The con sessions

"France has repeatedly called on the United States and developing countries to make more concessions in order to salvage the Doha round of world trade talks, calling for more 'reciprocity' from other parties.

"The European Union has no more concessions to make -- it has made many. If we are one reform ahead, the Americans are one behind. I do not think that the new agricultural law in the United States can make up for that," Barnier told the French newspaper La Tribune." (Thanks Rania)

Confessions of a minister

This is the best interview I have seen of Sami Haddad, Lebanon's Minister of Economy and Trade. A real mine full of rare gems. It's a full page (in Arabic), so I'll have to summarize the main points for those who do not read Arabic:

The conversation starts with a debate about the consumer protection office, under his tutelage. I report here what he sys, with my comments in italics.

• We have only 30 inspectors, 20 of whom will retire this year. This is not enough to control quality (of food and prices and other consumer products). The situation is not good, and we have no plans to improve it in the near future.

• The bureau for protection of intellectual property also lacks personnel, although I see intellectual property as being sacred. But the state does not do anything about it, because it is weak.

• I do not believe in setting a price ceiling and a maximum profit margin,because the investors will run away. Setting the price of bread at 1$ per bag will benefit the poor and the millionaire and will need to be financed from the state's coffer, or from the pockets of the poor themselves. so this is not the solution. (Of course not, in a country where rich and poor are taxed equally)

• Prices are lower now than they were last year, but not those of: food, rent, water, electricity, gas, rent, health, transport and communication. (so what has gotten cheaper? diamonds and gold?)

• I am opposed to protectionism. Only competition can reduce the prices. I have prepared a legislation for competition, but it will need a pricing committee, a quality control committee, a consumer protection office and financing. Then we will have a decrease in prices. (but none of these are available, so what do we do?)

• Am I to blame if there are cartels in Lebanon? Am I going to solve Lebanon's economic problems? I wish I could. So what, there are only a few importers of wheat? So this is a cartel? So what do you want me to do about it? I don't know? resign?
  

• I chose to subsidize more wheat than I believe is right (the extra subsidy goes into the pockets of the wheat cartel) in order to avoid problems. Yes I have used public money (the same one he was reluctant to use a few minutes ago), I bear full responsibility for that.

• Bread prices have increased during your tenure as minister: I had to accept it because the bakeries threatened to go on strike. I'm not proud of it, and I broke head on this issue. (The real reason is that this government does not dare take any measure that will exacerbate the situation in which it already is: it only holds by the sectarian thread, but if they anger Capital, then they will be alone.)

• There may be a monopoly in the gasoline trade, what can I do about that? I know nothing about this sector. (in reality, the gasoline cartel is split among the big politicians of this country, that's why he knows nothing about it. But everyone else does)

• We are fixing the price of gasoline for social, political and for "security" reasons. (Ok so he's against fixing prices, but he's fixing the prices of bread and gasoline, for security reasons. His own.)
  

• I will not raise the minimum wage, and I do not believe many citizens earn the minimum wage. The minimum wage is just a symbol. (Of what? of the exploitation of the poor by the rich?)

• We need instead of increasing the minimum wage, to privatize electricity, communication, and Middle East Airlines.
  

• I am opposed to the law on the protection of local production. This has nothing to do with whether I love Lebanon and I love its industry (a jibe at the late minister of industry Pierre Gemayyel who use the slogan "You love Lebanon? Love its industry!".)

• If the costs of production are too high in Lebanon, let the Lebanese industrialists go to the Gulf or Egypt and invest there.
  

• We have failed to build a nation and the current government has failed to produce any tangible results (oh no it has: it has paralyzed the country and obtained full support from the Israelis and the Bush government.)
  

C'est trees te

Lots of good stuff in Al Akhbar today.

Here's an article about the increase in tree felling by poor people in rural areas, further reducing the already tiny forested area in Lebanon. As usual, this is linked to cost of living and to the increase in prices of gas and mazout as people cut trees to heat themselves during the winter. This has been happening regularly. During the period 1975 to 1991, the breakdown of the state meant that drug crops flourished in the Bekaa, and people got richer. They stopped cutting trees and the forests expanded. Then the Syrians struck a deal with the US and hashish growing was forbidden. The forests retracted, because people became poorer. And now they are retracting further, in the whole of the country, because of the increase in fuel prices.

Tu veux ou tu veux pas?

"Soaring food prices, driven in part by demand for ethanol made from corn, have helped slash the amount of food aid the government buys to its lowest level in a decade, possibly resulting in more hungry people around the world this year.

The United States, the world’s dominant donor, has purchased less than half the amount of food aid this year that it did in 2000, according to new data from the Department of Agriculture.

Some advocates for the poor say rising food prices could benefit poor farmers in developing countries, providing them with markets and decent prices for their crops. But others warn that the growing use of food crops to make fuel, especially if stoked by large subsidies in rich countries, could substantially increase food prices. That could push hundreds of millions more poor people into hunger, especially landless laborers and subsistence farmers, according to a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine. The authors were Benjamin Senauer and C. Ford Runge, food policy analysts and professors at the University of Minnesota.

Production of food crops to make biofuels will also tend to favor growers with plenty of capital and large land holdings, they say, rather than small-scale, impoverished farmers lacking modern grain storage facilities in poor countries. “The policies put in place are going to be crucial to whether the small producer and the people who live where hunger is concentrated can benefit,” Mr. Senauer said." (Thanks Rami K.)

So...What do we want? We constantly refer toUS food aid as a political tool used to control nations and to make them dependent; as a deliberate attempt to destroy local farming so that the corporations that run the food trade can benefit more, and now that they want to reduce food aid, we complain about it? The answer lies of course in how to move from a situation of dependency on food aid. This situation was created, some say, for political control on developing nations (I subscribe to this theory). Others say the purpose of food aid is to please the farmer's lobby and the shipping industry (I subscribe to this one too).

If farming systems in developing countries that are suffering from food deficiency have to be rebuilt, there will have to be commitment for that. This cannot be limited to the dumping of food, even if, as the Bush administration is said to be planning, to purchase more food locally. Of course, this plan is a publicity stunt that will never see the light, because the US farm lobby and the transport lobby do not want to lose the profits they make from producing extra food, selling it to the US government, and shipping it to the countries who need it, often too late.

While purchasing food locally may hold PART of the solution in cases of emergencies, we need to carefully plan and understand how this food is going to be produced. Is it going to be through a revival of smallholder agriculture that will benefit the developing nations through diversified food systems and sustaining livelihoods? Or is it going to be through the establishment of corporate farms on consolidated lands stolen from small farmers by government officials who enter in lucrative partnerships with food producing multinational? Is this going to be an opportunity for reviving an ailing sector and reclaiming food sovereignty, or for anchoring dependency further, this time on corporate capital rather than on foreign nations?

I'd love to believe it will help the revival of small holder farming and help in the rebuilding of rural livelihoods, as free independent farmers and not as wage labourers on their own lands.

Lords of the Food

Worth blogging in full (thanks Anna)

TRADE: Only a Handful Are Lords of the Food Harvest
By Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Sep 25 (IPS) - The food and beverage industry is experiencing a high degree of concentration, with 10 distributing companies controlling 24 percent of the world market, according to a report being studied this week by workers’, employers’ and government representatives gathered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The same trend that is seen in sales is found in other stages of the industry, such as manufacture and transformation of food products, said the report’s author, Andrew Bibby, in his presentation of the ILO issues paper being discussed by the 70 participants at the Tripartite Meeting to Examine the Impact of Global Food Chains on Employment.

Bibby said that the strategy of diversification of food supply sources is no longer a novelty in the industry, and is closely linked to the globalisation of economic and trade relations.

What is new is the emergence of integrated world food chains, which employ 22 million people and are therefore a concern of the ILO’s.

At the top of the list of food and beverage companies is the Swiss company Nestlé, with 260,000 employees, followed by the Anglo-Dutch firm Unilever with 179,000 employees, and the United States’ PepsiCo with 157,000 workers, Sara Lee with 137,000, and Coca Cola with 132,300 employees.

Among corporations dedicated to retail sales, the final link in the chain, the U.S.-based Wal-Mart is in the lead with 1,800,000 employees, followed by French firm Carrefour with 440,500, the U.S. company Kroger with 290,000, Britain’s Tesco with 273,000 and the U.S.-based Albertsons with 234,000 workers.

This quasi-monopoly situation arises from the mergers and acquisitions of giant companies that have been accentuated in recent years.

The ILO report says that "although the largest companies are huge in terms of their turnover, the sheer size and diversity of the global food industry leaves plenty of room for further consolidation."

In 2006, Nestlé grossed 74.7 billion dollars, Unilever’s business was worth 49.6 billion, PepsiCo grossed 32.6 billion, Sara Lee 19.7 billion, and Coca Cola 41.8 billion dollars.

Wal-Mart’s sales in 2004 amounted to 29 billion dollars, while Carrefour sold goods for 99.1 billion dollars.

But these gross revenues pale in comparison with profit distribution. A producer of snow peas (mangetout) in Zimbabwe receives only 12 cents per dollar earned on the peas sold in supermarkets in industrialised countries. Similarly, a Kenyan producer of fresh vegetables is paid just 14 cents per dollar of produce sold.

A study of bananas exported from Ecuador to the United Kingdom found that plantation owners received 10 percent of the share of income from banana sales, while only 1.5 percent reached the plantation workers.

The processes described in the ILO issues paper, which are changing the nature of the global food industry, will also have an impact on industrial relations and social dialogue in the sector.

"There is potential for better industrial relations and higher levels of compliance with core labour standards from which both companies and workers would benefit -- particularly through greater involvement and participation of lead firms at all stages of the food supply chain," the paper says.

"The social partners in the food manufacturing industry have a record of successful collective bargaining in companies all over the world," the document says.

"To take just one example among many, Nestlé Asia-Pacific has signed collective agreements in several countries covering a wide range of issues including respect for trade union rights and protection against victimisation for union activities, equality of opportunities, and non-discrimination of grounds of age, sex, race or religion," it adds.

But workers’ spokesman Klaus Schroeter of Germany’s catering trade union claimed that the collective agreements mentioned in the ILO paper do not comply with national legislation in the countries concerned.

Schroeter said the report was unsatisfactory, and that it is not for the ILO to make statements in line with the views of the corporations, he said.

The trade unionist objected to the part of the issues paper that forecasts increasing demand for food products in Asia and Latin America, and said he concludes from the document that the trend is worrying analysts, who fear that a global increase in food consumption will result in scarcity on a worldwide scale.

He said he found it cynical that the ILO should express such a view when thousands of children are dying of hunger, and that the author of the report should have been aware of this.

In the three tripartite meetings he has attended, he has never seen such a bad ILO document, Schroeter asserted.

Statistics released in 2007 by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that 854 million people, or 17 percent of the world population, suffer from hunger, and that their numbers are increasing. (END/2007)

The bread basket

"The United States is considered the residual supplier of grains to the world - the country importers can turn to after rival exporters have cleared their storage bins.

Iran, which has a long-running feud with the United States over its nuclear programme, last month bought 360,000 tonnes of U.S. corn worth about US$60 million at Thursday's prices.

It was the first time Iran, which faces a U.S.-led move to broaden U.N. sanctions for its refusal to suspend nuclear activity, had bought U.S. corn in almost three years.

Traders said Tehran turned to the United States because its traditional supplier Brazil was running low on corn due to strong demand from Europe.

"The U.S.is the bread basket of the world, and the U.S. is never going to deny these countries the food their people need," said grains analyst Joe Victor of Allendale Inc.

Oil-rich Venezuela has purchased 402,400 tonnes of wheat from the United States since June 1 - the start of the marketing year - including 50,700 tonnes last week.

The total value is an estimated US$100 million at Thursday's prices.

The country also bought 547,200 tonnes of corn from the United States in the marketing year ended August 31. So far this season, Venezuela has purchased 28,000 tonnes of corn.

Syria, labelled by Bush in 2002 as being part of the 'axis of evil' with North Korea and Iraq, before its occupation by U.S. troops, bought 1.46 million tonnes of corn in the marketing year ended August 31.

At Thursday's prices, the sales are valued at an estimated US$242 million.

Despite attempts by the U.S. to isolate Syria for meddling in Iraq and Lebanon, it also purchased 249,500 tonnes of soybeans in the 2006/07 marketing year that ended August 31."

Hummus revolution

"Not unlike the stereotypical movie scene where the dowdy librarian takes off her glasses, lets her hair down and becomes a glamorous babe, the humble chickpea is revealing its sexy side on fashionable menus."

Is wheat the new oil?

"In the long term, if this situation persists it will cause major economic ramifications but for now many of these countries cannot afford to leave populations hungry in addition to all the political tensions,” a senior Jordanian official involved in grains purchases said.

For the moment, though, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Algeria will not stop scaling down purchases, despite the higher import bills, analysts, millers and state buyers said.

State purchasing agencies have made massive buys in recent weeks in large tenders that have actually have tightened supply and contributed to a doubling of wheat prices since April.

They are announcing new tenders to ensure smooth deliveries in the coming months.

International traders, millers and officials say state purchasers cannot risk tampering with subsidy regimes that have dulled the impact of steep bread price rises after hikes years ago that sparked civil unrest in several countries, including Egypt and Jordan.

Analysts and industry experts say social stability outweighs the fiscal gains from subsidy reductions in a region which feeds a majority of its rising population on imports."

Global zaatar

"The Syrians are far more imaginative with za’tar – a fact which Jamil and his wife found intriguing. They did not know about the Syrian blends and, to tell the truth, neither did I. It was not until I went to Arjaoui, the best za’tar merchant in Souk el-B’zuriyeh in Damascus, that I found out there was more than one Syrian blend. Up to that point I was familiar only with the classic mixture, known as red za’tar, where fennel and anise seeds, coriander, cumin, roasted chickpeas, black sunflower seeds and sometimes roasted pistachios are added to the classic Lebanese mix of thyme, sumac and/or sesame seeds". Anissa Helou's article on Zaatar in the Financial Thyme.

Grow More Organic

"Despite what critics say, organic farming methods can produce enough food to sustain Earth’s current population.

That’s according to Catherine Badgley of the University of Michigan, who is lead author of a 2007 study comparing yields for organic versus conventional food production across the globe. Badgley told Earth & Sky that in developing countries, where farmers lack advanced agricultural technologies, modern organic methods can increase crop production by as much as 300 percent.

Badgley said that, in the developed world, organic farming does tend to yield less produce than conventional farming methods. But her study indicates that organic farming methods are adequate to provide enough food on a per capita basis to sustain Earth’s current population – plus an even larger population – without increasing the 40% of Earth’s land surface now being used for agriculture.

She said she hopes that future incentives will encourage more organic farming in the U.S. and abroad."

The art of opportunism

"From dust bowls in Australia to drought-hit regions in the U.S., Africa, Asia and the Mideast, growing areas are drying out, helping push crop prices to record highs.

Wheat prices topped $9 a bushel for the first time Wednesday, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said strong global demand and tight supplies will push U.S. stockpiles to a 33-year low.

U.S. crop-year-ending stocks of wheat are forecast to fall to 362 million metric tons in 2007-08 vs. 456 million a year earlier.

Some blame bad farming. Others cite climate changes that reduce rainfall and raise temperatures.

The good news is that big agribusiness players such as Monsanto, (MON) DuPont (DD) and Novartis (NVS) are using genetic engineering to produce drought-resistant crops — including corn and grain — that grow on far less water than regular strains."

War ming

"The Ministry of Defence has asked climate change experts to identify regions of the world where global warming could spark conflict and security threats.

The Met Office will today announce a £12m research contract with the MoD as part of an effort to map the likely impacts of increased temperatures. The research aims to identify countries where battles could break out over increasingly scarce supplies of food and water, as well as predict the likely conditions in which British troops may have to fight in future.

Computer models suggest the Middle East will get much drier and hotter this century. By 2100, rainfall is predicted to decrease by 30% across Turkey, Lebanon, northern Syria, western Iran and Afghanistan."

The link between extreme weather events and unrest is apparent to whoever bother to look at the history of the Middle East. Here's what Mustapha Mond once sent me:

“In 1754 there is a major drought, in 1755 the Maronites of North Lebanon start their revolt against their Shi'a overlords. Droughts also in the early 1800's with a mega one in 1819 according to a chronicler. Coincidentally the Maronite peasants start their 'Ammiyyat in 1820 and 1821, the bedouin tribes of the badiya start attacking agricultural settlements on the fringe of the desert, as a result people from Hauran start moving to Beirut, Europeans come to the area to sell their foodstuff, prices go up, everyone in the area starts hating the Ottomans, the environment is overstretched. Huge mess and in 1830 everyone is happy when Ibrahim pacha invades.”

Global foodism

"The gamble paid off. Ten years later, shawarma has become a craze among food connoisseurs in New Delhi, particularly those in South Delhi, and the Begs are proud that they got it right. “Whenever we ate shawarma in Saudi Arabia, I would tell my husband that it was made for Indian taste buds,” says Ishrat."

Manoucheh news

Manoucheh is the ubiquitous breakfast of the Lebanese. It is basically flat bread dough topped with a mix of Zaatar (thyme mix) and oil and baked. It can also be made with cheese or other toppings, but this is a recent variation. My own estimates are that between 250,000 and 400,000 manouchehs are sold daily in Lebanon. It is also the breakfast, lunch and the snack of the poor, especially unskilled laborers because it is cheap. Was cheap.

The price of manoucheh is increasing with the increase in the cost of living in Lebanon. The price of the manoucheh has increased by 50%, we are told in this article. The manoucheh vendors (who can be really small scale) accuse the traders of hoarding food commodities and to increase their price. apparently, the price of the manoucheh ingredients has increased as follows during the last month: 50 kg of (imported) flour: from 26,000LL to 45,000LL; gas from 35,000LL to 49,000 LL per 35 kg; dry yeast (9 kg) from 27,000LL to 37,000LL; (Soy) oil (15 kg) increased by 12,000LL; cheese (14 kg) from 52,500LL to 83,000LL.

And while we're at it, please note how the most popular, most traditional national breakfast of Lebanon does not have one single ingredient that is produced in Lebanon.

Saj femmes

This is how small producers and traditional foods are kicked out of the system. I went yesterday to buy Saj bread from one of the 2 women who bake it in my little village in South Lebanon (Saj or Markouk bread is Lebanon's traditional bread, cooked not in an oven but on an inverted wok). I was told that they don't bake anymore, because it is not worth it. I asked why, they said that the price of the 50 kilos sac of wheat flour costs now LL50,000 ($33) up from 27,000LL ($16). I was surprised because these women had regular clients who came from other villages and who bought the 5 loaves for 1000LL when they could buy 9 large loaves of Arabic bread for 1,500LL. The 2 women made a significant part of their household income from these sales, and they took turn in baking.

The price of flour has risen in the world with the increase in the price of wheat, and I have blogged about this earlier (search under "wheat"). The world price increase is about 30% which translates in 100% on the Lebanese retail market. The Lebanese government is subsidizing flour because they do not want a bread revolt at this very critical time. They need to look popular, so they are paying the difference between the old price and the market price to the mill owners cartel. But they are only subsidizing the quantity of flour needed to cover the Arabic bread (pitta) needs of the country. Of course the government, the mills owners and the bakeries did not agree on the quantities, and what is being subsidized probably exceeds the local needs so the bakeries can make a clean buck too.

The bakeries cartel now receives subsidized flour and cannot increase the price of the bread, but they decrease the size of the loaf and the weight of the bread bag (see this post among others).

As to the local small scale producers, like the women in my village, they have to buy the flour from local traders. They do not benefit from the subsidies, because they are not a cartel, and they find themselves kicked out of the system, having to pay what is many folds the current market price.

This does not mean that Saj bread is disappearing: you can find it in all the large bakeries. They hire the women who made it at home and use second rate ingredients and have them make 100o's of loaves a day without a contract or social security or any of the benefits of being employed. And of course, they pay them a pittance.

As long as there is a demand for it, food culture is safe. Pity I can't say the same about the rural poor.

Saudi style

Saudi Arabia, a major agricultural force? well, they did increase their agricultural production from 264 million $ in 1970 to 10.2 billion $ in 2005. They are self sufficient in wheat, almost self sufficient in fruits and vegetables and they export eggs. They also export some vegetables, such as tomatoes, carrots etc...

But at what cost? The $ cost first: 100 billion $ in 30 years. The cost of producing wheat in Saudi is 4 times the international price.

Then water: Saudi Arabia used between 1980 and 1999 300 billion cubic meters of water equivalent to the flow of the Nile for 6 years, 85% of it from non-renewable deep water aquifers. Farmers report that they had to dig 100 meters deeper every year in search of water.

These sacrifices of $ and resources may have been understandable if they were aimed at improving the lot of farmers and at building strategic resources. However there are reports to indicate that the whole Saudi agricultural adventure was a way to launder money from governmental coffers into the pockets of minor princes in the House of Saud and of tribal leaders in order to ensure their allegiance. Apparently the system works as follows: a high ranking member of the ruling elite declares his interest in farming. Land is donated to him, and facilities (long term no interest loans that no one ever pays back) are provided. Workers are hired (Asia) and made to slave on the land. State of the art equipment is imported from the US. The produce is then bought at subsidized prices by the Sate. Beats given the princes pocket money.

And one more thing: whatever Saudi exports costs more to produce than the price it fetches, not only in $ but also in water: To produce one ton of wheat requires 1000 tons of water, which should be more precious than food in Saudi Arabia.

No fool

"In April, Walkers Crisps began labelling its cheese and onion bags with a carbon footprint - how many grams of greenhouse gases were emitted in its production - and that has been rolled out to other flavours. A Walkers spokeswoman says the company's own survey shows nearly 80% of consumers are aware of the labels with 20% dismissing it as "purely a gesture". And the crisps manufacturer has promised to reduce water use per kilo by 5% year on year, and energy use by 3%."

Hollow

“We’re trying to educate young people and show them how to use that lens of ingredients as a way to change their lives,” she said. “Otherwise, it would be just another cookbook.”

I have less and less tolerance for empty foodism.

Remember

I've blogged many articles about this, but it's always good to remember. Ah yes, lets also remember that it is the industrialized countries who make up the EU commission who are the original cause of global warming.

"Moreover, the EU Commission is concerned that the effects of global warming are felt first and foremost by the poor and vulnerable in developing countries. Responsible for just a small percentage of global pollution themselves, they nonetheless feel the immediate effects of ecological degradation caused by industrialized and emerging nations.

While most affected by global warming, these countries also have the least capacity to deal with climate change.

"Developing countries will be the hardest hit by the effects of climate change and therefore need our help to mitigate climate change and to adapt to the changes already occurring," said this week's Commission statement." (Thanks D.)

In fact it looks like it may be too late to avoid global warming. Look at this article on the latest IPCC report and the expected impacts on specific regions of the world"

"Arica: Between 350 and 600 million people will suffer water shortages or increased competition for water. Yields from agriculture could fall by half by 2020 while arid areas will rise by up to 8 per cent. The number of sub-Saharan species at risk of extinction will rise by at least 10 per cent."

Thundering away

Jordan like the rest of the world is experiencing an increasingly widening divide between rich and poor, and an increase in food prices coming together with structural adjustment and the removal of subsidies. Le pays gronde, says this article. Will a storm develop?