Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Food! ...it's what for dinner!

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the subject of food can arouse passions. A tremendous asado, delicate young spring greens, fine old cheese, a heady new malbec can bring strong men to tears. People get passionate about what they put in their mouths. Nothing new there.

The surprising/sudden aspect of these recent passions is that they are expressed regarding a shortage of food. Ever since the "Green Revolution" cheap food has been common and famine more a problem of logistics than the old specters of drought and pests.

But now there's a shortage of food ...not in Argentina! ...but there is a worldwide dwindling of the most basic, low-on-the-foodchain, stuffs that feed us and feed the animals that feed us.

In countries that now have little or none of the stuff that keeps us alive there is already major unrest. Here in one of the world's great breadbaskets we have unrest as well. There is no contradiction in that.

The challenge is the allocation of this short supply of food, the protection of our current blessings, and the protection of our production.

I believe it unfair for other nations to suck all the beef out of Argentina simply because their currency is currently stronger than the Argentine peso. I have said that here and in public whenever I meet people that are opposed to any sort of government price controls or export restrictions or have some neo-conservative delusion regarding "free-trade" (which is really not anything of the sort but more like labor-arbitrage.)

I have been happy and proud to accept less for my cows in the knowledge that not only am I part of a community that helps feed the world but also helps maintain the culture of the country that so generously adopted me.

There is a certain pride as well that I feel sometimes when I stop to consider that agriculture has played such a strong roll in helping Argentina recover from the crisis of 2002, helped the government increase public spending while gathering great stores of foreign exchange, and generally govern from a position of strength here and abroad.

Nothing surprised me when, because of these restrictions on agriculture, I saw the men and women of the campo adapt and increase their efficiency, abandoning many of the old ways and adopting the latest thinking and techinques developed both here and abroad.

As worldwide prices for foodstuffs increased tremendously, we in the countryside felt that not only would we continue to contribute to the equally tremendous recovery of the Argentine economy ...but that we would also be able to partake in the world markets along side the other great producers of food.

Not all of my fellow campo-capitalistas felt so altruistic ...but in light of the coming high prices, past offenses were quickly becoming forgotten.

High expectations. When high expectations are crushed it always feels worse than when hopes were not so heady.

The government's tax increases are not draconian. They are incremental and progress on a sliding scale and take into consideration the prices established in that big art deco building at the foot of far-away La Salle Street ...you know, the one with the giant aluminum statue of the Goddess of Grain on top.

The timing of the export tax increases appeared to be almost designed to be incendiary.

The new tax was announced/imposed at harvest... ostensibly to impress upon farmers and ranchers that they should diversify their production so that all of us in Argentina can have something besides Cargill Soyburgers and Archer Daniels Midland Vodka for dinner (Something I've lamented in these pages, too!)

But farmers and ranchers knew that export taxes could not possibly change plants that were already ready to be harvested. These "reasonable" export tax increases could have been instituted after harvest if their purpose was to influence a diversity of production.

This sudden shock to the high expectations of producers here not only crushed their plans for more investment in their fields (and, yes, a bit of a higher standard of living, too) but felt punitive. The timing made them feel they were being punished ...not being influenced to produce a wider variety of foods. The tax felt confiscatory in light of the timing and the first high prices on the international market in decades.

The lack of psychology in this land of psychiatry was what astounded me.

Almost forgotten complaints about the heavy hand toward agriculture were suddenly remembered ...and any feeling of having been a partner in the recovery of the Argentine economy were dashed.

Apparently, to those producers, they were going to be treated as a cash-cow ...never to be allowed to enjoy a windfall of foreign money like so many other industries.

Flooding back to mind came the treatment of beef producers with the price controls and export restrictions that (until this week!) made beef cheaper than even chicken ...and forced pastureland into corn, soy, and sunflower for cooking oil.

The condition of dairymen, a great number of them now soybean farmers, was remembered again and how the government used the few big milk buyers to enforce price controls that forced them out of the business and sent the price of butter in France thru the ceiling (manteca a través el techo!)

They saw how the Truck Drivers' Union was being used as a de facto police force to clear the roads blocked by their protests ...until the drivers themselves saw the injustice of it.

Last night, on television, they saw the sudden arrival of the closely aligned piqueteros (who could have predicted!) to clear the Plaza de Mayo of ordinary working families with children with threats of violence in lieu of using the police.

Now what do we have?

We have producers even more determined to keep their products from market and even less of an integrated agricultural policy that helps the market make good decisions for the nation and keeps them from overproducing in any one area. Roadblock protests may no longer be necessary as the feeling of solidarity among them has increased dramatically. (Beef producers may not be in as good condition to cooperate: their calves are ready for sale and they have no excess feed to keep them on the ranch.)

We have farmers who might be lured back into some other production exempt from the new export taxes ...but very suspicious that whatever they produce will be subject to a sudden new decree that they are harvesting something that need to be suppressed by a new tax.

We have farmers and ranchers that simply must invest in their own lands in order to meet the growing demands of Argentina and the world ...but now will not.

Nothing anyone can do will turn my neighbors in the campo into a Socialist like me.

But our center-left government with close ties to Hugo Chavez, whom I admire very much, seems to have forgotten a saying attributed to Lenin, "A capitalist will sell his very hangman a rope."

With a little foresight, and a little cajoling, and at least some recognition that there is no replacement for food (and a big variety of it!) ...a government can easily make farmers and ranchers do/plant/raise anything they want.

In the big building on La Salle Street, they have another saying, "high prices cure high prices ...and low prices cure low prices."

Farmers and ranchers, if they feel that they are making their own decisions, will produce so much of a variety foods that they'll eventually go bankrupt (the sad history of agriculture here and everywhere.)

However, if they feel that no matter what they do, they will hit an artificial barrier ...not during the planning/planting stage ...but during their harvest, they will not invest in the production that is necessary and can come from no one else other than themselves.

Argentina has fed itself and the world for more than a century. Argentina and the world needs agriculture more than ever.

The world needs Argentina more than ever.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, You have toppled over the edge of reason.

Longhorn Dave said...

As always, well said my friend from across the political isle. (Actually I'm more from the middle).

I was amazed at the spontaneous protest last night. I was SHOCKED that the small pro-gov. faction of 200 tough guys resorted to holiganism and egged fights with peaceful middle class demonstrators--most of home were women pushing baby strollers.

That, image of D'Elia (sp?) on TV hitting a man has done more damage than Christina did last night in here ill advised speech.

Tell me Mike, is this the same old Peronist tactic of pitting one group against the other.

If so, how can that be good for Argentina?

Longhorn Dave said...

oops... that was whom, not home
"most of home were women pushing baby strollers. "

yanqui mike said...

To "anon", I can only hope that he meant that I have toppled over to the angels' side of reason. If not, I ask him to re-read my meager contribution to the discussion.

As to the opinions of my friend, Fernando (nerd-gaucho), I can only say that you ignore his always astute observations at your own peril.

As for myself, my leftist, if not "wobblie", credentials are unassailable ...at least until I became an actual employer!

Allow me to opine that:

...agricultural producers will always be capitalists

...that Capitalism may very well be the most powerful and dynamic economic engine the world has yet produced

...but worship of "the engine", as we have been exhorted to do over more than 25 years, to the exclusion of brakes, steering, tires, seating, etc., is a recipe for tragic collision. I think we see it now much more clearly than when unrestrained greed was considered good.

Even I am sometimes lulled into the stupor that allows good, right-thinking people to believe that the public-sector can to NOTHING as well or as efficiently as the private sector ...but that is false.

The thoughts and policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and, yes, Juan D. Peron revisit us in light of the failure of a private sector to "return" us to...let alone maintain us in ...an age when the two greatest middle-class countries on earth offered a standard of living which was the envy of the world.

To my good friend from the State of Texas, Dave: my humble opinion is that, yes, Peronism played both sides of the fence... but no more than Roosevelt's (and the current-day Democrats') efforts to maintain a truly "big tent" party.

That ended up being used to divide people here and allá... but not until after their good work was done.

Although, the admirers of both men might like to think of their reforms as a permanent roadmap ...sadly, it is not so simple. We need to think for ourselves in their example ...not to become hide-bound to innovations they made while confronted with here-to-fore un-confronted perils and challenges.

To think that they left us with rules ...rather than principles ...leaves us like fundamentalists rather than the jazz-improvisationalists that they really were.

I'll stop now. I want to hear more from you!

Unknown said...

The rhetoric used from the government gives this the feeling of a personal grudge match. It’s using language that seems to come from the gut and not from a cool head that should know better. This reminds me of George Bush’s “bring it on” comment although when he blurted that out it sounded more childish and so out of place, like a pencil-necked geek who has a big brother behind him to protect him.

Anyway, to get back to Argentina and the campo, I just think that placing those taxes right at harvest time is tantamount to stealing. Really, who is kidding whom here? Was there really any planning? If so, how could The Man really think he could get away with something like that? In the United States The Man is the establishment)Funny enough, if you google The Man, the white house comes up around 8th on the list.

First The Man tells us all that this inflation is a figment of our imaginations. This happens in the States as well. Not too long ago Bush pleaded ignorance to the possibility of gasoline reaching $4.00 a gallon for example.

Then Cristina comes out and stands firm by her decision saying she will not budge. She also uses names like “Oligarchy” and has thrown around the term “4x4” when referencing the farmers. As a result of her televised speech there was a reaction by the middle class mostly rejecting her stand.

I asked around the office this morning to get a feel for what some of my employees felt and they mostly sounded tired of her. They felt like they have seen this before, a leader out of touch with what is going on around them. They have been lied to and they are not just going to accept everything she says just because she is the President.

I do hope she snaps out of it. She should back down on implementing this tax increase and take her lumps. She made a bad decision and now they have to negotiate from a weaker position, whereas if she were to have waited until after the harvest, when she could actually have had an influence as to what the farmers would plant, she may have been able to avoid this mess. Also, there is always a different way to influence people. Maybe she should focus on that word “influence” and tackle the problem from that perspective.

Oh, and a personal disclaimer, if I may--I do not admire Chavez. Sorry Mike, we can agree on a whole bunch of stuff, but not that one.

Anonymous said...

Did I understand correctly that you say you admire Hugo Chavez? Surely not.

yanqui mike said...

"Anon", I am indeed a great fan of Hugo... and Fidel before him.

Relax... and see the shades of grey as beautiful and inclusive.

Yours in art and labor,
Mike

miss tango said...

Sounds like a calculated ploy to frustrate the farmers into giving up farming and sell out to corporations. Destroy to Construct.

Nerd Progre said...

Hi Mike,

ONE CORRECTION MIKE. You say "consider that agriculture has played such a strong roll in helping Argentina recover from the crisis of 2002, helped the government increase public spending while gathering great stores of foreign exchange, and generally govern from a position of strength here and abroad."

Well, I think that while initially (2002) the agriculture sector and export taxes helped the government's coffers, after that industry and other sectors contributed more. Here's an article at Clarin's economy supplement which sparked the outrage of what the author aptly calls "the soy religion".

El crecimiento y el "campo piquetero"
http://weblogs.clarin.com/i-desarrollo/archives/2008/03/el-crecimiento-y-el-campo-piquetero.html

Brief quote/translation: "A recent paper by the CEPAL strikes a blow to the argriculture sector's narcissism, which considers itself the key to Argentina's recovery after the 2001-2002 crisis.

According to the paper "Crisis, recovery and new dilemmas, the Argentine economy in the period 2002-2007", the growth of GDP after the crisis was comprised of INDUSTRY with 22,6%, commerce 17,1%, and the agriculture sector contributing only 3,5%"

Now my take on recent events:
It's sad to see this government brought down by middle-class "caceroleros" who are mobilized more by the lack of meat on the supermarket (caused by ARMED PICKETS not letting the trucks pass and reach the cities), than by their love and solidarity of soybean producers.

If anyone wanted to engineer a civil war, this was the perfect recipe: create food shortages on cities (by armed gangs blocking the routes who threaten truck drivers and don't let agriculture products pass), then mass-encourage middle class protests in cities by fed-up citizens who are simply tired of not finding food on the shelves, by Cable TV news stations, SMS, and internet chain letters.

I'm deeply saddened. This country has no future as long as the struggle between the "primary agriculture" sector and the industrialization sector is not settled once and for all.

Sadly the government SUCKS at communicating. And the private media, most of which are anti-Kirchner for reasons to easy to see (just see who owns them), continues portraying the image that only "paid piqueteros" support the government. I voted for this government. I agree with minister Losteau's thoughts on soybean and value-added exports. I'm not paid by the government, I never worked as a public servant. I'm a self-employed technology writer who agreed with the general direction of this and the past government's economic policy.

Yet I don't have the power to mobilize big crowds as the media does with the "spontaneous" cacerolazos.

And most of my family and friends supports the government and we consider the armed pickets and staged food shortages an attempt to bring down this government. Yet we stay at home and watch on TV as the media proclaims that the people supports the "campo" in its "struggle" against the big bad government.

I'm saddened, and I feel no matter what I do, they're going to end toppling this government. Argentina doesn't deserve this. we don't deserve this. Soybean producers and the U.S. State Department would surely rejoice.

I'll remember these days forever. The weeks Argentina's stupid middle class shot themselves in the foot.

FC

Nerd Progre said...

The great untold story of a country hostage to the interests of the soybean producers

GUNFIRE against a passenger bus, a driver smaked in the face, truck drivers who want to deliver goods but are threatened with "getting lead", sabotage against the railtracks, and one person dead due to the blockage stopping an ambulance. These are the greatest unreported stories in local media, more focused on the urban cacerolazos due to the food shortages caused by the agriculture pickets.

Ruralists attack railroads
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/371049-100897-0-Denuncian-ruralistas-atentar-contra-las-formaciones-trenes


SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO / Rural pickets open gunfire at passenger bus
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.26noticias.com.ar/santiago-del-estero-piqueteros-ruralistas-balearon-un-micro-62606.html


La Pampa: driver attacked at a road blockade by farmers
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.derf.com.ar/despachos.asp?cod_des=190015&ID_Seccion=42


Brutal assault on driver in San Francisco, Cordoba
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www2.lavoz.com.ar/08/03/22/secciones/economia/nota.asp?nota_id=173910


"If you try to avoid a picket, you're filled with lead"
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/371009-100799-0-Si-intent%25C3%25A1s-evitar-el-corte-te-llenan-plomo


He died after being delayed at a producers' road blockade
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www2.lavoz.com.ar/08/03/26/secciones/economia/nota.asp?nota_id=174941


Now tell me, what would happen if these same situations happened in the US of A? There would be no arrests and no accusations?

FC

Nerd Progre said...

Let's see what the heads of the rural movement are saying:

Buzzi de Federacion Agraria: "No impulsamos otro 20 de diciembre"
http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/371318-100799-0-Buzzi-No-impulsamos-otro-20-diciembre

^(reference to December 20th 2001)

Bloquearían puertos y tambos
http://www.larazon.com.ar/notas/2008/03/24/01635414.html

Buzzi: "Me pregunto si despu'es de esto viene el estado de sitio"
http://www.cronista.com/notas/131203-eduardo-buzzi-me-pregunto-si-despues-esto-viene-el-estado-sitio-y-la-represion

LA Federacion Agraria ASEGURO QUE “LA PRESIDENTA SE HA GANADO UN ENFRENTAMIENTO A MUERTE CON LOS PRODUCTORES”
http://www.apfdigital.com.ar/despachos.asp?cod_des=103088

Buzzi de la Federacion Agraria: "El orgullo Kirchnerista esta herido"
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/03/25/elpais/p-00704.htm

Federacion Agraria dijo que tiene "voluntad de dialogo" (yeah, right!)
http://www.rosario3.com/noticias/pais/noticias.aspx?idNot=28081

Anonymous said...

An admirer of Chavez . . . all I can say is "wow".

Anonymous said...

Aaca no se puede hablar, asi que busque otro lado. Pero...

http://chacarerospiqueteros.blogspot.com/

Este blog infringe las Condiciones de servicio y sólo está abierto a los autores.

Que onda? Seteando aun? Privado? Censura? Que?

Biblio

Anonymous said...

Hey! I haven't read this blog in a while. It looks great and I appreciate your insight.

For those of you who are COMPLETELY against Chavez I encourage you to watch this documentary -- it swayed my opinion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u2MYqx5Qu8&feature=related

ANd for the farmers, some of them should really looking into growing marijuana. Those in the know are well aware there is a dearth of even half-way decent green stuff.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, these farmers should be cheering Queen Kirchner's plan to legalize drugs! She's giving them the perfect cash crop.

I guess that's not really an option for these farmers though... I don't think Monsanto offers any genetically modified 'Roundup-Ready' Cannabis seeds in their catalog... and ADM or Cargill doesn't have much of a market for the sticky stinky greenbuds. John Deere probably doesn't sell a high-tech marijuana harvester either... and I can't imagine these fat bastards from the blockades actually doing any work by hand. So, the potentially 'lucrative' drug growing has to be left to the Paraguayans or Bolivians who don't mind getting their hands dirty.

Nerd Progre said...

Heh... "queen kirchner" that label strikes me as pure fabrication if there ever was one.

The right wing really like applying name tags to people for the silliest things while the left often labels others as "murderers" etc the right looks at the stupidest details and turns those into perceived flaws. IE: Cristina buys expensive clothes. Who wouldn´t?

The latest "Cristina bought her daugther a Mini Cooper". "OMG LOOK WHAT SHE´S DOING WITH OUR MONEY" is the stupidreasoning by fat cows who buy one for themselves if they had the money. They assume that the president must have a Visa Electron debit card linked to the treasury bank account, or something. The fact is that the Kirchners were WAY wealthy even after reaching the presidency (and then they turned that lot of money into a lot more, dure to real state investments).

But I digress... you made LAUGH OUT LOUD with this:

"and I can't imagine these fat bastards from the blockades actually doing any work by hand."

ROFL too true. In reality, these white rich landowners who appear in the cameras rarely do any heavy work, they have the cheap ass peonada (peasants, rural workers) for that.

This is worth reading, if you read Spanish..

Awful working conditions of rural workers (Spanish)
http://www.diariodelsurdigital.com.ar/spip.php?article2930


Figures on Tax Evasion in the Agriculture sector (Spanish)
http://www.colagro1.org.ar/noticias/generales/02-11-08-evasion-agraria.htm

You can always use Google Translate to turn the docs into American broken English. (as my British boss calls it ;-)

FC