VENEZUELA'S FOOD SHORTAGE. HOW IT COULD HAPPEN IN AMERICA

Empty shelves, a common sight in Venezuela.

This is a typical lineup of Venezuelans trying to buy food.

Mar 7, 2015, Video Source:CNN

September, 2013, the Guardian, UK:
Toilet paper, rice and coffee have long been missing from stores, as Venezuelan president blames CIA plot for chronic shortages.

According to President Nicolás Maduro, the food shortages are being artificially induced by the opposition.
He claims they form part of wider plan concocted by the CIA to destabilise his government, sabotage the oil industry and trigger power cuts.

In 2008, when there was another serious wave of food scarcity, most people blamed shop owners for hoarding food as a mechanism to exert pressure on the government's price controls, a measure that former president Hugo Chávez adopted as part of his self-styled socialist revolution.
This time, however, food shortages have gone on for almost a year and certain items long gone from the shelves are hitting a particular nerve with Venezuelans. Toilet paper, rice, coffee, and cornflour, used to make arepas, Venezuela's national dish, have become emblematic of more than just an economic crisis.

"We used to produce rice and we had excellent coffee; now we produce nothing. With the situation here people abandoned the fields," says Jesús López, in reference to government-seized land that sits idle. 

 "Empty shelves and no one to explain why a rich country has no food. It's unacceptable," adds the 90-year-old farmer from San Cristóbal.

"Other than oil, we produce close to nothing, and even oil production has decreased. There is a lack of hard currency, and, in a country that imports everything, this becomes more evident with food scarcity," says Asdrubal Oliveros, an economist at Ecoanalítica, one of the country's leading consulting firms.

For Oliveros, an additional cause for the shortage of basic food staples is the decrease in agricultural production resulting from seized companies and land expropriations. 

"More than 3m hectares were expropriated during 2004-2010. That and overvalued exchange rate destroyed agriculture. It's cheaper to import than it is to produce. That's a perverse model that kills off any productivity," he says.

Last month, the Venezuelan government admitted it just does not have enough food to feed its population, but this problem has been going on for years there.
A recent report by the Spanish newspaper ABC highlights the struggle the average Venezuelan endures to acquire basic goods like butter, oil, and flour. 

“Five hours in line to buy a chicken; kicks, pushes, and blows of all kinds to be one of the fortunate ones to enter the supermarket and get away with a bag of flour or rice, basic goods that Venezuela does not have available to everyone, unfortunately.” It notes that many Venezuelans have used their cell phones to take videos of the violence now common in supermarkets:

The socialist government has proposed few solutions to this crisis. 

Last month, President Maduro insisted that those struggling to find basic foods should develop urban farming skills, claiming that all the eggs eaten in his household come from chickens he and First Lady Cilia Flores own.

Most recently, Maduro blamed American officials for allegedly prompting a violent supermarket riot in which the fight for bags of flour left one dead.
Julio Borges, the opposition legislator at the forefront of the new emergency initiative, is demanding the National Assembly investigate government-held food corporations to ensure they are working efficiently.

 “We used to be a self-sufficient country, making basic products like white corn; today our arepas don’t have the pride of being Venezuelan, instead they are made with Mexican corn… we used to be self-sufficient on rice, and now we bring it in from the United States,” Borges lamented.

Legislator Héctor Rodríguez has insisted that the economic emergency “does absolutely nothing,” and the government should impose itself on private enterprises.

Another socialist legislator, Ricardo Molina, is calling for the government to expropriate Polar, Venezuela’s largest private food corporation: “we have to intervene on private sector enterprises.”
Venezuela previously forced a Polar food distribution center in Caracas to shut down in July, putting 12,000 tons of food, six million liters of soft drinks, and 2,000 jobs at risk."

September 21, 2015 
February 2014 was the last time the Venezuelan government released official figures concerning the lack of basic products in the country.
However, thanks to a leaked study conducted by the Office of the Vice President, Venezuelans are now learning their government’s own account of the shortage crisis.
The document, dated August 14 and released by local media on September 16, reveals that at least 15 food items and 26 cleaning and personal-care products are unavailable in Venezuelan stores. 

In most cases, the shortage rate surpasses 70 percent.
Although the document indicates that it is the 19th such study that the government has conducted in the country, it is the first to have been accessed by the press.

Researchers [conducting the study] could not locate baby diapers in 96 percent of the establishments observed, and only found toothpaste in 58 percent of those stores.


Óscar Meza, director of the Venezuelan Center for Documentation and Social Analysis (Cendas), tells the PanAm Post that the leak proves that the government has avoided disclosing the results of previous studies because they would expose their “failed socialist model.”
According to Meza, the government refuses to publicly recognize that the shortage problem even exists. He adds that studies like this further invalidate the notion of an “economic war,” since they demonstrate that state-run stores are equally affected by the shortage crisis.

Without corrective measures, Venezuelans are set to face “more hunger, hardships, and misery,” Meza warns.

On top of scarcity issues, Venezuelans must also deal with the rising cost of food.

On Thursday, September 17, Cendas reported that the monthly cost of an average Venezuelan family’s basic-food needs rose 19 percent in July. 

According to their estimates, a Venezuelan family must earn $65,013.54 Bs. — roughly 8.8 minimum-wage salaries — to cover their essentials.

Cendas also reports that the overall shortage rate in the country reached 36.2 percent in August, and says bread is the latest product to disappear from store shelves. According to Meza, of the 58 products that Cendas studied last month, 49 of them are scarce, including 21 products that are considered basic necessities.


DOES ALL OF THIS SOUND VAGUELY FAMILIAR?

Ever since the ancient Sumerians, nearly every great civilization has shared the same characteristics that made Sumeria a great power– being able to produce more than it consumes.

In fact, no society can survive without the ability to feed itself.
We’ve seen this throughout history. 

When the Sumerians’ complex , centrally-planned network of canals failed to adequately irrigate their farmland, their civilization quickly declined.

During the American Civil War, a large part of the Union’s strategy was to cut off the South from its food sources, and burn to the ground every acre of farmland they could find.

The French Revolution finally kicked off in 1789 because the nation could no longer feed itself… and people were starving.

What we called the "Arab Spring" as well as the current crisis in Syria arose from food shortages.

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Over the centuries, America became farmer to the world, exporting interminable quantities of food like a never-ending breadbasket.
But that trend peaked long ago.

Over the past five years, for example, the amount of farmland in the US has decreased by 5 million acres each year, often due to land development or aging farmers quitting the business.
This is equivalent to losing nearly one square mile of farmland every hour, or 9.5 acres per minute.

As America's population has grown, so has the demand on American farmers and ranchers.
Far fewer Americans today grow even a little of their own food as they did just 50 years ago.
Gone is the family garden.

Raising animals for meat production requires far more land per calorie than growing fruits, vegetables, and grains.
Today, we need more farmland per capita to meet food production at a time when the amount of farmland is in decline.

Demographers tell us that over 200,000 people will be present at the dinner table tonight who weren’t even alive yesterday.

And with over a billion people having been lifted out of poverty in the developing world (and more to follow), people are eating more food (and more resource intensive foods like meat) than ever before.

On top of all this are the water challenges that many parts of the world are experiencing. California is a great example.

For most crops, yields peaked long ago; in other words, human beings are already extracting the maximum amount of tons, kilos, bushels, etc. per acre.

Thanks to absurd government and monetary policy, we’re simultaneously seeing rising production costs, as well as idiotic incentives to turn food into inefficient fuel.

Add to the mix the subsidies which pay farmers to not grow anything at all.

WHY PAY FARMERS TO STOP GROWING WHEN AMERICA (AND THE WORLD) NEEDS MORE AND MORE FOOD?

WHY DIDN'T PRICES COME DOWN WHEN FUEL PRICES FELL?

WHY ARE SO MANY CROPS ALLOWED TO ROT IN FIELDS, IN ORCHARDS, AS WE SAW LAST YEAR, WHEN ALL THE WORLD DEPENDS ON THE USA FOR FOOD?
ARTIFICIALLY DRIVING UP FOOD COSTS

BLOOMBERG SPILLED THE BEANS ABOUT HOW MUCH FOOD IS OUT THERE, HOW LITTLE FARMERS ARE GETTING FOR IT, BUT FAILED TO EXPLAIN THE COST OF FOOD TO CONSUMERS.
BLOOMBERG IS WRONG ON WHAT A NICE BREAK POOR NATIONS ARE GETTING. THE SAME SKYROCKETING FOOD PRICES IS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON. EVERY NATION IS FEELING THE PINCH.

According to EVEN the World Bank, the rise in food prices is hardly an isolated event; worldwide, internationally traded food prices have risen again by a steep 4.0%.

The price of corn increased 12% and wheat.18% in 2015.  

Economists say that the increases came despite bumper crops and “continued projections of record grain harvests,” according to Business Insider.

ALL these troubling trends are all converging at the same time, suggesting a LONG-TERM rise in food prices, and, in some cases, even SHORTAGES.

In 2014, Timothy Richards, a professor of agribusiness at Arizona State University said that labor shortages (from fewer "illegal" workers in America now) work in tandem with other factors to create a difficult environment for farming. 

“It’s like a perfect storm,” he said, per CNBC. “We don’t have enough water or enough workers to pick crops. So much food is left in the fields. It’s just adding to the woes.”
Pasco farmer abandons asparagus field.

Florida farmers warn of impending crisis if undocumented workers taken away.
Florida farmers, worried that lawmakers could strip them of their largely undocumented workforce, are warning of an impending crisis in their fields.


FROM CALIFORNIA, HARDEST HIT BY DROUGHT.

"Despite the severity of the drought and California’s dominant market shares in many foods – especially fruits, vegetables and tree nuts – consumers saw only small food price effects last year and are unlikely to notice much price impact in 2015. "
 Translation...prices will not be dropping this year, either!
GO DO A GOOGLE SEARCH AND USE THE SEARCH TERM "BUMPER CROP 2015".
YOU'LL FIND FARMERS ALL OVER AMERICA BRAGGING ABOUT BUMPER CROPS OF EVERYTHING FROM CORN AND SOYBEANS TO BLUEBERRIES, PEACHES, AND EVEN TREE SEEDS LIKE ALMONDS AND PECANS.
 
American farmers COULD have kept up with demand, but could NOT find BUYERS for their crops, could not muster the required LABOR to bring the crops to market, or maybe they simply let some crops rot in those fields to help drive prices up so they can make a decent amount of money from America's "MIDDLE MEN"?

If those who buy American crops refuse to pay a decent price for vegetables and/or food animals, milk, staples, what alternative do American growers have?
They can't keep spending MORE to grow/raise food for us and keep getting LESS when the growing is done.

It seems to be a vicious cycle.
It is NOT the farmers, but those who buy for the grocery chains whom we have to blame on a "bottom line".
FLORIDA GROWERS BEMOANED THEIR BUMPER CROPS OF VEGETABLES, 2015
"It has been a hot winter in South Florida. Great if you’re a tourist, but not so good if you’re a farmer. The fields are overflowing with more fresh vegetables then growers say they can sell."

THEY GET PAID LESS, THEY SAY, BUT GROCERY STORES DO NOT PASS THOSE LOW PRICES ON TO THE CONSUMERS?
WHY NOT?
IF GROCERY CHAINS PAY LESS, WHY DO WE PAY MORE?
So what will happen?
Farming just does NOT pay well.
The hours are hard and long.
The rewards are less and less.

Smaller farms are selling out to mega-farms which produce lower quality food and then charge grocers more for it.

Small farms are being bought and then NOT farmed, becoming industrial sites or subdivisions, or just allowed to sit there, serving no purpose.
LESS COMPETITION MEANS HIGHER FOOD PRICES

"Perhaps the largest price pressure stemming from the processors and packagers (the intermediaries) in our food system is consolidation; that is, mergers and acquisitions. As we reported previously, Big Food’s consolidation often indirectly spells higher food prices as a result of a lack of competition in the marketplace.
Every time you visit a grocery store, mini mart, or coffee shop, you’re most likely handing your money over to a member of a powerful food corporation that has quietly and efficiently —  along with a few others — become one of the largest, most powerful, and most damaging in America. Because of that, our food choices have become increasingly narrow, as the industry is dominated by a small handful of companies.
ISN'T THAT ONE THING THAT VENEZUELA EXPERIENCED UNDER SOCIALISM?
AS "THE STATE" CONTROLLED MORE AND MORE, PRODUCTION DROPPED AS WELL.
AS FEWER AND FEWER CONTROLLED THE MAJORITY OF FOOD PRODUCTION, SHELVES STARTED EMPTYING.

HAVE A LOOK AT HOW OUR CONGRESS HAS HELPED AND CONTINUES TO HELP TIGHTEN THE SCREWS ON AMERICAN FARMERS:
Michigan farmers talk ag issues with federal lawmakers
More than 120 Michigan farmers ventured to the nation's capitol last week to speak directly with members of congress about a variety of pressing agricultural issues. Representing the interests of Farm Bureau members in more than 60 counties, participants personally lobbied senators and house members about the pending farm bill, regulatory reform and a pair of farm labor issues.


LET'S ADD IT UP...

1- AMERICA IS LOSING ALMOST 10 ACRES OF FARMLAND EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF EVERY DAY.

2- AT THE SAME TIME, AMERICA'S POPULATION IS STEADILY GROWING AND NEEDS MORE FOOD RAISED.

2- SINCE FARMERS ARE MAKING LESS SELLING CROPS, MORE ARE QUITTING THE PROFESSION, MAKING WAY FOR "MEGA-FARMS" WHICH MEANS LESS COMPETITION AT HARVEST TIME, HIGHER FOOD PRICES AT THE GROCERY STORE.
CNBC. “There will be less incentive to lower prices in stores, and that can be harmful all around.

According to a 2007 study by the University of Missouri, “the four largest companies controlled 82% of the beef packing industry, 85% of soybean processing, 63% of pork packing, and 53% of broiler chicken processing. In fact, so much consolidation has taken place throughout the food chain that it can be difficult for any one person to fathom the true effects.”

3- CONGRESS IS REGULATING FARMS TO DEATH, OR PAYING FARMERS NOT TO FARM, RANCHERS NOT TO RAISE FOOD ANIMALS, CAUSING HAVOC FOR SMALLER FARMS, AND FEDERAL REGULATIONS SEEM AIMED AT MAKING CERTAIN AMERICA HAS LESS AND LESS FOOD AVAILABLE. 

4- "ILLEGAL WORKERS" NUMBERS ARE STEADILY DROPPING AND NEW CONGRESSIONAL IMMIGRATION LAWS WILL MAKE SURE THIS TREND CONTINUES.
CHEAP AND WILLING FARM LABORERS ARE A THING OF THE PAST.

5- HARDLY ANY AMERICAN WORKERS WANT FARM JOBS, OR PRODUCTION LINE WORK PROCESSING FOOD FOR GROCERS. Jobs That Americans Don't Want

6- AS THE ECONOMY TANKS AND COST OF LIVING STILL SOARS, WITH MINIMUM WAGE REMAINING LOW, AMERICANS WILL REACH A POINT WHERE MANY FOOD PRICES WILL BE OUT OF REACH FOR ABOUT HALF THE WORKFORCE.

7- AS AMERICA COMES UNDER THE CONGRESSIONALLY-AGREED-UPON U.N. PLAN FOR "SUSTAINABLE LAND USE" THIS YEAR AND NEXT YEAR, THE U.N.'s "CODEX" WILL FORCE MORE AND MORE FARMS TO CLOSE, WILL MOVE POPULATIONS TOWARD URBAN AREAS AND SIMPLY SHUT DOWN MUCH OF AMERICA'S "BREAD BASKET".

HOW TIGHTLY WILL THE U.N. CONTROL WHAT NATIONS DO WITH THEIR LANDS AND ALL LIFE ON IT?

THIS CLOSELY...EVEN THE BACTERIA AND FUNGI are to be accounted for...

"Although the convention explicitly states that all forms of life are covered by its provisions, examination of reports and of national biodiversity strategies and action plans submitted by participating countries shows that in practice this is not happening.
The fifth report of the European Union, for example, makes frequent reference to animals (particularly fish) and plants, but does not mention bacteria, fungi or protists at all. "


TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE INITIAL HANDING OVER OF AMERICAN LAND TO THE U.N., SEE "MAN AND THE BIOSPHERE PROGRAM, THE WILDLANDS
PROJECT AND THE BIODIVERSITY TREATY".



8- AND LASTLY, WITH AMERICA CONTINUING TO INTERFERE IN THE AFFAIRS OF

OTHER NATIONS ALL AROUND THE GLOBE, OUR ECONOMY WILL CONTINUE TO

BE OVERSTRETCHED TO FUND OUR MILITARY.

LESS AND LESS WILL BE SPENT ON FEEDING A NATION WHEN CONGRESS SEES DEFENSE AS MORE IMPORTANT.

AS WE CAN NOW SEE, IT IS ENTIRELY FEASIBLE THAT AMERICA JUST MAY EXPERIENCE WHAT VENEZUELA IS EXPERIENCING, WHAT NATIONS ALL OVER THE GLOBE ARE EXPERIENCING...FOOD SHORTAGES AND/OR FOOD PRICES THAT HALF OUR NATION CANNOT AFFORD.

THE MORE AMERICA HAS TO SPEND ON FOOD, THE LESS IT HAS TO SPEND ON OTHER THINGS...ANOTHER BLOW FOR OUR SHAKY ECONOMY.