The End of the Age of Cheap Food

The age of cheap food is over. As the economist reports: world grain prices rose 77% last year and has accelerated up 141% since January! The prices have shot up due to several factors. China and India are consuming more, but this is just a gradual increase. The targets for Biofuel consumption are a large factor in the price increase as the US and Europe set targets for renewable fuel consumption. Farming reponds slowly to change in demand and this results in a lack of supply. In the past, shortages in food supply have been localized due to war or disaster. Today, it's a worldwide shortage affecting many countries at once.

As usual, this affects the poor first. This quote by the economist sums it up: "“For the middle classes,” ... “it means cutting out medical care. For those on $2 a day, it means cutting out meat and taking the children out of school. For those on $1 a day, it means cutting out meat and vegetables and eating only cereals. And for those on 50 cents a day, it means total disaster.” The poorest are selling their animals, tools, the tin roof over their heads..." 1 billion people live on $1 a day, 1.5 billion live on $1 to $2 a day. When help finally comes from the World Food Organization or prices stabilize it will be hard for the poor to recover and many will have lost their lives.

There are many factors which can help reduce the impact of food shortages on the world. Trade barriers can be lifted, thus allowing for market stabilization of food prices. Europe and the USA can eliminate their targets for biofuel consumption which are contributing to the food shortage. These actions will take time and may never happen. Luckily, there are things we can do right now to help. 1) Consume less fuel. Use less oil to transport goods and services. Drive more efficient vehicles and use public transit. This will reduce the demand for Biofuels. 2) Eat locally. The food you eat grown nearby takes less oil to transport to your farmers market or local store. It allows food grown elsewhere to be eaten by the region in which it was grown. Also look for food grown without oil based fertilizers. 3) Re-use/Recycle. Plastics are oil-based. Less new packaging = less fuel used. Reused or recycled materials use less energy. 4) Eat less meat. It takes 5 times the amount of grain to feed a cow and produce meat for a meal as it does to nourish a person with the same caloric intake of grain. Less meat means more grain for everyone.

First female president?

I've heard a few people asking "Can Hillary be the first elected female president?". Well the answer is no, not really. She can be the first female president in the USA but I think it's good to remember this is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to choosing women for head of state.

The first woman to represent a country at the table of G8 leaders was Margaret Thatcher. She served as prime minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990. Canadians should know the 2nd female to sit at the table. Kim Campbell was prime minister of Canada for several months after Mulrooney's resignation. However, her predecessor left such a bad taste that she was not re-elected in Canada's 1993 election.

The first female president, and one of the most notorious, was Isabel Martínez de Perón, former leader of Argentina. She was put in power after her husbands death and served from 1974-76. She was recently arrested for illedgedly organizing the disappearance of people in Argentina during her term. She awaits extradition to Argentina.

The first elected female president, and the longest serving, was former president of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. She was Iceland's 4th president and served from 1 Aug 1980 to 1 Aug 1996.

Current female world leaders include recently elected president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who succeeds her husband in office and Pratibha Patil, India's first female president. In fact, 7 countries currently have female leaders in office.

If you'd like to read more on this one checkout the following links:
Wikipedia - female presidents
Wikipedia - first female holders of political offices
Female presidents of the world

Recycle the Ringer

A week ago Gil's cell-phone "broke". Well... actually someone hit it with a 4 iron. But that's another story. The giving season recently ended and I'm sure many of you have old cell-phones, computer monitors, and TVs to get rid of. Did you know that it's actually illegal to throw those out?

Luckily, it's easy to recycle most items. In some cities, such as Kirkland, you call a number and leave the items at your curb for special pickup. In Seattle, and across the US, they have TAKE IT BACK programs where you bring the electronics to a drop-off station. These include places you probably go every weekend such-as Staples, Office Depot and Best-Buy.

What if you're feeling lazy, or want contribute to a good cause by doing it? Cell-phones can be mailed FOR FREE at ECOMOTO. Schools can even fundraise by going door-to-door to collect old phones. If you want to support the troops, send your used phones to cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

For more resources on electronics recycling go here.

Best Snowboard Video EVER

You have to check this out! GET THAT DAMN CAR OFF THE HILL.

So what's new? I recently went on a 12 mile x-country ski-trek to the Rendezvous Hut System in Winthrop with Janine, Mike, Katy, Cam, and Amanda. It was a tough trek uphill most of the way to the Cassal Hut from Cub Creek. The view was very rewarding and it was mostly downhill on the way home. Check out the photos in Cam's Gallery.

Saw the blue-man group last night. It was a great show and worth seing if you have the chance! My sister is in town visiting so she came along. Amanda and I are still in the midst of wedding planning. Quite a bit to do these days. Finally, Cam actually posted on his blog.

Video of the day: Snowkite

I found a french sports website called MyFreeSport. It's got some sick videos such as this one. Poke around for some more great vids and stories.

Snowkite Master : Teaser saison 2008


Snowkite master / myfreesport

More info on myfreesport.fr

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's been a while... a long while. I think the lack of motivation to post is derived from the intensity of life in other areas. And that's a good thing! When I'm not working on the computer should I really be spending time writing about things I do when I'm not on the computer?

On the other hand... I like to discuss interesting news, provide a laugh, and share some happenings with my friends. So I'll keep blogging in 2008. To start, here are a couple of interesting news stories I'd like to share:

1) Dakar rally cancelled: Best quote of this article "It's like getting punched in the back of our tourism industry.". I think they should have gone ahead with the race anyway. One french family was killed on vacation in Mauritania while picnicing so they cancelled. It's a terrible thing. However, if you're risking your life riding a motorcycle across the hardest terrain in the world then what's a little bit more risk from a small unconfirmed chance of terrorist attack? Maybe they need to go a little Mad Max.

2) Huckabee (Rep) and Obama (Dem) win primaries in Iowa: Read here how the first black contender for president moved one step closer to his goal. I watched some clips of both Huckabee's and Obama's speeches. Huckabee, who puts necrophilia and homosexuality in the same boat, was flanked by none other than Chuck Noris. Seems like a good enough reason to vote for him, right? Obama's speech was pretty good. The "bring home the troups" and "remove dependancy on oil" promises are unrealistic, but I liked his wrap-up with “A father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, a story that can only happen in the United States of America.” and “We are not a collection of red states and blue states,” he said. “We are the United States of America, and in this election we are ready to believe again.” See Obama's speech here.

CAN climbs over USD!

"The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the first time in almost 31 years, capping a spectacular run that has seen it rise 62 per cent since 2002." source cbc.ca

This is not particularily good news for me. I remember in 2002 when I could buy a chocolate bar on the BC ferry with 1 USD and get back a loonie. It also was helping to pay off those pesky student loans. Oh well, the tax-rate in WA state is still much less than BC.

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Speaking of money. Do you exchange funds between currencies on a regular basis? I was frustrated by the 2% TD Canada Trust charged me for every US $ I exchanged with them. I also had to physically send them a check, which they'd hold for X days until it cleared. Not any more! www.xetrade.com and sites like it can send Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs) all over the world. You need to setup a phone meeting with a rep to ask you questions about where you'll send the money/how much/why are you sending it. Some of the questions are big-brother style and probably caused by anti-terrorism legislature. But once that's done you can use the web to send money from Canada to the USA in 6-7 days. And they guarantee the best rates anywhere. Much simpler than my prior experience.

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You've heard of outsourcing computer programming. Now you can outsource everyday tasks. Some website focus on hiring people remotely to do your tasks which do not require a physical presence such as creating/updating personal websites, tutoring, job-hunting, researching for apartments, making appointments, shopping online, etc. There are also sites which have people locally to help out with your everyday and menial tasks.
GetFriday.Com: Based out of India
Guru.com: Hire professionals in business/consulting, IT, office/admin.
DoMyStuff.com: Local and remote task bidding site. Includes local contacts who can clean out your garage, organize photos, etc.
Another article: some more links

Happy outsourcing!