Censored 2012 (12 page)

Moberg attributed the rise in malnutrition to climate change and the rise in food prices, referencing an October 2010 FAO report from the
Committee on World Food Security that claimed climate change will affect, “the livelihoods, food security, and way of life of billions of people.” The FAO committee concluded, “climate change multiplies existing threats and … increases the vulnerability … to food insecurity.”
¹⁹

However, the FAO committee determined that the single greatest factor in the current food crisis is not the threat of global warming, or the diversion of 40 percent of US corn into biofuels, which has been problematic. The number one threat to food security worldwide, and the cause of much of the world’s food shortages and starvation, turns out to be bad policies and unregulated free-market speculation. While there is no lack of food, millions of people die each year from malnutrition and starvation as a result of decades-old bad policies that have allowed multinational corporations and Wild West speculators to enter food staples into commodities markets.

“By contrast,” Moberg wrote, “many countries, civil society groups, environmentalists, advocates for the poor, and representatives of peasants and small farmers say that food should be treated as a human right. And countries should strive for food security and as much self-sufficiency as can reasonably be achieved, as Karen Lehman, former senior fellow at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, argues.”

The primary conclusion from the October 2010 FAO report is that government policies that have led to mismanaged and unregulated trade systems have resulted in less self-sufficiency and less food security globally. The report states that increased volatility created by free-market speculators “threatens farm viability (low prices), food security (high prices), undermines investment decisions, and threatens domestic security and political stability.” As Tim Wise—director of the Research and Policy Program for Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute—illuminated in Moberg’s article, “The big picture about rising food prices is that one of the things that globalization has done is increasingly to put food reserves in private hands.… You get speculation and hoarding if people feel there’s a shortage of supply.”

Moberg’s article concluded by pointing out that “new global investments in agriculture derivatives reached $2.6 billion in December 2010, double the level a year earlier.” He then suggested immediate
limits on financial speculators in commodity future index derivatives—and ultimately a complete ban on such agricultural derivatives. In addition, he suggested that individual countries and even local communities go back to maintaining their own food reserves and demand the domestic freedom to control their own food polices, in order to assure self-sufficiency.

In a related and underreported story, world food prices have now hit a record high. An article published on Common Dreams via Agence France-Presse, on March 3, 2011, reported that the FAO has partly blamed the eight consecutive months of increased food prices on the fact that oil exports from Libya were cut between “850,000 and one million barrels per day.” According to the FAO, “higher oil prices affect all aspects of the food production chain, from fertilizer to transport.”
²⁰

As in the US, global poverty rates rose substantially. Another article that caught Project Censored’s attention was first reported in November 2010 by Agence France-Presse, who declared that global poverty has doubled since 1970. According to Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the failure of the least-developed countries (LDCs) in the world is a result of the International Monetary Fund’s free-trade model of development policy, which needs to be reassessed.

Searching corporate media on articles addressing both food waste and the true rising costs of food came up blank.
The New York Times
has noted the rise in food costs but has also glossed over the reasons that prices are increasing. In May 2011, the
Washington Post
hosted a Future of Food conference at Georgetown University, which featured over thirty speakers including Prince Charles, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, top chefs, and experts in food policy, distribution, organic farming, and nutrition. Yet, judging from the excerpts provided by the
Washington Post
for each of the speakers, not a single speaker addressed the problem of free-market speculators affecting the price of food. Nor, for that matter, was the subject of food waste presented in any substantial measure at the Future of Food conference.
²¹

In contrast to the US, where the cost of food has decreased, food in the LDCs often comprises more than half of an individual’s cost of living. Panitchpakdi explained, “What happened is that in the past thirty
to forty years, the number of LDCs have doubled so it [the situation] has actually deteriorated, the number of people living under the poverty line has doubled from the 1980s.”
²²
Oxfam International’s report recently declared that the planet is entering an era of so-called “permanent food crisis” where the price of food is likely to double by 2030.

In fact, the May 2011 annual report stated, “LDCs’ share of the global population living in extreme poverty has doubled since 1990.” This is a dramatically darker picture than what Panitchpakdi expressed in November. The UNCTAD report also stated that, “Using the World Bank data, the overall trend remains the same: the share of the global population living in extreme poverty which is located in LDCs increased from 18% in 1990 to 30% in 2005.” By 2007, that number increased to 36 percent.
²³

The earthquake-ravaged nation of Haiti is one LDC that is not only fighting the problem of increased poverty, but now has to contend with predatory multinationals attempting to make a buck on Haiti’s misfortunes. There is perhaps no more egregious example of the predatory business dealings than US-based agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto’s so-called “gift” to Haiti in May of 2010: a donation of sixty tons of corn and vegetable hybrid seed.

According to an in-depth report on the Monsanto “gift” by Haiti Grassroots Watch, “Among the dangers presented, the Environmental Justice Institute for Haiti, the National Lawyers Guild–Environmental Justice Committee and the Lawyers Earthquake Response Network noted that, ‘The unrestricted flow of seeds from outside the country presents a high risk that plant pathogenic organisms or their vectors will be introduced.’ ”

The report added that the organizations also deplored the use of “large quantities of commercial hybrid seeds,” which necessitate “purchase of new seeds the following year,” as well as the uncontrolled use of dangerous chemicals that “present risk for contamination of Haiti’s scarce water and food supply.”
²⁴
Haiti Grassroots Watch pointed out that the hybrid seeds require additional water and fertilizers. Plus, nearly 90 percent of the seeds are coated with a fungicide that is hazardous and should be handled with gloves and a gas mask. The label found on one bag of hybrid maize read, “DO NOT use treated seed for animal or human consumption.… DO NOT allow treated seed to
contaminate grain or other seed intended for animal or human consumption. DO NOT feed treated seed, or otherwise expose, to wild or domestic birds.”

Yet, Haiti Grassroots Watch located farmers who had received hybrid seeds. They found sacks of maize and vegetable seeds in an open shed with children playing just outside. Inside the shed, coated pink maize seeds were spilled out onto the floor along with other seeds. Haiti Grassroots Watch reported, “Asked about the open sacks of seed, Farmer [the interviewed farmer] said [the] Association intended to grind up the sorghum and maize seed for chicken feed because it was ‘expired’ (although there were no dates on the sacks).”

One month after the May 2010 donation, the nation’s largest farmers’ movement, Papaya Farmers, held a demonstration during which about ten thousand Haitian farms symbolically burned maize seed in protest.

While all or most of the independent media sites represented in this news summary—AlterNet, Common Dreams, as well as
Truthout
—covered the Monsanto deal in Haiti, the independent
Mother Jones
and pretty much all of the corporate media outlets appeared to have completely avoided reporting on the issue.

One of the most effective ways the media—either corporate or independent—censor news is by simply not reporting on the stories. But one aspect of the economy that had some traction in corporate media was the corruption in the banking system. While the US government has done virtually nothing to criminally prosecute the individuals involved in writing fraudulent, predatory, subprime home loans, or the securities traders that misrepresented bundled derivatives, corporate media have put a good deal of ink on the page regarding these scandals.

For example, in May 2011 the
Washington Post
published an Associated Press article covering the growing shareholder protests at Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase over their roles in the foreclosure crisis
²⁵
—though a search of the
Washington Post
website in June 2011 showed the story to be no longer available. Also in May 2011, the
New York Times
published a Bloomberg News piece revealing that JPMorgan Chase was negotiating a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is currently investigating how mortgage-linked securities were packaged and sold. The article reported that, as with Goldman Sachs, the SEC is looking for a deal in
which JPMorgan Chase admits it made some mistakes and pays a relatively small fine.
²⁶

On top of the securities investigation and the home foreclosure scandal, JPMorgan Chase finds itself in another civil and criminal investigation. In February 2011, the
New York Times
reported on a civil suit brought against JPMorgan involving Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Apparently, the bank had been Madoff’s primary bank since 1986, and legal documents revealed that internal investigations by two high-level risk management officers had already previously suggested that Madoff’s numbers did not add up. As a result of JPMorgan’s own analyses, the bank withdrew from Madoff-linked hedge funds all but $35 million of the once $276 million it had invested. Yet, JPMorgan maintained Madoff’s accounts up until Madoff’s arrest. Essentially, the bank had denied any knowledge of Madoff’s fraud, though the risk management reports suggested the bank had turned a blind eye to the crime.
²⁷

The question not being asked by the corporate media is, “Why are the banks getting bailouts and not jail time?” After $700 billion in government bailouts, the banking industry logged record profits in 2011. In January 2011, JPMorgan reported a record year in profits, up 48 percent from the previous year. While billions of dollars in bonuses are being handed out to the very same executives that created the Great Recession, foreclosures, poverty, and hunger are on the rise. As reported by the independent media site Think Progress, CEO bonuses rose nearly 20 percent, while unemployment and wages remained stagnant. Income inequality in the US is now the highest since the Great Depression.
²⁸
With all the money going into the political coffers of both the Democratic and Republican parties, it should be apparent why the real problems with the free-market system and growing worldwide inequality is underreported, or simply not covered in the corporate media.

1
. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table A-15. Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization,”
The Employment Situation
, United States Department of Labor, June 3, 2011,
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
.

2
. Greg Hunter, “9% Unemployment Rate is a Statistical Lie,” Information Clearing House, February 7, 2011,
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27435.htm
.

3
. Hunter, “Flying Blind,” USA Watchdog, March 9, 2011.
http://usawatchdog.com/unemployment-rate-flying-blind/
.

4
.
Motoko Rich, “Encouraging Numbers, at First Glance,”
New York Times
, May 13, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/business/economy/14unemployed.html
.

5
. “Poverty,” United States Census Bureau, September 16, 2010,
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html
.

6
. Christine Vestal, “Collapse in Living Standards in America: More Poverty by Any Measure,” Global Research, July 14, 2010,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20124
.

7
. Scott Rasmussen, “Importance of Issues: Economy, Health Care, Taxes Continue to Be Top Issues for Voters,” Rasmussen Reports, April 15, 2011,
http://www.ras-mussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/importance_of_issues
.

8
. C. Alonzo Peters, “To Hell With Student Loans—It’s Time for College to Be Free,” AlterNet, November 18, 2010,
http://www.alternet.org/economy/148918/to_hell_with_student_loans_–_it%27s_time_for_college_to_be_free
.

9
. Jennifer Cheeseman Day and Eric C. Newburger, “The Big Payoff: Education Attainments and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings,” United States Census Bureau, July 2002,
http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf
.

10
. Brittany Bardin, Gabrielle Vono, and Christan Zbytniewski, “Student Loan Debt: Indentured Servitude,” Project Censored, December 19, 2010,
http://www.mediafreedominternational.org/2010/12/19/student-loan-debt-indentured-servitude/
.

11
. Tamar Lewin, “Burden of College Debt on Graduates Grows,”
New York Times
, April 12, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/education/12college.html
.

12
. Michelle Singletary, “Higher Education: Right or Privilege?”
Washington
Post, May 18, 2011,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-color-of-money/2011/05/18/AFrw8h6G_story.html
.