Category Food and Agriculture

Jun 28 2022

Europe Argues with Itself About Allowing Developing Countries to Make Their Own Fertilizer, EU Climate Agenda Does Not Align with Food Needs of Third-World


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on June 27, 2022 | Sundance

Watch how this plays out in the global cleaving.  Watch closely…

The stresses of retaining climate ideology are beginning to surface in the EU and ‘western nations.’  The developing world needs fertilizer quickly, or their twice annual harvests will not produce enough to feed their population.  However, the EU does not want the developing world to create their own fertilizer because it would mean using an energy source the EU no longer supports.

The result within the G7, G20, World Economic Forum, multinational corporations and EU government, is a debate over whether it is better for people to starve, or to allow developing countries to manufacture fertilizer to feed themselves.   Some in the EU and western alliance say let the people die, climate is more important.  Others, seem to be saying if they allow mass starvation just to retain their climate ideology, they may lose influence in the world.  The debate rages on.

(Reuters) – The European Union is divided on how to help poorer nations fight a growing food crisis and address shortages of fertilizers caused by the war in Ukraine, with some fearing a plan to invest in plants in Africa would clash with EU green goals.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a global food crisis and fears of worse to come because of a drop in grain exports from Ukraine and a spike in prices of chemical fertilizers, of which Russia and Belarus are major producers.  [SD NOTE: This is false.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not create a global food crisis, the Western Alliance & NATO sanctions did – Important distinction] 

The EU has for weeks tried to help its poorer neighbours in Africa and the Middle East to weather the crisis by offering them fresh funds, while trying to convince them EU sanctions against Moscow and Minsk are not to be blamed for the food emergency.

At a summit of EU leaders later this week, the EU was planning a new initiative that would structurally decrease poorer nations’ reliance on Russian fertilisers by helping them develop their own fertiliser plants.

But at a meeting with EU envoys last week, the EU Commission explicitly opposed the text, warning that supporting fertiliser production in developing nations would be inconsistent with the EU energy and environment policies, officials said.

The production of chemical fertilisers has a big impact on the environment and requires large amounts of energy. However, they are crucially effective in boosting agriculture output.  (read more)

This is globalism and elitism in its full glory.  Western politicians, along with multinational corporations, in control of global trade and finance are deciding who lives and who dies according to their climate change ideology.   This is how important their carbon trading scheme is to them.

Liberalism or modern totalitarian leftism is on display as the great global cleaving continues.

The elites in western government think they still have the power to control the rest of the world.  However, it is the absence of food that changes things.  People are starting to realize that western ideology, as manifest in modern globalism, is dangerous.  The Davos crowd is willing to kill millions if that is what it takes to retain their climate change ideology.

Keep watching this closely.  The multinational U.S. media will eventually bury the issue and try to protect the ruling class.

For me personally, the most frustrating part of this global dynamic -and this specific moment in history- is the absence of any opposition voice in the United States who can articulate these issues loudly in their arguments.

The absence of any political leader using this atomic sledgehammer to attack and destroy the ideology of the professional political left is blood-boiling.   Where are the leaders of nationalism who can call out the hypocrisy of the globalists?

The elite and self-described ruling class have never been as vulnerable as they are right now.  This is the moment to hit them hard and destroy their toxic ideology for generations.  Where is the articulate political opposition?

Where is the voice that can call these insufferable elites to task, using their own words and policy against them?

I digress…

Consider what is happening against this 15-year-old reminder:

All starts getting clearer, no?

Jun 26 2022

Inflation Creating Cracks in the G7


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jun 26, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Phone conversations with sources are revealing that inflation is starting to create cracks in the unity of the G7 against Russia for the summit of G7 nations in Bavaria (June 26-28). Already, the leaders of the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan are not in accord. The people are not in support of this endless war with Russia and are looking at their personal costs thanks to inflation. The Europeans which include Germany, France, and Italy are expressing that the people want an end to this war and that Ukraine should surrender the Donbas. They are not prepared to see their living standards collapse for a war that they see as a civil war. This is starting to show up in polls that they have been taking.

The UK is taking the position of the Baltic States and Poland who collectively fear that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine that they will be next. This seems to be really propaganda that they have bought from Zelensky. Putin has made NO EFFORT to conquer Ukraine. If that was the objective, you first take out the power grid, then communications, followed by the water supply. Zelensky has been willing to sacrifice his own people for the territory that is occupied by Russians who he hates. It takes a blind politician not to see through Zelensky’s hatred and stuffing hundreds of million offshore.

Indeed, if China is smart, it can continue to reduce exports and force prices up even higher in the West. Likewise, the rising inflation may not be because of the war, but the lockdowns caused the collapse of the supply chain and now many are starting to blame Western sanctions for the rising costs of gas and oil, and the massive shortage of wheat and fertilizer. As I have said before, one major tactic in war is to undermine your opponent’s currency. With this crop of world leaders, we have the worst possible people in place in human history. They cannot see that they have made the West vulnerable. Our computer should that wars will escalate starting next year, but international war is more likely after 2024.

My fear is that the sheer stupidity that now dominates world leaders here in the West are playing checkers while Putin and Xi are playing chess. Even Boris Johnson in the UK has announced he effectively wants to be a dictator for life. He said he has no intentions of leaving his position until the mid-2030s!

And Klauss Schwabs wants to eliminate Democracy!

They do not want any more Trumps to come to play in their sandbox.

Jun 8 2022

Interesting Video, A Walk Through a Russian Supermarket


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on June 7, 2022 | Sundance

I found this 8-minute video to be quite interesting.  As we consider the scale of food price increase in the United States, this video of a Russian supermarket yesterday is fascinating.

Considering the sanctions levied upon Russia by the western alliance, it would appear that they are coping quite nicely.  The guy who uploaded the video shares, “I took my camera with me on a quick Beer run to give you folks an idea of what a small local supermarket in a village South of Saint Petersburg, Russia looks like. How do the prices compare to where you live?”  WATCH:

.

This is the kind of real information the U.S. media would never mention.

Jun 7 2022

Gates funded “Biomilq” + the formula shortage || Allison Royal


By AlisonMorrow  originally Published on Rumble on June 3, 2022 

What is BIOMILQ and how is it connected to the formula shortage? Former TV reporter Allison Royal discusses her recent report about laboratory-made infant formula, funded by Bill Gates, Zuckerberg and others. An interesting point she makes is Gates funding of media (in this case The Guardian) and their reporting on the formula shortage, disparaging breast feeding.

May 28 2022

Congress has abandoned its responsibility to declare war


By Tulsi Gabbard  posted originally on Rumble on May 27, 2022

The US Constitution confers the authority to declare war to the American people thru our congressional reps. While we struggle to afford fuel and food, Congress has abandoned this responsibility, allowing the Biden Admin to get us into a hot war with Russia, using Ukraine as proxy

May 28 2022

UDSA Raises Food Price Forecast to Highest Level in 42 Years, Third Wave of U.S. Food Inflation Will Dwarf Prior Price Increases


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 27, 2022 | Sundance 

Have you ever seen egg prices at $1 per egg range, or $12/doz?  Hold on a few months and perhaps you will.  That is the context for the scale of food price increases the USDA is now starting to predict.  The highest predicted change in food costs in well over 40 years, that’s the USDA warning in their revised May “Food Price Outlook”. [DATA HERE]

This month the USDA just re-re-revised the forward price outlook, and things are grim.  It likely doesn’t come as a surprise to many CTH readers because we have been discussing the convergence of events since October of 2021, when we first were able to predict Wave-1 (Dec/Jan), and Wave-2 (March/Apr) inflation.  However, the underlying data for Wave-3 is double the prior two phases.

Keep in mind the data is national & skewed toward low estimations as represented by (+).

When the USDA predicts egg prices increasing by 19.5 to 20.5% (from where those prices are now), there will be regions with much higher retail increases than estimated.

Just two months ago, USDA had egg inflation at 2.5%-3.5% range, year over year.  Again, that’s the scale of change; from a 3.5% forward outlook to a 20.5% forward outlook effective right now.

Food at home (grocery store) prices: up 7% to 8% in this monthly review, versus the April outlook of a rise of 5% to 6%. That means the USDA is predicting the highest grocery store price rise since 1980 when prices rose 8.1% (prices rose 7.2% in 1981).  There is no reason to think the USDA forecast will not rise again in June.

[Click graphic to expand – Data Set Here]

If you have not taken food price stability seriously before now, please take proactive measures to secure your family.   We are talking about future retail food prices that were simply unfathomable last year.

You know how much prices at the supermarket have increased in the last six months.  Double that, and there’s your estimation for food prices later this fall.

Behind all the datasets, statistics, BEA, BLS, USDA and analysis of these things, there are real people living paycheck-to-paycheck that are likely to be in serious food insecurity position for the first time in their lives.

I’m not talking about poor people, I’m talking about solid upper middle-class working families with kids who are already being hit hard by gasoline, energy, housing and grocery store increases.  Another twenty percent increase in food costs can easily become a crisis.

The core issue is this snowball of production costs inside the field to fork supply chain.  Diesel prices, fertilizer prices, energy prices, seed and feed prices, all of it has doubled and tripled in less than a year.

Add in transportation and distribution costs that have doubled, and all of that cumulative impact is going to flow through the food supply chain from the field to the processor (wholesaler), and into the supermarket.   Fresh foods, especially in the produce section, will catch many people off guard.

Not all news associated with this is bad news.  As you read this you have information that allows you to take control and be proactive.  YOU will not be part of the national population that is stunned in September and October.  YOU know what is coming.  With that in mind, do what you can today, tomorrow, this week, to be proactive and offset the impact.  Taking action reduces stress.

Perhaps shop proactively for your holiday shelf stable food items now.  Look at the circulars and on-line for coupons, not for then – but for use now.  Perhaps learn to make some of the foods you would normally purchase already prepared.  Small proactive seeds, kept in mind while carrying on day-to-day life.

I know from reading comments that many of you have planted ‘victory gardens’ this year.  Those harvests are worth 50% more now they were three months ago.  That’s the way to look at it.  Every amount of saving matters…. and yes, grandma carefully washed the aluminum foil and reused it for a reason.

May 13 2022

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Food Security is National Security


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 12, 2022 | Sundance 

Earlier today ultra-MAGA representative Marjorie Taylor Greene delivered remarks about the failures of the Biden administration as they are reflected in the continual food security and pricing crisis.   I strongly recommend watching these brief remarks, very impressive.

MTG accurately identifies the origin of the current baby formula crisis, as an outcome of stress within the supply chain caused by government intervention into the overall system.  MTG then notes that FDA rules and regulations make supply interruptions worse.

Additionally, in the background of the federal DHS and HHS contracts for food products, including baby food/formula, most of those federal contracts contain a ‘first right‘ or ‘prioritized continuity‘ provision, creating a distribution outcome (via contractual mandate) where illegal aliens end up with preferential allocation.  WATCH (2:55 mins):

Apr 13 2022

Ukraine v Russian Empire


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Apr 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: We elected Zelensky who promised to end the civil war. It looks like the West is telling him not to compromise and let the Russian section go.

DH (from Ukraine)

ANSWER: On Sunday, CBS News program “60 Minutes” aired an interview with Zelensky. I believe Zelensky is still claiming evidence of Russian war crimes, saying: “We are defending the ability of a person to live in the modern world.” Despite what the press says, this is a Proxy War against Russia and the US, along with the EU and Britain. They are quite happy to use the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder. There is no possible way all of these countries would allow Zelensky to address their own people UNLESS this was a Proxy War.

The Dnieper River which runs 1,423 miles and today is the border between Belarus and Russia, was also the border of Ukraine with Russia during the Tsarist Empire at the time of Mikhail I (1613-1645) of the Romanov Dynasty. Zelensky’s claims that Putin has invaded a sovereign nation are debatable. Eastern Ukraine today was assigned to it for administrative purposes during the USSR. It was never Ukrainian territory. It is very hard to see why it is worth killing your own people for a territory that has been occupied by Russians for centuries.

This is obviously a Proxy War, and despite whatever the press says, the West is using the Ukrainian people as the Vanguard in this battle against Russia. They cannot declare war on Russia legally, so they have used Ukraine. Zelensky seems happy to accommodate, blaming civilian deaths on Putin when he shared responsibility for this war.

In Crimea, the population is predominantly Russian and Tatars where there is a population of about 250,000, accounting for about 10% of the total.

Apr 6 2022

Danish Politician Advises EU Residents to Avoid Long Showers


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Apr 6, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Danish Politician Margrethe Vestager is utterly uninformed about the true factors surrounding rising inflation among the 19 counties in the European Union (EU). According to EU politicians, the only problem is Russia, and the only solution is for the people of the EU to continue sacrificing their quality of life.

“Everyone is asking what I can do. You can do two things: control your own and your teenagers’ showers. And when you turn off that water, you say — “Take that Putin!” Vestager stated, declaring that limited hot showers, a simple pleasure in life, could be an act of unity with Ukraine. Putin will not ask his troops to retreat because you let your hygiene decline. This is another measure to punish the people for the ignorance of politicians.

Germany’s economic minister Robert Habeck went as far as denying the supply chain crisis. “There are currently no supply shortages,” Habeck remarked. “Nevertheless, we must increase precautionary measures in order to be prepared in the event of an escalation on the part of Russia.” Instead of making any attempt to become less reliant on Russian energy, the politicians are simply asking the people to consume less energy. Consuming less is not a solution. It is an insult to the people living within the European Union who had no say in voting for the decision-makers in charge who are sending the entire bloc into a downward spiral.

Apr 4 2022

The Myth of Green Energy


Published originally on Rumple by Energycademy  on January 31, 2022

This video looks at the official definition of green energy and critically examines how well solar and wind energy, two of the most popular form of green energy, match the official definition.

#greenenergy #solarenergy #windenergy #cleanenergy