The Rising Price of Food Essay Example for Free

The Rising Price of Food Essay Recent years have seen dramatic increases in the world prices for food commodities. The first half of the year 2008 saw the price of rice go up by 50% and generally speaking, similar increases in other food commodities such as maize, soybeans and wheat have been seen across the world, resulting in various forms of panic. In the Philippines, farmers have begun hoarding supplies of rice, while Indonesians have initiated strikes due to soybean shortages. Generally speaking, these food crises have been attributed to the supply and demand factors resulting from meteorological catastrophes, shortages resulting from poor harvests and swelling populations. (BBC 2008; Lewis 2008) Steinberg (2008) reports that from early 2006 to early 2008, the world prices for corn has risen by 125%, rice by 217%, soybeans by 107% and wheat by 136%. Feilden (2008) opines that while foodstuffs have never been cheap to the point of absurdity, the past thirty years have seen a long period of stability that was bound to end following an expanding middle class emerging from rapidly developing nations such as China and India. Feilden asserts that for the most part, the cost of wheat, corn and soya has fallen in real terms, but continuingly volatile climatological conditions, a diversion of agriculture towards the production of biofuel feedstocks and increasingly luxuriant middle class appetites have made this inevitable. Parry, et al (66) have found that based on projections based on the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that when population growth and rising levels of carbon emissions are combined they create anthropogenic climate change effects that have a detrimental effect on food production. Simply put, they have a negative effect on simulated crop yields, with greater disparities existing between developed and developing countries. Fortunately, these disparities are such that the shortfalls of developing nations are compensated for by the yields of developed nations which derive a limited benefit from climate change. What is problematic is that because of the complex nature of a globalized food supply, there is little to guarantee that these shortfalls in developing nations will be addressed through distribution. Another problematic causal factor driving the food crisis is the increased demand for value-added food commodities resulting from populations that have improved in class standing. For example, prospering Asian peoples have begun to substitute more basic food commodities with input-intensive or highly processed foods, most notably in their consumption of beef. For every kilogram of beef consumed, a great proportion of grain is used for feed. Other examples of value-added commodities include processed foods that utilize corn oil and high fructose corn syrup. (FAO 4) Richard Manning (35-37) opines that grain-based diets are generally diets for the poor. Thus, as nations prosper, the global food supply is stretched to its limit to accommodate a middle class that is increasing to levels it was never designed to anticipate. Following this chain of thought, recent price increases have come from increased use of food inputs rather than an absolute increase in food consumption. However, as suggested, the expanding middle class plays only a fractional role in the food price crisis. It does not mean that the global South is ultimately getting better. For the more than 2. 5 billion people who live on less than two dollars a day, the rise in food prices is a life or death matter, and as such, many from the world’s underclasses are turning towards cheaper food commodities as substitutes for increasingly costly equivalents. Faiola (2008) reports that in Mauritania, some have turned towards consuming sorghum in place of bread, whilst others have begun Indians have replaced soybean oil with groundnut oil. In the Philippines, the local Food and Nutrition Research Institute has proposed replacing some of the flour used in producing the staple known as pan de sal with squash puree instead to allow bakeries to keep the price down. The rise in food prices have also been affected by recent developments in global energy. Heinberg (2007) observes that the yields of industrial agriculture are highly dependent on fossil fuel inputs. While innovations such as crop rotation and the usage of manure and compost help reduce instances of famine, it is the use of fossil fuels in the production of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and tractor-powered tillage that permits existing levels of production. In this context, it comes as no surprise then that as oil prices increase, so too does the price of food. Further amplifying the effects of oil price increases, is the diversion of agriculture towards providing for the booming biofuel industry. In a cover story for TIME Magazine, Michael Grunwald (28-33) observes that the diversion of grain-based agriculture from the food supply and towards the production of fuel means that biofuels like ethanol are imposing dramatic impacts upon the costs of maintaining food supply for both the world’s hungry and the world’s well fed, noting that â€Å"the grain it takes to fill an SUV tank could feed a person for a year. † Barrionuevo (2008) notes that while â€Å"ethanol has raised the incomes of farmers† and â€Å"given new hope to flagging rural economies† it is a major impact on the cost of food. The demand for biofuel cannibalizes the existing food supply, increasing the collective demand for grain. Steinberg notes that what also compounds these very real long-term factors is the role which commodity speculation plays in shoring up food prices. He attributes the food price crisis to an onslaught of investment speculation comparable to the subprime crisis which drove up house prices earlier this decade. Quoting the British publication The New Stateman, Steinberg notes that hedge fund groups have thrown billions of dollars into commodities instead. But rather than going into gold and oil, they have gone into cattle, cocoa and corn as ‘soft commodities. ’ Excessive investment drives up food prices, which encourages hoarding. Because a crisis of food supply guarantees a return on these investments, a vicious commodity super-cycle ensues. REFERENCES Lewis, L 2008, ‘Fear of rice riots as surge in demand hits nations across the Far East,’ The Times Online, 8 April. Available from: http://business. timesonline. co. uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article3701347. ece [October 15, 2008] BBC News 2008, ‘Cyclone fuels rice price increase,’ BBC News, 7 May. Available from: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/7387251. stm [October 15, 2008] Steinberg, S 2008, ‘Financial speculators reap profits from global hunger,’ Global Research, 24 April. Available from: http://globalresearch. ca/index. php? context=vaaid=8794 [October 15, 2008] Feilden, T 2008, ‘QA: Rising world food prices,’ BBC News, 4 March. Available from: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/7276971. stm [October 15, 2008] Parry, ML, Rosenzweig, C, Iglesias, A, Livermore M Fischer, G 2004, ‘Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios,’ Global Environmental Change 14, 53-67. Available from: http://www. elsevier. com/framework_aboutus/pdfs/2-Effects_of_climate_change. pdf [October 15, 2008] United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 2008, ‘Crop Prospects and Food Situation,’ Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture, 2, April. Available from: ftp://ftp. fao. org/docrep/fao/010/ai465e/ai465e00. pdf [October 15, 2008] Manning, R 2004, Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization, New York, New York: North Point Press. Heinberg, R 2007, ‘What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out? ’ Museletter, 188, 22 November. Available from:http://globalpublicmedia. com/richard_heinbergs_museletter_what_will_we_eat_as_the_oil_runs_out [October 14, 2008] Grunwald, M 2008, ‘The Clean Energy Scam,’ TIME Magazine, 7 April. Barrionuevo, A 2007, ‘Rise in Ethanol Raises Concerns About Corn As a Food,’ The New York Times, 5 January. Faiola, A 2008‘The New Economics of Hunger,’ The Washington Post, April 27. Page A01. Available from: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602041. html? sid=ST2008042602333 [October 15, 2008] Walt, V 2008 ‘The World’s Growing Food-Price Crisis,’ TIME Magazine, 27 February. Available from: http://www. time. com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00. html [October 14, 2008]

Ernest Hemingway Essay -- essays research papers

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in a small community of Oak Park, Illinois. He was the second child out of six, with four sisters and one brother. The area Ernest grew up in was a very conservative area of Illinois and was raised with values of strong religion, hard work, physical fitness and self-determination. His household was a very strict one that didn’t allow any enjoyment on Sundays and disobedience was strictly punished. Ernest’s father taught him good morals and values that he if he followed that he would be good in life. His father also taught him to hunt and fish around the Lake Michigan area and to love nature. The family would spend their summers in the wilderness and their winters back near Chicago. For the rest of his life Hemingway remained an avid fisherman and never lived far form a fishing hole. The outdoors is where he created a lot of his work, and a place where he got a lot of his inspiration from. Hemingway went to school in the Oak Park public school system where he wrote for the High School paper. Hemingway graduated high school in 1917 and then he took a job as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. This was against his parent’s wishes of him going to college to become a professional. While Hemingway worked for the Star, he learned to elaborate more and polished his writing ability positively. He found out after awhile that writing for the newspaper wasn’t for him. He had tried to join the military after he had graduated from high school b...

Five Forces of the Computer Industry Essay

The following table is an example of the Porter’s Five Forces Model applied to the Global Internet & Services Industry. I explain the industry infrastructure of Internet companies like Google Inc. according to the threat of entrants, buyer power, threat of substitutes, supplier power, and rivalry. Threat of New Entrants There is a moderate degree of new entrants into the global internet and services market. It is a very labor intensive industry while depending mostly on highly skilled employees. Overall though, it is a desirable industry to be in. Innovation/technological change, and R&D investment is very important so for potential new entrants it would require a large initial investment. Government regulations and large startup costs may deter new entrants but overall it is an attractive industry. Buyer Power There is a moderate amount of buyer power in this industry. Revenue for companies such as Google are generated by their advertisements. This business model gives control to the buyers who use those services and â€Å"click† on those advertisements. In this case, revenues from advertising are heavily dependent on the amount of people using the software and services. On the other hand, the market players enjoy a wide variety of potential customers, in turn weakening buyer power. Threat of Substitutes The threat of substitutes is weak. Substitutes in this industry are considered as the more traditional outlets like, print and TV. Leaders in the internet and services industry pose more of a threat to those media outlets, than they do to Google, or other leaders. Supplier Power Supplier power in this market is strong. Supplier power for Google isn’t very strong because they use their own software and hardware infrastructure. As for other market players, hardware components are usually purchased from large suppliers with differentiated products, giving them more power in negotiation. Servers are a main component of companies that work in the internet and services business and they rely heavily on suppliers to provide them with good quality, great speed, reliable, and energy efficient machines. Success in this market also requires skilled developers/programmers. Rivalry Rivalry in this market is moderate. The market is highly fragmented even though Google and a few other leaders account for less than 10% of the global revenue. With technology always changing, new products are being introduced and it is creating a more competitive landscape with rivalry increasing. Some of the market leaders operate in a wide range of markets so they are not entirely focused on the revenue from the internet and services industry. This mitigates rivalry between key players.

Definition and Examples of Euphuism (Prose Style)

Euphuism is an elaborately patterned prose style, characterized in particular by the extensive use of similes and metaphors, parallelism, alliteration, and antithesis. Adjective: euphuistic. Also called  Asianism and aureate diction. Euphuism is about infinite expansion, says Katharine Wilson. A  single thought can breed analogies, anecdotes, intellectual choices, and printed pages (Turne Your Library to a Wardrope: John Lyly and Euphuism in  The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640, 2013).The term euphuism (from the Greek, to grow, bring forth) is derived from the name of the hero in  John Lylys ornately florid Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit (1579).Euphuism is not related to euphemism, a more common term. Commentary The freshest colours soonest fade, the teenest razor soonest turneth his edge, the finest cloth is soonest eaten with moths, and the cambric sooner stained than the coarse canvas: which appeared well in this Euphues, whose wit, being like wax, apt to receive any impression, and bearing the head in his own hand, either to use the rein or the spur, disdaining counsel, leaving his country, loathing his old acquaintance, thought either by wit to obtain some conquest, or by shame to abide some conflict; who, preferring fancy before friends and his present humour before honour to come, laid reason in water, being too salt for his taste, and followed unbridled affection, most pleasant for his tooth. (John Lyly, from Euphues, 1579)Nothing daunted at the staunch refusal of different divines, whose modest walk was interrupted by their bold assertion of loathsome rights, they moved on, while laughs of hidden rage and defeat flitted across their doll-decked faces, to die as they next accosted so me rustic-looking critics, who, tempted with their polished twang, their earnest advances, their pitiful entreaties, yielded, in their ignorance of the ways of a large city, to their glossy offers, and accompanied, with slight hesitation, these artificial shells of immorality to their homes of ruin, degradation and shame. (Amanda McKittrick Ros, Delina Delaney, 1898) Euphuism and Rhetoric The historians tell us that Euphuism is older than Euphues, but they have failed to notice that the English study of rhetoric provides a much better indication of its origin than do the imagined influences of Italy and Spain. ... Now, the recipe, so to speak, of Euphuism is to be found in The Arte of Rhetorique [1553]. By this is not meant that we claim that [Thomas] Wilsons book taught Lyly his secret; only that it was through the fashionable study of rhetoric in the literary coteries of the time that this manner of writing was evolved. Examples of what is meant abound in this book. (G.H. Mair, introduction to Wilsons Arte of Rhetorique. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1909) Euphuism and Tacit Persuasion Patterns The locus classicus for the tacit persuasion patterns we have been discussing is a linguistically lunatic Elizabethan short novel, John Lylys Euphues. ... The book consists mostly of moralizing speeches, couched in a style so full of antithesis, isocolon, climax and alliteration that it comes to be about tacit persuasion patterns. ...[A] reader of Lyly is so conditioned to antitheses that he starts to make them at the least suggestion. Chiasmus as well as double-isocolon has become a way of perceiving. ...[Lyly] didnt have anything new to say. In his moral world, nothing new was left to say. How make a splash, then? You let the tacit persuasion patterns generate the meaning for you. Finding yourself with nothing to say, you deliver yourself methodically into the arms of chance. And so Euphues, whatever help it may provide for prodigal sons, comes to be a pattern-book of tacit persuasion. ...We see better illustrated here than in any other prose style I know the back-pressure form exe rts on thought. Vernon Lee, an acute student of English style, once called syntax the cast left by long repeated acts of thought. Lyly stood this observation on its head, thought becoming the cast left by infinitely repeated tacit persuasion patterns. (Richard A. Lanham, Analyzing Prose, 2nd ed. Continuum, 2003)