"Bread-line time?"

Nota do Gristmill sobre a situação no mercado mudial dos cereais: Bread-line time? Gristmill: The environmental news blog Grist. Neste blogue já houve referências ao problema (ver sob a etiqueta agricultura). Sem mais comentários - a nota merece ser lida pela informação e pela discussão das alternativas - alguns excertos da nota:

"Since the rise of industrial agriculture after World War II, no industrialized nation has experienced a proper famine. That's why it was so jarring when William Doyle (CEO of the Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, the world's largest fertilizer company) raised the possibility in an interview with Bloomberg published yesterday. Reacting to global grain stocks at their lowest levels since the USDA began keeping score in 1960, Doyle declared: "If you had any major upset where you didn't have a crop in a major growing agricultural region this year, I believe you'd see famine."

"This, even as industrial ag worldwide hits on all cylinders, cranking out more food than ever: "We keep going to the cupboard without replacing and so there is enormous pressure on agriculture to have a record crop every year. We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with this very low inventory situation."

PS(08.02.22): Neste artigo do The Economist sobre o comportamento recente dos mercados de matérias primas (procura forte apesar da situação económica), poderão ver um gráfico que associa a evolução descendente dos stocks de trigo, ao longo destes últimos anos, e o preço deste.