Let China eat corn and Americans starve= Capitalism

[lovuian]

Capitalism at its finest

http://www.moneynews.com/Markets/AS-China-Corn/2011/10/14/id/414491#ixzz1b3G3vv4l

China has made one of its biggest-ever purchases of corn on overseas markets, buying 900,000 metric tons of American corn and showing that growing Chinese demand will play an ever larger role in global grain prices.

The country was a net exporter of corn until 2009 but is now struggling to keep up with growing demand for the grain — which is mainly used in China as animal feed — as incomes increase and people eat more meat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that China had made the purchase, which comes despite an expected record grain harvest in China this year. China's corn consumption probably totaled 176 million tons in the crop year that started Oct. 1, 2010, according to the department .

The purchase was necessary to help fill China's dwindling corn reserves, said Hanver Li, chairman of the market research firm Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Ltd., on Friday.


"In the long run, it should have a pretty big impact on global corn prices," Li said of the growing demand from China.

Corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade have increased about 70 percent over the past two years though have eased from near record highs in June.

So what this means when America is in a sever drought and alfalfa prices and other grains are at peak prices
Our government sits back and watches China scarf up 900,000 tons of corn

So Americans when times get tough which it will
You just starve that is the Capitalist way

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. The American mega-rich know they can move from the U.S. if things get bad. They don't care.

They will throw anyone under the bus, even the people of the country they're from, in order to get ever-richer.

[lovuian]

2. I can't believe during these severe drought times and

precarious times that the US allows a foreign country to take 900,000 tons of corn

when Americans are struggling to put food on the table...Grain prices are going to escalate
my only satisfaction is that most of the Corn is GMO

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. It's sickening, isn't it? Yes, at least they're getting GMO-toxic corn and not good corn nt

[lovuian]

8. Obama needs to halt the sale

Congress needs to halt the sale

Enjoy China its all GMO corn...

[flamingdem]

22. It's primarily for animal consumption nt

[white_wolf]

9. You want to know what is really sickening?

We produce enough food to keep every single person on this planet well fed and yet much of it is wasted in pursuit of profit. No one should go hungry, no matter what country they are from. Not when we produce so much.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. It's truly revolting. Unbridled capitalism is against humanity. nt

[lovuian]

12. I agree noone should go hungry especially not Americans

when we have so much and yet Americans are going hungry

this is going to make gas and food prices skyrocket

Do we allow a country to take our food because they can pay the higher price ....Capitalism

this is an example of how Capitalism endangers the security of a country
We allowed China to take our jobs and now have a huge trade deficit with them
Now these countries can buy our food and land and technology on the cheap

China knows feeding a huge population is a high priority
our stupid Capitalists don't get it
Marie Antoinette didn't get it
and the US Congress doesn't get it


but they will get it when the hungry come to Congress....Perhaps they should read history books
With the disasters America has faced in Climate change they give 900,000 tons to China

[white_wolf]

3. To quote Jefferson:

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Granted, I'm not patriotic either, but I don't claim to be and lack of patriotism comes from a completely different source than the global capitalists. Mine is more in line with Paine's "The world is my country" sentiments.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. Brilliantly on point! I'm going to use this quote on my e-mail as signature. nt

[WinkyDink]

33. Or they can stay here, and buy the best from wherever.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

35. Exactly. And live in compounds, safe from those they starved. nt

[TexasProgresive]

5. That's a familiar ploy

Ship meat and grain out of Ireland an let the Irish starve on rotten potatoes. Capitalism at its best.:sarcasm:

[lovuian]

6. Alfafa Prices have skyrocketed for animal feed

Texas has none for their animals Oklahoma is bought out and now Missouri's is being bought up

I thought Congress was going to act on this China situation
and it seems China knew it and scooped up the grain

This is going to be a terrible price to be pain for all Americans

Capitalism is an endangerment to a population

[msongs]

11. don't eat dead animals, save some $$ too nt

[NashVegas]

17. Just Watch. Just Wait

Now that GM alfalfa is on the market, the price of your organic milk and organically-raised beef is going to shoot through the roof.

[TexasProgresive]

38. Alfalfa is being bought up by the Japanese

To feed their Kolbe beef- If I spelled that right. You know the super expensive steaks that are so marbled you can have a heart attack just looking at one.

[madrchsod]

13. three years ago they bought our surplus for fuel

i bet they are doing the same this year.

[AngkorWot]

14. I'm not entirely sure why selling American products to China is a bad thing.

But I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an economist.

[white_wolf]

15. One reason is that we have millions starving in this country.

We shouldn't be selling food abroad while people go hungry at home. Hell, we shouldn't be selling food. No one should lack the necessities for life.

[AngkorWot]

16. We do?

Here I was thinking that obesity was a ridiculous problem in the states, and mostly do to the dirt cheap prices of corn.

[white_wolf]

18. Take a drive through to your local homeless shleter and you'll see people starving.

Hell, just take a drive through a poor area of town and you'll see a lot of hungry people, especially children. Hell, sometimes the only meal poor children can get is out school.

[AngkorWot]

19. No, you'll see people hungry.

That's rather different than people starving.

[DainBramaged]

23. One las point before I stop trying to make you smarter, know why food stamps are at record high usag...

BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD THE HIGH FUCKING PRICES FOR FOOD ON THE MEAGER SALARIES THEY MAKE THANKS TO THE ONE FUCKING PERCENT.


Give us all a break.

[AngkorWot]

25. So you're saying the poor are buying food.

Then we agree.

[WinkyDink]

34. "STARVING" has a particular definition. See: N. Korea. We do not have "starving" here. People aren't

eating dirt and tree bark.

[DainBramaged]

20. No, the problem is access to shitty sugar and starch laced food causing obesity

corn hasn't been 'dirt cheap' since before the ethanol scam. And thanks to High Fructose Corn Syrup and fast food,and the fracturing of the family unit, America lost the ability to cook. When was the last time your family sat down to a home-cooked meal, Thanksgiving???


It pays to become educated.

[AngkorWot]

21. Where do you think High Fructose Corn Syrup comes from?

Hint: it's not sugar cane.

[DainBramaged]

24. We're done

I don't believe you are one of us, not by a long shot.

[AngkorWot]

26. I support corn farmers selling their corn to China.

If you don't believe in that, it's no skin off my back.

[lovuian]

47. Do you support the farmer's government subsidies too?

We the American people give the farmers subsidies so they can sell their corn to the highest bidder China

[AngkorWot]

51. I'm not against it.

The corn farmer's kids have to eat.

[lovuian]

56. I didn't think you would be

I want the farmer's kids to eat too
but I'm not for subsidies

[Name removed]

65. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Autumn]

37. Corn is cheap?

Not in my world it isn't.

[AngkorWot]

40. Are you talking about the price of corn on the cob at the grocery store?

Because I'm talking about commodities.

[Autumn]

49. No I'm talking about corn for feeding my animals

that has gone sky high.

[lovuian]

54. I know some farmers in Missouri who are being crushed

by the high feed costs

[Autumn]

59. The cost of corn and oats has gone up

and beet pulp is getting ridiculous.

[lovuian]

62. thanks Autumn

I think the papers telling us that everything is ok is NOT REALITY
Texas is a big cattle state and we have scorched earth
there is no alfafa to be had here and none in Oklahoma

I heard Joplin is the closest place to by alfafa

and the prices go up and up

[Autumn]

67. I was through Texas last week

it looked bad. Broke my heart. My hay supplier is getting hay from Kansas now and it is not good hay I'm not happy with it at all. I came home through parts of Oklahoma and they were baling a lot of hay, it looked like maybe a third cutting so I told my supplier she should look there, but if they are selling it to the big suppliers that sucks.

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. We have more than enough food to feed every American

[treestar]

64. Because of joblessness

So wouldn't it be better if we were doing more exporting?

The Chinese are "taking" jobs, but if they start buying, that can even out.

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. Know what else is capitalism?

Turning corn into ethanol and high fructose corn syrup. Paid for by government subsidies, no less.

[jwirr]

28. Read your headline and immediately thought about the Irish/English

relationship during the potato famine. Food was exported to England while the Irish either starved of immigrated. Economy should be local.

[no_hypocrisy]

29. They spent all that money on GM corn?

Whoa

[socialist_n_TN]

30. To paraphrase a Bill Clinton campaign slogan

It's the system stupid. Capitalism must go. It's outlived it's usefulness.

[WinkyDink]

32. Beef. It's what should not be for dinner.

[pampango]

36. Us vs. Them, baby. Feed "us"-goooood. Feed "them"-baaaaad.

This is essence of the nationalist vs internationalist views of the world. Historically republicans have leaned towards the former; Democrats towards the latter. Perhaps not any more.

People who live in small countries know they have no choice but to be "internationalists" since their fates depend so much on their interactions with the rest of the world. People from big, powerful countries grow up knowing that if the rest of the world pisses them off, "going it alone" is a viable option.

[BOG PERSON]

39. we export a shit-ton of corn, 900,000 tons is not that much

still, there's no reason china can't be agriculturally self-sufficient. also feeding all that grain to livestock is sort of a waste of food.

[EdMaven]

42. They're the second-largest corn producer in the world. And the US not only feeds its

corn to animals, it makes fuel out of it.

[EdMaven]

41. The US grew 331 million metric tons of corn in 2010. This purchase = < 1% of that.

The United States grew 39 percent of the world's corn in fiscal year 2010, producing 331 million (that's 331,000,000) metric tons (12.1 billion bushels).

Other major corn producing countries in 2009/2010 included:

* China -158 million metric tons (6.2 billion bushels)
* European Union - 57.1 million metric tons (2.25 billion bushels)
* Brazil- 56.1 million metric tons (2.2 billion bushels)
* Argentina - 22.5 million metric tons (886 million bushels)
* Mexico - 20.3 million metric tons (799 million bushels)
* India - 16.7 million metric tons (657 million bushels)



http://www.grains.org/corn

Plenty to be upset about but I don't think this is high on the list myself. It's not even a million tons and is less than they bought last year. Chart above is thousands of tons.

[Rex]

43. Thank you.

When put that way...it seems like sensationalism.

[EdMaven]

44. yep. notice how they say "one of its biggest ever" like it's some really

outrageous purchase.

except last years' was bigger by about 300,000 tons & the sky did not fall.

not to mention that it's a fraction of total us production to begin with.

the us grows more corn than it can feed to people, make into corn syrup, feed to animals and turn into fuel. it's a subsidy for companies like cargill & adm, basically. we sell corn below cost sometimes in order to undercut growers in other countries & destroy their agricultural sector, so everyone will eventually have to buy from the big boys.

we're drowning in corn. no one is going to starve for lack of corn as things stand now.

just ramping up the anti-china hype and/or preparing the masses for another speculation frenzy. "no, it's not us jacking up prices with our money games, it's those damned chinese! they're buying all the corn!"

and everybody believes it & nobody checks the public information on production, sales, and stores. it's readily available and goes a long way to debunk the crap coming out of the finance sector.

in the last two of the supposed global "food shortages," they were the real cause. there were no shortages, there were price hikes due to speculation.

occupy the bastards & jail them, imo.

[lovuian]

45. I'll write down the price of corn at the supermarket today

and get back to you in 6 months

will see what the price is

I think you missed the point that China is now a major player in global grain markets


The article is making the point that China even with one of the best harvest of corn still needed more
there is a major demand all over the world for corn

and this is just the beginning of these small purchases of corn as you call it

I don't mind China buying the corn but if that means ethanol and food prices at the grocery store go up and up
making Americans suffer higher food prices

The question being asked is do we sell corn to the highest bidder leaving the American population suffering higher prices
It is Ireland's famine when there was none....because the English wanted the grain
Ireland's food ended up in the English bellies...meanwhile the people starved because they couldn't pay the prices

[AngkorWot]

46. Why not just check the markets?

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/futures/

You know, some people keep track of commodities across history. Corn's been having a small local upswing over the last few years, but is generally been about the same since the eighties. That was after a long, steady, deep decline since the fifties.

"It is Ireland's famine when there was none"

Ireland isn't a very good comparison because there was, you know, an actual famine.

[lovuian]

52. Historians have proven Ireland famine was Capitalism

It had the best crop production but their food was shipped to England

The people starved because they didn't have the money to buy food
the Capitalist won

The Irish famine of the 1840s is a great example of free market economics gone horribly wrong. The land owners had plenty of food, the country was very wealthy but the Irish remained poor (60 years prior to the famine, they were officially 2nd class citizens), and thus the food was exported to countries with populations that could pay a higher price to buy it.
Government stayed out of it because it was the market in action, and was forbidden by law to force them to sell it to the Irish.

this is Capitalism

[AngkorWot]

55. Um. It was potato blight.

Also, people actually starved to death. Lots of people.

[EdMaven]

57. it was potato blight *and* capitalism. england did ship food out of ireland during the famine.

it was food that was not the peasants' typical fare, as it was out of their price range. they also shipped wool out -- food acreage turned over to sheep pasture for that higher-profit commodity.

but none of that has anything to do with the present situation. there is no famine in the us & there is an abundance of corn. 2009 was a record, for example.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A larger corn crop is easing concerns of a grain shortage and could slow food inflation later this year.

The U.S. Agriculture Department estimated Tuesday that 880 million bushels of corn will be left over when the harvest begins in the fall. That's an increase from the previous estimate of 730 million bushels.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/US-Corn-supplies-jump-easing-shortage-worries-1462244.php#ixzz1b5UDEQvU

[lovuian]

58. Here is some historical quotes on Ireland's famine by Capitalism

Queen Victoria's economist, Nassau Senior, expressed his fear that existing policies "will not kill more than one million Irish in 1848 and that will scarcely be enough to do much good."
When an eye-witness urged a stop to the genocide-in-progress, Trevelyan replied: "We must not complain of what we really want to obtain." Trevelyan insisted that all reports of starvation were exaggerated, until 1847. He then declared it ended and refused entry to the American food relief ship Sorciére. Thomas Carlyle; influential British essayist, wrote; "Ireland is like a half-starved rat that crosses the path of an elephant. What must the elephant do? Squelch it - by heavens - squelch it." "Total Annihilation;" suggested The Times leader of September 2, 1846; and in 1848 its editorialists crowed "A Celt will soon be as rare on the banks of the Shannon as the red man on the banks of Manhattan."

Capitalism at its finest

I'm just saying who makes the judgement call that America has enough in their food reserves to feed their people
Capitalism makes that call?

[EdMaven]

61. same people who always did; have you been complaining about it the whole while?

we export about half our corn crop. have you seen many people starving?

americans actually eat a very small percent of the corn crop. animal feed is the #1 use.

http://www.grist.org/phpThumb/phpThumb.php?src=&w=307

[lovuian]

60. Thanks for that ...let us hope that statistic isn't a lie

"Could slow food inflation"...there is that word "Could"

guess we will have to wait and see won't we
This is China's first big purchase and there will be more and more to come

[EdMaven]

66. if you're interested in confirming the stats, you can check them against usda's

numbers & the numbers coming out of the various un food agencies. there are also some private databases.

it's not some big secret information.

maybe they're all lying, but that would mean the farmers responsible for production decisions are getting the same fake info.

[EdMaven]

48. i think you missed that the purchase is less than last year's & less than 1% of US

production.

also the part about how just because the price goes up doesn't mean it's because the chinese bought out the crop.

in fact, i think you didn't read my post at all.

so please do "write down the price" and get back to me if it goes up. i'll compare it with production & sales data, as any responsible person would, before i start talking about people starving because the chinese are eating all the food.

what makes you think the chinese just started buying food on the global market in the last few years anyway? they bought food under mao.

Canada may not recognize Red China diplomatically, but it knows a good customer when it sees one. Last week Canada's Minister of Agriculture Alvin Hamilton announced the biggest one-shot grain sale in Canadian history: over the next 2½ years, Communist China will buy 233.4 million bu. of wheat and barley worth $362 million. The sale brought famine-suffering Red China from nowhere to second place (barely behind Britain) among Canada's grain customers.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869885,00.html

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869885,00.html#ixzz1b5Qfk7SO


speculation & hype to run up prices. not the chinese.

[Fuzz]

50. I see conservatives on tv lament how dictators are so horrible to let people starve, yet

capitalism does that all the time. We have enough farm land in the world to feed everyone, just not the will.

[Little Star]

53. One of the worst things ever, Corporate Farming!!! n/t

[treestar]

63. Isn't the trade imbalance part of the problem?

This would improve that.