The thirst for cash starves poor

IT is not only the criminal policy of converting food into fuels that is causing the rocketing prices in staples such as rice and corn. It is speculation by parasites in the investment markets who are using food as a "commodity" like gold to make vast profits.

While the hungry in Haiti are eating biscuits made of clay, water and cooking oil to stop themselves starving, food in other parts of the world is being destroyed because prices are too low.

The Canadian government is paying pig farmers $225 for every animal slaughtered in a massive cull to keep prices high. The animals are either destroyed or used for pet food.

This is the murderous nature of international capital. Those living on the edge of starvation are forced to eat dirt, while the rich speculators gather in their mass profits by rising prices and investing in growing food to feed cars.

Progressive US commentator Glen Ford writes: "The so-called market - which is actually a club of super-rich men who distort and destroy everything of value to humanity that they touch - will be the death of us all... in such a murderous environment - manipulated purely for the profits of the Lords of Capital - neither trees nor peasants stand a chance."

Such is the reality of free-market capitalism, the imperialist tsunami that blights world food production.

Food is not just another commodity to be traded on the world's stock markets, it is a basic human right essential for survival, especially among the world's poor.

How right Hugo Chavez was when he described the food crisis as "the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model."

DICK MAUNDERS
Axminster