange • Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- US Economy Isn't Bouncing Back
  
  newser | Newsweek | Jun 8, 08 5:11 PM CDT
  
  Forget those predictions of a US economic revival in 2008, Daniel Gross writes in Newsweek . The four horsemen of the economy—credit and housing crises, food and energy prices—are getting meaner, while booming commodities and crunching credit are curbing attempts to fight back. "As a result, the consumer-driven economy may not bounce back as rapidly as it did in the fraught months after 9/11," Gross writes. More »
  
  Tags
  
  US economy • gas prices • credit crisis • Wall Street • subprime crisis • economy • food prices • commodities • weakening economy • world economy
- Investors Sink Billions in 'Green Gold'
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 5, 08 8:22 AM CDT
  
  Billions of investment dollars are pouring into agriculture as the global demand for food explodes, turning crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans into green gold, reports the New York Times . And while the immediate impact of more money being fed into agriculture will likely result in increased food production, some critics worry the boom could go bust just as quickly. More »
  
  Tags
  
  food prices • agriculture • farming • investing • corn • wheat • soybeans
- Next Resource in Crisis: Water
  
  newser | Yale Environment 360 | Jun 4, 08 4:30 PM CDT
  
  While economists and world leaders fret about the global food crisis, there is another emergency that is just as urgent: the shortage of water, writes British scientist Fred Pearce in Yale Environment 360. No longer is water "a cheap and unlimited resource," and with two-thirds of water extracted from nature used to irrigate crops, a scarcity could trigger terrible famines. More »
  
  Tags
  
  China • food prices • biofuel • water • water shortage • Yellow River
- Food vs. Fuel Battle Flares at UN Summit
  
  newser | BBC | Jun 4, 08 10:57 AM CDT
  
  The battle over biofuels is raging at the UN’s food summit in Rome, with nations bitterly divided over whether growing corn and sugar cane for ethanol production is pushing food prices up and helping create disastrous global food shortages. On one side: Food experts who call diversion of crops to fill the fuel tanks of wealthy nations immoral. On the other: the US, Brazil, and the EU, the main players on the biofuel stage. More »
  
  Tags
  
  United Nations • food prices • biofuel • ethanol • food shortage • food aid • food production
- UN Chief Urges 50% Boost in Food Production
  
  newser | Bloomberg | Jun 3, 08 7:23 AM CDT
  
  UN chief Ban Ki-Moon today called for a 50% rise in world food production by 2030 to fight starvation and civil unrest as the population grows. He spoke at the World Food Security conference in Rome, where world leaders are working to address the highest commodity prices in decades. Such high prices have prompted global riots. “The threats are obvious to us all,” Ban said. More »
  
  Tags
  
  United Nations • food prices • Ban Ki-Moon • Rome • starvation • food production • world food summit
- UN Head: Drop Policies That Up Food Prices
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 2, 08 8:44 AM CDT
  
  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will plead with world leaders at a food summit in Rome tomorrow to suspend trade restrictions, agricultural taxes, and other price controls that have helped create the highest food prices in 30 years, reports the Washington Post . Ban will also urge the US and other countries to phase out subsidies for food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, which have added to the spike in food costs. More »
  
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  United Nations • food • food prices • agriculture • farmer • Ban Ki-Moon • Robert Zoellick
- Rebate Checks Go to Gas, Food, Looming Debt
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 1, 08 9:44 AM CDT
  
  Rather than the gluttonous splurge on flat-screen TVs and foreign vacations that Uncle Sam had envisioned, most Americans are plunking their rebate checks down on exorbitant gas and food costs--and their mounting debt. “The initial sense is that people are not running out the malls,” one economist told the New York Times . The sense of restraint may fail to buoy the economy as hoped. More »
  
  Tags
  
  recession • gas prices • food prices • consumer spending • debt • economic stimulus package • economic stimulus • tax rebate • spending • stimulus response
May 2008
- World Bank Offers $1.2B in Food Aid
  
  newser | BBC | May 30, 08 6:46 AM CDT
  
  The World Bank is offering an emergency $1.2 billion in aid to several nations in a desperate bid to stave off starvation for millions of people, reports the BBC. The money is being offered to Haiti, Liberia, Djibouti, Togo, Yemen and other nations identified as at immediate risk from rising food prices. The bank will pour another $2 billion into agricultural programs next year. More »
  
  Tags
  
  United Nations • food prices • World Bank • food shortage • Robert Zoellick • world food summit
- Soaring Fertilizer Prices Another Cog in Food Crisis
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | May 27, 08 1:09 PM CDT
  
  Farmers worldwide are fuming over soaring fertilizer prices, the Wall Street Journal reports. Costs are 65% higher in the US than a year ago, making it difficult for farmers to boost production in response to an international food crisis. Meanwhile, fertilizer companies have reaped big profits from a cartel-based system that can leave them exempt from antitrust laws. More »
  
  Tags
  
  food prices • farmer • antitrust • fertilizer • Byron Dorgan
- Americans Reducing Mileage on Cars, Not Stomachs
  
  newser | Reuters | May 21, 08 5:33 PM CDT
  
  Many Americans are cutting back on gas due to spiking prices, but few are eating less in response to similarly soaring food costs, a poll finds. Nearly half of respondents said they were driving less, but only 8% said they were eating less. "People have more control over gasoline. They are driving less and driving smarter," pollster John Zogby tells Reuters. More »
  
  Tags
  
  gas prices • food prices • consumer prices
- As World's Belly Rumbles, Gluttonous US Tosses Food
  
  newser | New York Times | May 18, 08 11:06 AM CDT
  
  Americans throw out roughly a quarter of all food available for consumption, even as grocery prices skyrocket and global riots break out over food shortages, the New York Times reports. That works out to about a pound of food every day for every American—from grocery stories tossing spoiled produce to restaurants scrapping uneaten dishes to home cooks pitching uneaten leftovers in the fridge. More »
  
  Tags
  
  food • food prices • donation • food shortage • waste • landfill
- Speculation Not Driving Boom in Commodities
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | May 8, 08 4:29 PM CDT
  
  A majority of economists think the upswing in food and energy prices is due to fundamental issues of supply and demand—and not driven by speculation, a Wall Street Journal survey finds; 51% pegged demand from China and India as the chief cause of the oil boom. More »
  
  Tags
  
  China • oil price • India • food prices • investors • oil production • speculation • economist
- Food Prices May Force Cuts in Farm Subsidies
  
  newser | Los Angeles Times | May 2, 08 2:32 PM CDT
  
  Soaring food prices are putting pressure on Congress to withdraw some of the billions in farm subsidies and ethanol incentives that have been considered politically untouchable for decades, the Los Angeles Times reports . With average farm income more than $89,000 this year—30% above the national average—the White House wants to cut off payments to farmers who earn $500,000 or more. Farm lobbyists are trying to double that. More »
  
  Tags
  
  Congress • food prices • biofuel • agriculture • ethanol • farmer • corn • subsidies
- Bush: $770M Needed For Food Aid
  
  newser | Reuters | May 1, 08 3:40 PM CDT
  
  Amid rising food prices and overtaxed international reserves, President Bush proposed a new $770 million aid package today, Reuters reports. The money is part of a supplemental $70 billion measure that also includes Iraq war funding and would require a vote in Congress. More »
  
  Tags
  
  George W. Bush • Congress • food prices • food shortage • food aid • food supply • press conference

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