Wikileaks and Arab food security: tool for control

Food is a powerful political control tool. This we knew. I was hoping to find something about it in wikileaks and Shadi beat me to it. He sent me the link to this cable with the following comment (quoted with his permission)

" the Americans touch upon food security for Qatar and the GCC generally. It moves away from land grab to avoid the same publicity you (Rami) highlight on your blog. Remains debatable, however, whether a binding agreement to supply in the future, come what may, is any different"

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A NEW TREND: THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD SECURITY

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16. (SBU) FOOD SECURITY EQUALS NATIONAL SECURITY

-- (SBU) Gulf countries can produce no more than 10-15 percent of their own food needs, and therefore regard food security as a national security issue. To that end, Qatar has established a National Food Security Program (NFSP) under the direction of the Crown Prince.

-- (SBU) The NFSP is tasked with developing a food security strategy for Qatar, and a strategy for leading the rest of the Arab world in developing new structures and partnerships for achieving food security for the entire region.

-- (C) We expect the NFSP and others seized with food security over the coming 36 months to diminish their interest in highly complicated and risky land purchases in developing countries and to shift toward establishing partnerships with producers in developed countries, such as the U.S. We expect to see growing interest in learning about sophisticated financial instruments that can be employed to smooth out prices and supply gaps, such as commodity futures and virtual stocking. We also expect Qatar to improve its stocking capabilities, both onshore and off.

Cable here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/235574

In other words: Qatar and the Arabs are not to pursue food security through attempting to invest in other countries, even if these countries are Arab like Sudan, and even if it is with the goal of creating win-win situation based on pro-poor scenarios. No. This should be left to the multinational corporations who exploit land and people in connivance with local elites. Food "security" is to be based on markets and on purchasing food from the US and the use of "financial instruments and virtual stocking. The latest food and financial crises has of course shown that both are unreliable and can be manipulated and blocked. Russia stopped exporting wheat during its last crisis, and the US started to produce biofuels instead of selling corn in 2007. And purchases from the US will help subsidize the US farm bill and recapture the oil surplus. And of course, limit Brazil's rise to become the world's major food exporter. The cable makes it clear: only purchases from developed nations such as the US are safe. Laissez moi rire.