Cargill warns on self-sufficiency

[Javaman]

The drive towards self-sufficiency in response to last year's food crisis will fail, a top executive at Cargill has warned, adding that the idea that countries "can be self-sufficient in every single food is a nonsense".

The warning by the world's largest trader of agricultural commodities comes ahead of next Monday's UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome, the first since 2002. The summit was prompted by the surge in the price of staples such as rice and wheat, which last year hit record highs, sparking food riots in countries from Bangladesh to Haiti.

Countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have moved towards self-sufficiency in response to the crisis, either by boosting agricultural production at home through subsidies and import tariffs or acquiring overseas farmland.

The so-called "farmland grabs" gained notoriety after an attempt by South Korea's Daewoo Logistics to secure a huge chunk of farmland in Madagascar, which contributed to the collapse of the African country's government.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3c4f7322-cd9a-11de-8162-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

>why am I just a little suspect of an agra-corp being the voice to tell us don't farm?<

[Craftsman]

1. Cargill warns on self-sufficiency, due to the fact it will harm their profits

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Shut up and eat your mutant food-product facsimile." - Cargill

Ptooey.

[booley]

3. What a surprise!

A huge corporation is warning us not to do something.. that coincidently would hurt their profit margins.

[glitch]

4. Resistance is Fertile.

:evilgrin:

[roody]

5. +1

[Sinti]

6. Oh, you're just being paranoid

:sarcasm:

Seriously, start a garden in spring if you have the space. Start a garden indoors if not. Even in an apartment you can grow quite a bit of food in planters. Use heritage seeds, so when your plants give you seed you can plant those seeds and grow more food. These people don't give a damn about life. They don't want food security for nations, because they won't make money if we think differently about our food.

Food security = National security. You can't have one without the other.

[Javaman]

7. My mission is to start a seed coop.

No one seems to be doing that at any of the farmers markets.

So I'm saving my seeds from my garden, hopefully, I'll have enough to sell next year at this time.

[Sinti]

8. Excellent idea

It would be good for all of us to remember what gives us life. People are always shocked that I save seeds from my vegetables and flowers. They're like, "really, you can do that?" Of course I just nod, while my mind is going "where do you think seeds come from?"

Here's a few links from other seed banks. They have seeds, of course, but also a lot of information and are a friendly resource to the whole notion. :)

http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://www.victoryseeds.com/project_seedbank.html
http://www.seedstrust.com/

[Javaman]

9. Thanks for the links! :) Cheers! nt

[kestrel91316]

10. "Every country cannot be self-sufficient in every food, therefore

no country should make any attempt whatsoever to become self-sufficient in ANY food."

Ok, Cargill. Makes perfect sense to me......

:sarcasm:

[joshcryer]

11. It's obscene. With hydroponics *all* countries can grow *all* foods.

No more importing bananas from banana republics, no more importing coffee from coffee republics, etc. The world would be better off if it wasn't so agriculturally interdependent.