Wheat Crisis Threatens Inflationary Timebomb, Food Riots

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, August 9, 2010

Russia’s ban on wheat exports following widespread fires in the country sent food prices skyrocketing by 19 per cent in just a single week as fears grow that global volatility in foodstuffs and commodities could lead to a worldwide inflationary timebomb accompanied by widespread food riots.

Lenin once called grain the “currency of currencies,” underscoring its importance in how it affects everything from staple foods such as bread to animal feed.

On Thursday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree prohibiting the export of wheat, barley, rye, corn and flour until the end of the year, contributing to a whopping 92 per cent rise in world wheat prices since June.

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Persistent drought conditions across the Russian Federation are also threatening winter plantings, “With potentially serious implications for world wheat supplies in 2011/12,” according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Food shortages as a result of freak weather conditions in other areas of the globe are also contributing to spiraling prices.

- Droughts in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, two of the world’s great “breadbaskets” are also impacting prices.

- Floods in Canada have further reduced wheat supply and driven up costs.

- Unseasonal frosts in Florida have hit orange juice harvests.

- Devastating floods in Pakistan have wiped away livestock and farms, with thousands of square miles of agricultural land destroyed, causing prices of staple foods to soar.

- Excessive rain in Brazil and Colombia has inflated coffee prices.

- Rising grain feedstock prices have led to a general spike in meat prices globally.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

According to the London Independent, the crisis threatens to spark an “inflationary timebomb,” wreaking fiscal devastation to fragile economies in the west, while threatening the very livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries.

“Taken together it suggests that Western nations will be hit by a sharp inflationary spike next year, as the price of bread, beer, petrol and many other everyday items climbs higher again. Given the sluggish prospects for growth in Western economies it threatens a return to “stagflation” – stagnant growth coupled with high inflation,” states the report.”

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Global hedge funds are now moving to corner the food and commodities market, with hedge fund manager Anthony Ward investing a purported £650m ($1 billion dollars) in the cocoa market by buying 240,000 tonnes of beans, enough to make 5 billion chocolate bars. Financial speculation on food prices has amplified volatile prices.

Globalist mouthpiece the Financial Times concedes that “another food crisis does not look out of the question,” as a result of Russia’s wheat export ban, noting that food riots occurred in developing countries two years ago amidst similar conditions.

Allied with proposed consumption taxes on carbon dioxide, spikes in sales taxes, income tax bracket hikes, gas price increases, crippling austerity measures, and the sinking U.S. dollar, skyrocketing food prices will serve to further financially castrate Americans, achieving the elite’s goal of eviscerating the middle class by forcing them to adopt lower standards of living and becoming more dependent on big government for their sustenance and survival.

This article was posted: Monday, August 9, 2010 at 7:27 am

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