Thai officials had proposed the idea of a cartel earlier this month in an effort to gain more control over skyrocketing rice prices
The day a cartel strives to keep prices LOW pigs will fly. The naivete (or slyness) of the Thai government amazes me. Such a syndicate would only drive producers into bankruptcy (unable to sell at market prices and afford derivative products), hardly a solution to the food crisis.
At the same time, farming subsidies in the US and the Common Agricultural Policy in the EU are still in place and nearly never called into question, the food aid agencies with overpaid employees have to buy the food on a distorted market and so the vicious circle continues. No wonder Senegal's President, Abdoulaya Wade, called on the FAO's abolition (Corriere Della Sera). Headquarters in Rome and the highest-paid employees in the entire UN roster are unmistakable attributes of a body genuinely committed to relieving the suffering of the hungry in Africa and Asia.
South-East Asian governments consider clenching the rice market with an iron fist. The always adamant EU and US pledge aid and whatnot while maintaining a perverse system of pricefixing. The embattled FAO perpetuates the vicious circle. Demand for food genuinely grows worldwide.
Meanwhile leftist anti-poverty anti-WTO anti-capitalist anti-GMO and anti-intelligence protesters deny the African nations (among others) the unmistakeable benefits of Genetically Modified crops that can actually reproduce, forcing those who starve into buying batches of seeds that can grow every year or into the fairtrade delusion. Organic farming, with its gross inefficiency, further steals agricultural land that could be used for producing more food more efficiently.
Who will care for the needy instead of their own backyard, privileges, comforts or sad delusions?
2 comments:
Cartels are not just a tool for keeping prices low (or even the opposite as you suggest).
Cartels also mandate quota's and basically force the members to provide basic amounts.
So one of the positives would be that countries couldn't just decide to stop exporting ANY amounts and would be regulated to supplying a set quantity.
The EU's CAP is a cartel, and it keeps prices high for consumers, forces the destruction of crops, prevents entry into the EU markets of cheaper African and Asian products confining these continents to poverty and to the periphery of the global market.
No producer in their sane mind would suddenly stop exporting. A country, on the other hand, can use a subsidy system to keep prices artificially high and supply artificially short. Earns farmer' votes but keeps people starving.
The solution is ripping agricultural exports out of government control. This way shortages cannot be artificial.
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