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This article appears in the January 21, 2011 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
LAROUCHE: ‘WHO'S EATING YOU?’

The World Food Crisis Is Intentional—
It's Genocide

by Marcia Merry Baker

[PDF version of this article]

Jan. 15—Today's worsening world food crisis is not an unforeseeable repeat of the 2008 "episode" of food riots and suffering; it's a continuation of a policy of genocide. Behind the food-price shocks, the food just isn't there! If the speculation in food prices were wiped away overnight—as it should be—the crisis would remain.

At present, worldwide grains production is now running below even current levels of consumption—which levels themselves are far below the volume of food required; this, plus the fact that grain is being lost to biofuels, means that deprivation is terrible and worsening. The prices of other staples—oils, sugar, vegetables—are hyperinflating, along with cereals. Speculation is setting records. Over a billion people are going hungry and starving. But this is only the beginning, unless stopped now.

"Who's eating you?" is the point posed by Lyndon LaRouche. Look for the answer in the decades of malthusian environmentalism and globalism, in which productive potential has been deliberately thwarted. All the while, commodity control and speculation have been furthered and protected for the benefit of the neo-British Empire behind the policy. This is the intent of these practices. Genocide is the intention, LaRouche emphasized.

Even now, in terms of physical production and contingencies for best utilization of scarce supplies, the situation could be turned around, with international collaboration in the spirit of the proposed LaRouche Four-Power initiative (the United States, Russia, India, and China, allying to create a new international credit system). Vast new food capacity can be launched with the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) and companion priority large-scale projects on all continents.

However, without this, the vector towards famine will prevail. In brief, the following are the predominant features.

Killer Environmentalism, Globalism

The two modern methods by which food production is being sabotaged, and thus genocide set into motion, are environmentalism and globalization.

Environmentalism. Under the false flag of concern for "the environment" and "fixed resources," there have been decades of prevention of required infrastructure for water, power, irrigation systems, soils development, food storage, pest control, and transportation. Vast land areas have been deliberately allowed to degrade from salination, depletion of aquifers, destruction of soil fertility, etc. Others, such as the "Great American Desert," lie fallow.

Under the hoax of global warming, nations are under fierce pressure to "adjust" to climate change, by destroying themselves with insane low-tech energy, low-water-use, primitive farming methods and "low-carbon" activity.

Globalization. The nation-state system itself has been subverted under globalization—the polite name for fascism, used to force national governments to give up their sovereignty, submit to food import-dependence, floating currencies, speculation, cartel food control, and world dictatorship over even science and technology, including wrongful patent rights to food itself. Famous food cartel names include Cargill/Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, BASF, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Yara, JBS, and a few others.

These policies have been implemented for almost a half century, by a network of figures and institutions centered in London. Prominent among the various perpetrators in this subversion are environmentalist agencies such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature, co-founded in 1981 by Britain's Prince Philip, who has repeatedly called for depopulation. In 1981, he said: "Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed—not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they'll consume, the more pollution they'll create, the more fighting they will do. We have no option. If it isn't controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war." (People, Dec. 21, 1981)

His "London outlook" has been disseminated throughout the United Nations, and is manifest, for example, in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) operation, instigated in 2000, and furthered by such figures as Deputy Secretary General of the UN Mark Lord Malloch-Brown and George Soros. The MDG definitions for development are "fair" use of fixed resources.

This is the nub of the matter. Since "natural" resources are, and always have been, man-made—in the sense that it is human breakthroughs in understanding and application, that transform features of the universe into "resources"—to decree that resources are fixed, is to decree destruction for mankind.

The promotion machine for this neo-malthusian viewpoint ranges across all kinds of media and related operations, from the career of Lester Brown, to National Geographic and, until he fell from glory, Al Gore. Their standing goal is, as Lester Brown reiterates in his Jan. 10, 2011 Foreign Policy article, to reduce population and undercut the physical means for our future existence. Brown describes population growth as one of the "culprits" driving up food prices. "At some point," he writes, "this relentless [population] growth begins to tax both the skills of farmers and the limits of the Earth's land and water resources." He calls it a "glimmer of good news" that population increase has dropped below 1.2% last year, down from 2% in 1970. He calls for low-tech farming and "alternative" energy.

LaRouche in 2008: Double Food Production!

In April 2008, amidst the growing food riots and price shocks, LaRouche launched a campaign against this food-control genocide, issuing a call to "Kill the WTO," and launch a drive to meet food needs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche initiated an international mobilization to double world food production as quickly as possible, as well as to see to emergency needs.

Statements and strategies came forward that Spring, from numerous leaders and governments, including the Council on Rice Trade Cooperation (China and Mekong River basin nations), and from the Eurasian giants, India, China, and Russia. Among the endorsements of the double-food-production drive was that of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, the former Agriculture Minister of India, who helped to bring about grain self-sufficiency of that nation in 1974, for the first time. In May 2008, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced a commitment to double rice production in Africa within ten years. This would mean 30 million metric tons, up from 15 mmt at present (milled rice).

All these moves meant that the political momentum was building, to potentially break with the environmentalist, globalist destruction, and commit to a new financial system to serve development. An anti-British Empire movement was gathering force during the 2008 food crisis.

However, during and after the June 3-5 "High Level Conference on Food Security" of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, the Brutish Empire struck back through all its institutions and black operations, to maintain its power. A do-nothing UN High Level Taskforce on the Food Crisis was set up. FAO Director Jacques Diouf sounded the delphic theme: Yes, world food production should be doubled—in 50 years! This 50-year formulation became the refrain of the globalists.

Typical of the pseudo-science doublespeak was a Feb. 10, 2010 Science magazine feature, "Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People" (in 50 years). Its ten British authors, including officials from the U.K. Office of Science, concluded, "Any optimism [for "sustainably feeding 9 billion people"] must be tempered by the enormous challenges of making food production sustainable while controlling greenhouse gas emission and conserving dwindling water supplies, as well as meeting the Millennium Development Goal of ending hunger...."

Gates and Philanthropo-Fascists

Bill Gates is personally in the forefront of genocidalists posing as pro-agriculture. His Billionaires Club operates as a clique of philanthropo-fascists. In May 2009, Gates convened a private summit on depopulation in New York City with Warren Buffett, George Soros, David Rockefeller, Jr., Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg, and many others, at the home of the president of Rockefeller University. The coverage of the secretive meeting in the Sunday Times of London quoted Gates's speech in February, in California that year, on how he wants to "cap" world population forever. He cited a goal of 8.3 billion persons, but unless stopped, it will be far lower.

Gates has been hyper-active in promoting policies to undercut food production. His grants and projects oppose large, national-interest infrastructure, and instead demand "small-holder" involvement in farming for private/public, neo-plantation operations. Above all, he stands for food patent rights for cartels, and the World Trade Organization.

He has set up new centers from which to conduct policy onslaughts on behalf of the London agenda: In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In 2008, Gates's funding set up the Global Agriculture Initiative, at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, to move on Congress. In Fall 2009, Gates issued a book, Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agriculture Development, to promote his fake food campaign.

In October 2009, Gates gave the keynote for the awarding of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. In April 2010, he joined Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in announcing President Obama's Global Agriculture Initiative, to be conducted by a group of nations plus the Gates Foundation.

Operatives representing Gates and the food cartel hold high posts in the Obama Administration. Dr. Rajiv Shah, eight years at the Gates Foundation, was made Chief Science Advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in June 2009; in November 2009, he was switched to head the State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

A Monsanto-associated scientist, Dr. Roger Beachey, was put in as Science Advisor to the USDA. The current Chief Agriculture Negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, is Islam A. Siddiqui, put in by Obama as a recess appointment in June 2010 (Siddiqui was a staffer for the business association representing Monsanto, DuPont, BASF, Syngenta, and other mega-agro-cartel companies).

No wonder, there's so little food.

The Food Isn't There!

One snapshot of the grim reality of shortages is that there is a widening deficit, right now, between the volume of grains being consumed annually, and the lesser quantity being produced—a deficit in the range of 59 mmt for the current crop year.

The projection for world grain production this year (2010-11) is for 2.182 billion metric tons (down from 2.242 in 2008-09, and 2.231 in 2009-10), which itself is well below "total use" of grains in the world today, of 2.241 bmt.

These are the USDA projections from its Jan. 12, 2011 monthly report (World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates WASDE-490-8), which, even if off-base, show a vectoring that spells famine.

To meet all nutritional requirements for the current nearly 6.9 billion people worldwide, and more to come, at least 4 billion tons of grain should be produced now, for consumption directly, and also indirectly, through livestock, for production of animal protein.

However, at present, with low and falling production, stocks are dwindling and prospects are for worse to come:

Wheat. Projected annual production is down by 6%, from 683 mmt last crop year, to a likely 646 mmt this year (2010-11). This level of output would be far below current utilization, which is 665 mmt. End-of-year (carryover) stocks are expected to fall at least 10%, from 198 mmt to 178 mmt.

Among top wheat-exporting source nations—the United Stastes, France, Canada, Russia, and Australia—there are either major agriculture losses, a run on short stocks, or both.

  • Russia is exporting no wheat at all, given last Summer's drought. Ukraine has an export ban in place. Russia has stepped up importing grain.

  • France is experiencing falling stocks, and by March may be in a trade-off between serving the home market or exports.

  • Australia is now hit by floods. Though Queensland accounts only for 5% or so of Australia's wheat harvest, any loss at all has an impact.

Corn. Projected annual world production of coarse grains, including corn, barley, rye, and others, is down by over 2%, from 1.108 bmt (itself down from the year earlier), to 1.084 bmt. This annual production figure is far below the current rate of annual utilization of corn, at 1.123 bmt. Ending stocks are projected down by 20% from 199 mmt, to 159 mmt for the 2010-11 year, but can be expected to drop even more.

The United States, which is the world's major grower and exporter, is now heading for using up to 40% of its corn for ethanol. (See Figure 1.) China, committed to the principle of food self-sufficiency, but needing imports for its security reserves, is turning to corn imports significantly. (China remains dependent on imports for 80% of its soy consumption.)

Rice. End-of-year (carryover) stocks and production are way under what is required. Rice production was 441 mmt for 2009-10, and is projected to rise this year to 452 mmt, but that is just the level of current utilization, no more. Ending stocks are expected to remain only at the current level, in the range of 94 mmt.

  • Vietnam, one of the top three rice-exporter nations, forecasts a drop in its exports to 5.5 mmt this year, down from 6.8 mmt last year.

  • Indonesia and the Philippines are trying to make contingency arrangements for rice purchases, given global rice shortages.

  • Sri Lanka, in December, selectively released rice stocks from its buffer reserve, to damp down potential speculation with short supplies.
Making a Killing Off Scarcity

The Jan. 5 FAO monthly Food Prices Index showed record prices for food commodities (Figures 2-3). The overall index for 55 food commodities increased in December for the sixth straight month, and hit the highest ever level (relative to baseline 2002-04), exceeding the 2008 peak, which sparked riots in 30 countries. The increases were led by corn, sugar, vegetable oil, and meat.

The report shows 2006 prices hovering at about 120 in the index, with prices rising steadily through 2007, peaking at 213.5 in June 2008, then falling back. But that year-long increase has been matched and surpassed this year, at 214.7, in a mere six months, and is still climbing.

Corn and wheat futures prices have risen 50% from a year ago. In December, Mexico bought options for 4.2 million tons of imports, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for delivery next Fall.

National governments are trying to damp down food price inflation. India, now facing the highest food inflation in six months, has imposed a ban on exports of rice and wheat, and taken other measures (see article, p. 39). Food prices are rising at double-digit rates. For example, the price of onions—a staple vegetable—is up 33% over a year ago. In Indonesia, peppers cost more than 40% more than last year this time.

Speculators have moved in for the kill. The volume of futures trading in food commodities surged 23% in 2010, over 2009, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The Obama Administration's London-steered policy of mega-financial bailouts, and refusal to ban speculation, is sending waves of hot money onto agriculture futures exchanges.

Each day last year, an average of 908,021 agriculture commodities futures and options contracts changed hands at the CME, compared with 737,063 in 2009. November 2010 set a record for 1.26 million contracts traded. December, down some from that, was still up 36% in trading volume over December 2009.

In December 2010, the American Feed Industry Association appealed to Congress to intervene to at least impose position-limits on traders. CEO Joel Newman singled out "Wall Street banks" as putting huge amounts of money into the commodity markets, and causing ruin for actual food operations.

Finally, there are the mega-profits posted by the cartel commodity and trading companies. This month, Cargill reported that its earnings were up a whopping 74% for June-November, the first half of its fiscal year, over the same time a year earlier. The figures were $1.53 billion, up from $878 million the year before.

In the first 24 hours of speculative mania after the Jan. 12 USDA world report on food shortages, share prices jumped up for Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, ADM, and others of the imperial networks committed to profiteering off genocide.

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