20th October,2021 Daily Global Regional

Local Rice E-Newsletter

Revival of international orders boosts Pakistan's non-textile

exports
MUBARAK ZEB KHAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s non-textile exports grew 23.4 per cent year-on-year to $2.48 billion in
the first quarter of current fiscal year owing to partial revival of international orders and the
government’s support schemes.

Overall growth in the non-textile sector is mainly led by the value-added sectors. The non-textile
sector has yet to receive full orders to pre-Covid levels, data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics (PBS) showed.

In FY21, three sectors — leather garments, surgical instruments and engineering goods — have
maintained growth in export proceeds despite lockdowns in many countries.
In the value-added leather sector, exports of leather garments up by 4pc and leather gloves 8pc
respectively. Contrary to this, the exports of raw leather increased by over 43pc during first three
months (July-September FY22) from a year ago.

Pakistan is one of the main suppliers of global surgical instruments. However, these instruments
are re-marketed from western countries with famous brands. As a result, the export value of
these products remains very negligible.

The export of surgical instruments posted a negative growth of 6.09pc in 3MFY22 over the last
year. However, exports of pharmaceutical products posted over 7pc growth during the period
under review.

The export of footwear increased by 15.23pc year-on-year led by leather and canvas footwear.
The export of engineering products up 10.87pc year-on-year in FY22. However, export of
electric fans dipped 22.78pc during the year under review.

The export of carpets went up by 19pc, while that of sports goods up 16.81pc during first three
months this year from a year ago. In the sports sector, the sales of footballs up 14.60pc in July-
Sept this year from a year ago.

In the budget 2021-22, the government has proposed several measures including reduction in
duty on raw materials to promote exports of pharmaceutical, plastic, chemicals, engineering, and
value-added textile products.

Data compiled by the PBS showed the food basket posted growth of 26.41pc in the first three
months of the current fiscal year from a year ago.

Under this category, exports of rice witnessed a growth of 17.41pc. On the other hand, basmati
exports dipped 26.88pc in value and 35.57pc in quantity while non-basmati exports were up by
12.78pc in value.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2021

https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1652887

Agriculture may face severe impacts from climate

change: minister
ISLAMABAD: Agriculture is likely to face severe impacts from climate change, reducing the
amount of food to be grown at a time when more is needed than ever before, a government
official said.

Addressing the 25th session of the Near East Forestry and Range Commission (NEFRC), hosted
virtually by Egypt, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam
said the planet’s growing population and food consumption will require food production to
increase 70 per cent by 2050.

The world population is expected to grow from 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050. With the
consumption already at 1.5 times the planet’s replenishing capacity, the current food systems are
unsustainable, he said, adding that at the same time, the production, storage, and transport of
food causes greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change.

The minister said the food systems are responsible for up to 30 per cent of the global greenhouse
gas emissions. The production of rice, which is a staple food for almost half of the world
population, is responsible for around 11 per cent of all manmade methane emissions.

In addition, cutting down forests for new farmland and unsustainable farming practices are major
sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Imam said that the agricultural sector of Pakistan is indispensable to the country’s economic
growth, food security, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

It contributes 19 per cent to the GDP and provides employment to around 39 per cent of the
labour force. More than 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for its
livelihood. Despite Covid-19, locust attack and extreme climatic events, Pakistan’s agriculture
sector’s performance during 2020/21 was encouraging, as it grew 2.77 per cent against the target
of 2.8 per cent. However, the population of the country will be 350 million by 2050 and food
 requirement will be 130 million tonnes. “This will be possible, if we wisely use land, water and
other available resources,” he said.

Further, the minister said to counter such issues, under the directives of the prime minister, the
government had already planted billion trees in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while the National Scale
Ten Billion Afforestation project is under way. These initiatives will increase the forest cover
area, desertification control, climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem
improvement.

The 10 billion afforestation programme is further linked to promote apiculture in the country and
production of quality honey with additional plantation of bee supporting flora.

Imam said that healthy forest ecosystems are essential for sustainable agriculture production. The
following recommendations have been given, strong linkages are required among Near East and
North Africa (NENA) for knowledge sharing, technology transfer and human resource
development in the areas of sustainable agriculture production, while restoration and
improvement of forest and rangeland ecosystems.

Joint programmes/ventures for public awareness and promotion of more efficient climate
resilient agriculture production systems.

A comprehensive report to document the success stories and best practices in the NENA Region.

https://www.bolnews.com/latest/2021/10/agriculture-may-face-severe-impacts-from-climate-
change-minister/

Rice Set to Climb as Fertilizer Rally Drives Up Farm

Costs
By Randy Thanthong-Knight
 +Follow
October 20, 2021, 5:00 AM GMT+5 Updated on October 20, 2021, 10:27 AM GMT+5

  
‘A ton of fertilizer is now more expensive than a ton of rice’

  
Many countries in Asia will also be hit with increasing costs

The massive rally in fertilizers is coming for rice, a staple food for half of the world’s
population, with farmers in one of the top exporters bracing for exorbitant prices of crop
nutrients in the coming planting season. 
The cost of fertilizer in Thailand is on track to double from 2020, with prices now at 16,000 baht
($480) per ton compared with an average 10,000 baht last year, according to Pramote
Charoensilp, president of the Thai Agriculturist Association, which represents rice farmers in the
world’s third-biggest shipper.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-20/a-global-food-staple-faces-pressure-from-mega-
fertilizer-rally?srnd=markets-vp

Iran’s inclusion in ‘C category’ affecting trade: CG

LAHORE: The inclusion of Iran in ‘C category’ was adversely affecting flight operations and
bilateral trade.

Talking to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) president Mian Nauman Kabir,
senior vice president Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and vice president Haris Ateeq, Iranian Consul
General Muhammad Raza Nazri said that there was no such restriction from the Iranian side and
Pakistan should do the same.

The envoy invited suggestions from the LCCI and the Quetta Chamber regarding inclusion or
exclusion of items in the barter trade list.
It was decided that rice and denim would be exported from Pakistan and, in return, it would buy
electricity, he said, adding that Iran was ready to supply natural gas to Pakistan under the barter
trade.

“Now, it is up to the Pakistan government to take any step,” he said, adding that Iran was
facilitating import of mangoes.

Nazri said that Pakistan has imposed 50 per cent duty on Iranian apples, which was just 10 per
cent in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Consulate in Iran should expedite the process of visa issuance,
he added.

Kabir promised raising the issues with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak
Dawood and said that joint venture between Pakistani and Iranian traders could help promote
bilateral trade.

Both countries should focus on market research and give priority to each other in terms of
imports and exports, he added.

https://www.bolnews.com/latest/2021/10/irans-inclusion-in-c-category-affecting-trade-cg/

High-yielding Chinese Rice makes farmers happy

Last Updated: 2021-10-20 13:32 | Gwadar Pro

by Tahir Ali 

 
 Farmers say Chinese seeds give high yield. [Photo/Tahir Ali]

MALAKAND, October 20 (Gwadar Pro) – Abdul Hakim, 49, is delighted to see his rice yield
triple. Living on the bank of the Swat River at village Nagram, the farmer said, “With Chinese
seeds, the yield is three times that of the local seeds.”   

Abdul Hakim is not the only cultivator to achieve high yield. The other farmers in the area also
attributed the increase in production to Chinese seeds. “The rice is early maturing, medium
heighted and with medium grains,” said farmer Muhammad Khaliq, adding that the farmers do
not know the exact name and variety of the rice but locally they call it China Sholi (Chinese
rice).

 
 

Farmers separate husks from grain with the help of fans. [Photo/Tahir Ali]

In the past, the majority of farmers in this area sowed Sara Saila (Basmati rice). The farmers had
to soak the rice in water, and then subject it to heat treatment followed by a drying process.
“With too much effort and less yield, we switched from sowing traditional seeds to the
cultivation of Chinese rice,” farmer Fazal Wahab told Gwadar Pro.

He said that Chinese rice has a high demand in the market. So farmers do not need to store the
rice in their stowage but traders buy rice in fields from them and take the grains to nearby
markets and mills.

 “Sata” is the name for a traditional unit of mass used in the Malakand region. One Sata is equal
to 110 kilograms of weight. Currently, the Chinese rice is sold at Rs. 5200 per Sata (Rs. 47 per
kg). “Chinese rice has great demands in the market. We take the rice to different rice mills of the
country,” Bakhtdi Mal Sha, a trader told Gwadar Pro.

According to him, the price of Chinese rice and other local varieties is almost equal, so farmers
choose to cultivate the most profitable crop with less effort.
Farmer Muhammad Anas hoped that in addition to hybrid seeds, China would also transfer
agricultural technology to help increase the cultivation of different crops in Malakand Division.
The farmers are using traditional tools for harvesting rice in Malakand region.

Farmers smashing rice sprout with the aid of tractor. [Photo/Tahir Ali] 

Pakistan and China are enhancing agriculture cooperation under the framework of China-
Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In April 2020, around 500 tonnes of hybrid rice seeds were
brought from Jiangsu, China to enhance rice yield in Pakistan. The Universities of Wuhan and
Punjab are jointly developing high-yield hybrid rice varieties with the latest technologies. Since
2019, they are cooperating to develop Honglian hybrid rice in Pakistan, whose cultivation
globally has exceeded over 30 million hectares.

 
With a growing population, Pakistan needs to develop high-yield hybrid crops with Chinese
cooperation.Gu Wenliang, Agricultural Commissioner at the Embassy of the People’s Republic
of China in Pakistan, on Tuesday said in a tweet, “more hybrid rice varieties will be introduced
to Pakistan to boost rice exports”.

http://en.ce.cn/Insight/202110/20/t20211020_37011657.shtml

Envoy calls for removal of Covid travel curbs on Iran

Says Islamabad has put Tehran in Category C that hinders flights, trade

APPOctober 19, 2021

LAHORE:
With regard to Covid-19 restrictions, Pakistan has classified Iran in Category C, which is
adversely affecting flight operations and bilateral trade, said Iranian Consul General
Muhammad Raza Nazri.
Addressing the business community during his visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (LCCI) on Monday, he pointed out that there was no such restriction from the Iranian
side, hence Islamabad should remove its neighbour from Category C.
He requested Lahore and Quetta Chambers of Commerce to present their suggestions for the
inclusion or exclusion of items in the barter trade list.
Referring to barter trade, he said that Pakistani officials decided to export rice and denim to Iran
in exchange for electricity but the State Bank of Pakistan refused to facilitate the deal, therefore,
the case was still pending.
The consul general said that Iran had abundant liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas and
the Gulf country was ready to supply it to Pakistan under the barter trade agreement.
“Now, it is up to the government of Pakistan to take steps for facilitating the transaction,” he
said.
The consul general noted that Iran had introduced various facilities for the import of mangoes
from Pakistan and urged local exporters to take full advantage of them.
The envoy pointed out that Pakistan had slapped 50% duty on Iranian apples while Afghanistan
charged just 10% levy. He requested the government of Pakistan to reduce the levy.
Read Iran ‘fully supports’ Pakistan’s regional approach on Afghanistan
He stated that Pakistani Consulate in Iran had delayed the issuance of visas to the Iranians while
on the flip side, Iranian Consulate in Pakistan continued to approve visas without any delay. He
called for expediting the visa process.
“Significant trade is taking place regardless of the US sanctions on Tehran and Iranian trucks
should be allowed to enter Pakistan,” he emphasised.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir asked Iranian Consulate to
forward all issues, related to barter trade, to the Lahore Chamber and promised to highlight them
before Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood.
According to him, joint ventures between Pakistani and Iranian traders can play a vital role in
promoting bilateral trade.
“Both countries should focus on market research and prioritise each other in terms of imports
and exports,” he stated. “There are some bottlenecks in the way of increasing trade between the
two countries, which should be addressed on an immediate basis.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2021.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2325453/envoy-calls-for-removal-of-covid-travel-curbs-on-iran

Freeing the flight fright for Indian Pitta

Roughly about 17 to 19 cm in length and weighing 45 to 65 grams, the Indian Pitta is a small,
stubby-tailed bird.

Published: 20th October 2021 06:43 AM  |   Last Updated: 20th October 2021 10:37

By Vaishali Vijaykumar

Express News Service

CHENNAI: It may be endemic to the Himalayan foothills, but the Indian Pitta knows when to fly
to its summer home — south India. Luckily for us Chennaiites, this year, the bird — which is
usually difficult to sight — has been spotted in balconies and at the doorsteps of residents across
the city. But the long flight has left them dehydrated, distressed and disoriented, report some of
its benefactors.  

In response to the increasing number of SOS calls from people, Shravan Krishnan, founder,
Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary, shared an elaborate, informative post on his Instagram
page about handling migratory birds in such dire circumstances. “This is the season when Pittas
migrate from the north and central India to the south. Some are said to migrate from the
Himalayas to Chennai. They get tired because of the travel,” he tells CE.

Indian Pitta

Roughly about 17 to 19 cm in length and weighing 45 to 65 grams, the Indian Pitta is a small,
stubby-tailed bird. Endowed with long, strong legs and a stout bill, a buffy crown with a black
stripe in the middle, a black eye-stripe, and buffy underparts with bright red on the vent, and a
striking plumage, sighting the Pitta is quite a prize for birders. 

Besides the Indian Pittas, the orange-headed Thrush species also pay a visit. These birds often
come by October and fly back by April. Offering a word of caution, Shravan says, “We spot
them in Theosophical Society and almost all parts of the city. When people spot these creatures,
they get excited and take lots of photographs and put these birds in distress. A similar problem
happens with barn owls. They are commonly found here. If they don’t go to their nest or burrows
by daybreak, they get attacked by crows. They won’t get injured but remain confused and
stressed. The best is to put them in a dark place, give them water and food, and release them in
the same spot.” 
ADVERTISEMENT

With more awareness in the past few years, people are now more welcoming of these creatures.
“You can reach out to organisations like ours, which has been doing wildlife rehabilitation for
some time. People are now equipped to handle these birds. We’re here to help you out,” he
assures.

Handle with care

The Indian Pitta can be found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Dos

If the bird is in a secure place, away from direct sunlight and predators (dogs, cats and other
birds),w just let it be. Place a bowl of water with some electral powder in it. The bird will
rehydrate itself and fly away.

If the bird is not in a secure place, try and gently get hold of the bird and put it in a box or cage.
Place a bowl of water with electral powder in it.

Keep the bird indoors, preferably in a cool place. An AC room would be ideal.

If you have access to worms or small insects, then you can place them inside the box.

The bird will rehydrate and have enough strength to fly in a few hours. The bird should be
released only during the day or early evening and at the same spot where it was found.

Don’ts

Don’t call a rescuer or an NGO to take away the bird, unless the bird is injured.

Don’t mishandle the bird or take selfies. They are delicate and can die because of shock if we
hold them.

These birds are insectivorous. Don’t feed them bread, millets, rice or grains.

Don’t force-feed. Don’t disturb it once it’s inside the cage. You can even cover the cage with a
cloth, so it doesn’t see humans around.

Don’t go to a waterbody or release the bird in a different location. It’s best to release it in the
same place where it was found.

Don’t release the bird after sunset. These are predominantly diurnal birds.

Indian Pitta breeds in the central and northern parts of the Indian peninsula and migrates to south
India during winter. During summer, it is very bold and conspicuous, often calling in the open.
But it becomes shy and secretive during winter, calling and showing itself only during dawn and
dusk. Indian Pitta is especially prone to collisions with glass facades and buildings during
autumn migration in south India. (Source: birdcount.in)

https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2021/oct/20/freeing-the-flight-fright-for-
indian-pitta-2373289.html

Rice Prices Set to Rise as Fertilizer Rally Drives up

Farm Costs
Randy Thanthong-Knight, Bloomberg News

RD79 (Rice Department 79) rice is grown in a pilot field at the Chai Nat Rice Research Center in
Khao Tha Phra, Chai Nat, Thailand, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. For Thailand, rice isn't just
central to its cuisine, it's the country's most important crop, one that supports more than 4 million
households. Photographer: Nicolas Axelrod/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The massive rally in fertilizers is coming for rice, a staple food for half of the
world’s population, with farmers in one of the top exporters bracing for exorbitant prices of crop
nutrients in the coming planting season. 

The cost of fertilizer in Thailand is on track to double from 2020, with prices now at 16,000 baht
($480) per ton compared with an average 10,000 baht last year, according to Pramote
Charoensilp, president of the Thai Agriculturist Association, which represents rice farmers in the
world’s third-biggest shipper.

“It’ll be a problem for rice farmers in coming months. Many of them have already harvested last
season’s rice and are getting ready for planting so they’ll need fertilizer,” Pramote said in an
interview on Tuesday. “A ton of fertilizer is now more expensive than a ton of rice.”

Rice is a food staple in many countries in Asia and surging fertilizer prices because of a global
energy crunch are set to raise costs for many farmers in the region. In some countries, that may
lead to governments having to step in to boost farmer subsidies in order to ensure essential
supplies.

China’s Curbs

Like many other rice-producing nations, Thailand imports almost all of its urea, phosphate and
potassium from abroad, including from China. That makes the country more susceptible to
changes in Chinese export policies, and the woes are exacerbated by rising logistic costs.
China is stepping up inspection of fertilizer exports amid concern over the impact of rising prices
on domestic food security, according to a customs notice dated Oct. 11. China is a key supplier
of urea and phosphate to the global market, including to major buyers such as India, Pakistan and
Southeast Asian countries. 

READ: China Warns on Food Security as Coal Crunch Hits Fertilizers 

While floods spared most of Thailand’s rice fields and exporters are keeping to a shipment target
of 6 million tons this year, fertilizer costs will become a “big issue” for farmers already
struggling with low prices, Pramote said. “The government should intervene.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/rice-prices-set-to-rise-as-fertilizer-rally-drives-up-farm-costs-

This New Installation Pulled 20,000 Pounds of Plastic

From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The trash collection device dubbed ‘Jenny’ could help address overwhelming marine plastic
pollution

Corryn Wetzel
Daily Correspondent
October 19, 2021 3:09 p.m.

The device was developed by The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit that aims to remove 90 percent of floating
ocean plastic by 2040. The Ocean Cleanup

The Pacific Ocean is home to a massive collection of floating trash twice the size of
Texas called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. How to address this ever-expanding
accumulation of trash and debris has long stumped scientists, but a new approach from
the non-profit The Ocean Cleanup is showing promising results. During testing, the
organization reported that the half-mile installation pulled a whopping 20,000 pounds of
plastic from the ocean.
The majority of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch isn’t a solid raft of floating trash, but
rather tiny pieces of plastic suspended in seawater. The plastics, which usually range
from plastic bottles to pieces of trash smaller than a grain of rice, are suspended in the
upper water column. The low-density mass of trash is invisible to satellites, and could
even be missed by casual boaters or divers, reports Li Cohen for CBS News. The patch
covers an estimated 1.6 million square kilometers—roughly three times the size of France
—and currently floats between Hawaiʻi and California.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly expanding as rotating currents called
gyres pull more and more trash into the area. In each of the ocean’s five gyres—one in
the Indian, two in the Atlantic, and two in the Pacific—have accumulated their own
garbage piles of varying size, with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch being the largest and
most well-known.

The Ocean Cleanup, which has the goal of removing 90 percent of floating ocean plastic
by 2040, has been developing and testing multiple trash-cleanup prototypes for years
with limited success. Their 2018 model broke in the water, and their 2019 version lacked
the trash-collecting efficiency needed to make a meaningful dent in the problem. Their
newest U-shaped net system, nicknamed “Jenny,” is their most successful iteration yet.

Guided by two boats, the half-mile-long installation works by catching large and small
debris from the seawater in a funnel-shaped net. Once Jenny is full of trash, workers
empty the plastic onto the boat before taking it ashore to recycle.

However, the technique is quite similar to trawl fishing, reports Earther's Molly

Taft. One concern scientists had about the installation was the risk of accidentally
ensnaring fish or other marine life in the collection net, but The Ocean Cleanup says
slow-moving Jenny is animal friendly. The boats tow Jenny at roughly 1.5 knots, a speed
at which most marine life can swim away, and the system has escape routes and lights to
guide disoriented animals out of the netting. 

“They spent I don’t know how many tens of millions of dollars to invent fishing,” Miriam
Goldstein, the Center for American Progress's ocean policy director, who has a Ph.D. in
biological oceanography, tells Earther. Goldsteing adds that the system is essentially “a
net dragged between two boats. We have a name for a net dragged between two boats,
and that’s trawl fishing."

Critics also note the large carbon footprint of the type of boats, called Maersk ships, used
to drag the large net, per Earther. The Ocean Collective has previously said they plan
to purchase carbon offsets to rectify this concern. 
In Jenny’s final test run, the team found the system scooped 19,841 pounds of debris
from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

Removing 20,000 pounds of trash is a feat, but only addresses a small piece of the
problem. A 2018 study estimated that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contains
roughly 79,000 tons of plastic. The cleanup installation showed promising results, but
most researchers agree efforts should also be put toward preventing plastic from entering
the ocean in the first place. A 2020 study found that more than 24 trillion pounds of
plastic are being dumped into oceans each year, a figure that could nearly triple by 2040.
Installations like Jenny also do little to address the substantial accumulation of plastics on
the ocean floor, reports Aria Bendix for Business Insider. 

Despite the scale of the problem, the nonprofit’s founder, Dutch inventor Boyan
Slat, says they would need about ten Jennys to clean up half of the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch in five years.

Corryn Wetzel |  | READ MORE

Corryn Wetzel is a freelance science journalist based in Brooklyn. Her work has also
appeared in Audubon magazine, National Geographic and others.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-new-installation-just-pulled-20000-pounds-of-plastic-
from-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-180978895/

Japan offers to buy 81,318 tonnes of food wheat via

tender
in Freight News 20/10/2021

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture is seeking to buy a total of 81,318 tonnes of

food-quality wheat from the United States and Canada in a regular tender
that will close late on Thursday.
Japan, the world’s sixth-biggest wheat importer, keeps a tight grip on
imports of the country’s second most important staple behind rice and buys
the majority of the grain for milling via tenders typically issued three times a
month.
Source: Reuters (Editing by Louise Heavens)
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/japan-offers-to-buy-81318-tonnes-of-food-wheat-via-tender-2021-10-
19#:~:text=Japan's%20Ministry%20of%20Agriculture%20is,will%20close%20late%20on%20Thursday.

USDA Production Estimates Influences Oats

and Corn Futures Prices
Corn and Oats closed with moderate losses last week on selling seen in response to the latest
USDA production and supply and demand estimates. Trends turned mixed on the daily charts for
both markets. December Corn was also lower last week on ideas of solid harvest progress and
ideas that farmers might be selling right off the combine. Support came from strong ethanol
demand data.

 October 19, 2021

By Jack Scoville 

Wheat: Winter Wheat was lower last week and Minneapolis Spring Wheat was higher as are
trends trying to turn up again on the daily charts. Trends are still up on the weekly charts.  The
US and Canada have reduced production this year and so do most exporters around the world. 
Production is less this year in Russia and internal prices have been strong. Dry weather in
southern Russia as well as the northern US Great Plains and Canadian Prairies remains a
supportive feature in the market although the weather has become old news. The Russian
weather has been good for production in northern and western areas but is still trending dry in
southern areas and into Kazakhstan.  Siberian Spring Wheat conditions have been very good. 
Europe is expecting top yields in some areas but less yield in others and parts of eastern Europe
and northern Russia are expecting strong yields. European quality is a problem due to too much
rain in some areas and not enough in others. 
Weekly Chicago Soft Red Winter Wheat Futures 

Weekly Chicago Hard Red Winter Wheat Futures

Weekly Minneapolis Hard Red Spring Wheat Futures

Corn: Corn and Oats closed with moderate losses last week on selling seen in response to the
latest USDA production and supply and demand estimates. Trends turned mixed on the daily
charts for both markets. December Corn was also lower last week on ideas of solid harvest
progress and ideas that farmers might be selling right off the combine.  Support came from
strong ethanol demand data. USDA showed a slight increase in yields and production and
increased ending stocks in the reports released on Tuesday. Demand will be an increasing feature
in the trade moving forward as the harvest moves to its halfway point. Initial yield reports have
been mixed, with some lower yields reported due to disease but some higher than expected yields
reported in western areas. Most of the elevators along the Mississippi are exporting again which
is good news for nearby demand. There are a lot of ideas that production and planted and
harvested area will be significantly less next year due to the lack of fertilizers available and the
cost of production. The Oats market knows that supplies will be tight due to a drought in the
northern Great Plains and Canada. There will not be much in the way of high quality Oats for
consumers to buy in the coming year. 

Weekly Corn Futures

Weekly Oats Futures

Soybeans and Soybean Meal: Soybeans were lower last week and the products closed a little
lower despite recovery trading seen after a couple of hard down days from the latest USDA
reports.   The selling came in response to the USDA reports released on Tuesday and as chart
patterns remain down.  Speculators were the best sellers but turned buyers later in the
week. USDA greatly increased yields and production and increased ending stocks levels on
Tuesday and ideas are that further increases are coming. The weekly charts still show
downtrends for all three markets, and the daily chart trends are down in Soybeans and mixed
Soybean Meal.  Chinese demand has been supportive until now as the country was active in the
US Soybeans but China is on holiday this week so no sales announcements are expected. 
Harvest is moving to the halfway point for Soybeans and a harvest low might be seen during the
second half of the harvest.  Gulf port elevators are coming on line and exports are increasing. 
Weekly Chicago Soybeans Futures:

Weekly Chicago Soybean Meal Futures

Rice: Rice closed higher last week and chart trends are turning up again. USDA increased yield
very slightly but cut imports by quite a bit in its latest reports released on Tuesday. USDA also
cut demand but ending stocks were reduced anyway.  Ideas are that demand is not yet strong
enough to take up the supply available to the market.  The first crop has been largely harvested in
Texas and in Louisiana, but the second crop is still in the field and is getting harvested now.
Harvesting is about over in both states now. Mississippi and Arkansas producers are also almost
done with the harvest. Yield reports and quality reports have been acceptable to many in Texas
and are called good in Louisiana.  The reports have been good in both Arkansas and Mississippi
SEE ALSO  Things to know about investing in the automotive sector

Weekly Chicago Rice Futures

Palm Oil and Vegetable Oils: Palm Oil was higher on Friday but lower for the week on rallies in
slow exports as reported by the private services. Support still comes from ideas that supply and
demand are in balance or supplies are short.  India was the major importer as the country reduced
import taxes. It has also reduced import taxes now for Soybean Oil and Canola Oil and this has
caused some demand worries for Palm. The weekly chart trends are up again. There are ideas of
tight supplies due to labor problems. There are just not enough workers in the fields due to
Coronavirus restrictions. Production has also been down to more than offset the export losses so
prices have trended higher.  Canola closed lower for the week as the harvest is continuing amid
good conditions in the Prairies. Farmers are bullish and reluctant to sell and would rather work in
the fields. The weekly chart trends are sideways. Production ideas are down due to the extreme
weather seen in these areas. It remains generally dry and warm in the Prairies.  The Prairies crops
are in big trouble now due to previous hot and dry weather. 

Weekly Malaysian Palm Oil Futures

Weekly Chicago Soybean Oil Futures

Weekly Canola Futures:

Cotton: Futures were lower last week but held to the trading range of the previous week. USDA
sent the markets lower with the production and WASDE reports on Tuesday. The USDA reports
showed better production than anticipated but very good demand for US Cotton. Demand data
was unchanged in the USDA reports Tuesday. Demand for US Cotton remains very strong and
that is good news for sellers as the strong demand implies strong prices should continue. The
demand is expected to be strong from Asian countries as world economies recover from Covid
lockdowns.  Analysts say the demand is still very strong and likely to hold at high levels for the
future. Good US production is expected, but there are some questions about the overall
production in Texas. There are ideas of less production from India due to recent adverse weather
in Cotton areas there. Chinese Cotton areas have had too much rain as well, and Chinese demand
is also strong as clothes makers use foreign Cotton to get away from domestic supplies that
might have been produced by forced labor and might not be allowed in the US or other western
countries
Weekly US Cotton Futures
Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice and Citrus: FCOJ closed lower last week on what appeared to
be speculative selling as the hurricane season has passed its peak and the chances for a damaging
storm to hit the state of Florida are dropping by the day. The weather remains generally good for
production around the world. Brazil has some rain is in the forecast and flowering will be
possible in the next couple of weeks. Weather conditions in Florida are rated mostly good for the
crops with scattered showers and near-normal temperatures. Mexican crop conditions in central
and southern areas are called good with rains, but earlier dry weather might have hurt
production. Northeastern Mexico areas were too dry but have gotten good rains in recent weeks,
and the rest of northern and western Mexico is rated in good condition. Florida is in the latter
stages of the hurricane season but the storms have missed the state so far and crop conditions are
good. 

Weekly FCOJ Futures

Coffee: New York closed the week a little higher and London closed a little lower and trends are
still up in New York and mixed in London. The rally is still supply-based. Coffee in Brazil
reported smaller exports in September and this was the fundamental reason for the move. The
lack of Coffee and freight to move the Coffee that is available is still supporting futures. It has
been dry in Brazil and there has been a big freeze there. New York and London are both having
trouble sourcing Coffee from any country due to a shortage of containers to carry the Coffee out
of the origin country.  Scattered showers are still in the forecast for Brazil and some flowering
could occur. Scattered showers are now in the forecast for Southeast Asia and big rains are
possible in Vietnam from a tropical system. Big rains were reported in Vietnam over the
weekend and more are possible by the end of the week. Good conditions are reported in northern
South America with above-average rains and good conditions are reported in Central America
with near-average rains.  Conditions are reported to be generally good in parts of Africa.

SEE ALSO  Coffee producers in Brazil, Vietnam not selling much due to perceived low prices

Weekly New York Arabica Coffee Futures

Weekly London Robusta Coffee Futures

Sugar: New York and London were higher last week as supplies remain tight and demand is said
to be improving.  Trends are still trying to turn up again on the daily and weekly charts. Ideas are
that the supplies available to the cash market are rather slim and that demand is increasing for
both White and Raw Sugar. The reduced production potential from Brazil is still impacting the
market. India is not offering as world prices are well below domestic prices and has had some
weather problems of its own. Consumption of Sugar is said to be improving from previously low
levels.  Thailand is expecting improved production. It is raining in southern Brazil which will be
good for the next crops there but the tight situation now must still be dealt with.           
Weekly New York World Raw Sugar Futures

Weekly London White Sugar Futures

Cocoa: New York and London closed lower last week on what appeared to be speculative
selling. Ideas of short West African production for the coming year are still providing the best
support. There are increasing concerns that Ghana will have less production this year and it has
been raining in the Ivory Coast to promote the return of disease to the pods. Ghana is the world’s
second-largest producer behind Ivory Coast so reduced production in both countries could mean
short supplies for the world market this year. World economies are starting to reopen after Covid
and the open economies are giving demand the boost. Cocoa production in Ivory Coast is
expected to drop by up to 11% in the 2021/2022 season that starts on Oct. 1 from the previous
year. 

Weekly New York Cocoa Futures

Weekly London Cocoa Futures

—

(Featured image by Lexian via Pixabay)

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Super Imperialism: The economic strategy of

American empire with economist Michael
Hudson

B E N N OR TON  AN D  MAX BLU MEN THA L ·OC TOBER 19, 2021

E con omis t M ich ael Hu ds on dis cu ss es th e update of h is book “S u per

I mper ialis m: Th e Econ omic S tr ategy of Amer ican Empir e” an d th e fin an cial
motivat ion s beh in d th e U S n ew cold war on Ch in a an d Rus s ia.

Economist Michael Hudson has published a new, third edition of his book Super

Imperialism that updates his analysis for the 21st century, discussing the new cold war on China
and Russia and the ongoing transition from a US dollar-dominated financialized system to a
“multipolar de-dollarized economy.”

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton spoke with Hudson about the book and how
the strategy of US economic hegemony has evolved since World War One.

You can listen to this interview or download a podcast version here.

T ran s crip t

BEN NORTON: Hello, everyone, this is Moderate Rebels live. I’m Ben Norton. As always, I’m
joined by my co-host, Max Blumenthal. And today we have back one of our most popular guests,
one of our favorite guests, Professor Michael Hudson.

People probably know who he is. He is a prominent economist, a very unique thinker. He has
written several books not only on economics, but also on history and human society. He’s an
expert on balance of payments, and debt, and a lot of topics. And today we’re going to talk about
a new edition of his book that was just published.

We actually had Professor Hudson on over a year ago to talk about his legendary book Super
Imperialism. He actually just published a new edition of it. You can see here, Super Imperialism:
The Economic Strategy of American Empire.

And he just published the third edition. It just came out. So we wanted to have him on to talk
about why Professor Hudson updated this book that he published back in the 1970s. This is now
the third edition.

The second edition was published in 2002 or 2003, at the beginning of the so-called War on
Terror. And I think it’s pretty appropriate, Professor Hudson, we can begin with this – I think it’s
pretty appropriate that your first edition of Super Imperialism was published after Richard Nixon
took the dollar off of gold in the early 1970s.

And then the second edition was published after 9/11 and the beginning of the War on Terror,
which represents a kind of new phase of imperialism. And then finally, your third edition here
was just published, and your new edition encompasses the new cold war.

The final chapter talks about the increasing economic competition between the US on one side
and China and Russia on the other side. And you talk about the move toward a “de-dollarized
multi-polar economy.” So can you talk about the differences in the editions and how they reflect
the changes in US super imperialism, the system that you described back in the 1970s?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the first edition was published in September of 1972, 13 months
after President Nixon took the dollar off gold. And everybody was worried that, oh, without
gold, how are we going to control the world? How are we going to control Europe? Because
we’re losing all the gold.

Because the entire balance-of-payments deficit in the 1950s and the ’60s and early 70s came
from military spending. And they thought that if you had to lose your gold stock, which was the
source of world power, as a result of military spending, how can you control the world?

Well, what I wrote was that there was a new means of controlling the world and going off gold
had actually locked in America’s control, because now that it had forced other central banks not
to buy gold, what were they going to do? All they could do was recycle the dollar surpluses they
were getting into U.S. Treasury bonds. Because that’s what central banks bought; they would
buy Treasury bonds.

So then what I said was that all this deficit coming from the military spending abroad is going to
be recycled to the United States by central banks who have to recycle their money into dollars,
otherwise their currencies are going to go way up, and that will price their exports out of the
market, and it’ll make their economies basically overvalued.
So to keep down the value, they buy U.S. dollar securities, and America would not let some by
big companies; it wouldn’t let them buy anything important, only U.S. Treasury bonds.

So the irony is that the larger the balance-of-payments deficit became, the more money was
recycled into financing the U.S. budget deficit, which also was largely military.

Well, I thought that this was going to be a warning to other countries. And indeed, there was a
very quick Spanish translation and Japanese translation. But the main purchases, as we’ve talked
about a year ago, were the CIA and the Defense Department.

Immediately Herman Kahn hired me to the Hudson Institute and gave a very large grant for me
to explain to the government how imperialism was working. And the U.S. government used this
as a how-to-do-it book.

Well, it went out of print, and Pluto Press offered to make a new addition, but it had hundreds
and hundreds of typographical errors, and I didn’t like the reset. And I was going to live with that
until I began to work in China, 10 or 15 years ago, and the Chinese government wanted me to do
a new version to upgrade it as a key to how they can de-dollarize.

And from their point of view, they want to see how they can decouple not only from the United
States, but from the West. They don’t look at there as being any competition between China and
the United States, certainly not industrial competition.

The United States decided it was going to de-industrialize, because its corporations could
essentially hire cheaper labor abroad than they could hire in the United States.

The United States has got so debt-oriented and so privatized. Since the Reagan Revolution, the
American economy was Thatcher-ized, and that made it a high-cost economy.

The cost of housing has gone way up. The cost of medical insurance has gone way up. The debt
burden has gone way up. And America has now priced itself out of the market.

So China and Russia look at America as an object lesson, as how do we avoid here having the
dynamic that occurred in the United States. It doesn’t have anything to do with capitalism versus
socialism or other isms. It has to do with the basic dynamics of debt.

And China realizes that, ok, we’re going to do make our economy productive in the way that the
United States and Germany did in the 19th century. It’s a mixed economy. And as a mixed
economy, we’re going to have the government provide the basic utilities at a subsidized rate,
instead of letting them be privatized, so that we can have a low-priced economy.

And the most important public utility to China, as it was to Russia, is to keep money creation,
banking, and credit in the public domain.

So right now, you’ve seen the problems and the news about the Chinese company [Evergrande]
getting into trouble. And in America, if the largest real estate corporation like BlackRock were to
go under, that would bring down the banks; it would bring down everything. It doesn’t doesn’t
have a ripple in China, because the the debts are owed to the government, and the government
can simply write down the debt.

It can decide what to do, to protect the home buyers who put money into buying apartments low.
It can tax away the land rent to prevent the housing from being essentially financialized. So
China is trying to de-financialize its real estate, de-financialize its industry.

It’s not a rivalry with the United States; it’s a rejection of the whole neoliberal structure that the
United States has put in place.

And what I discuss and Super Imperialism is how the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund were created as a means of imposing a neoliberal, anti-government structure on
the world to prevent other countries from regulating their industry or from regulating their
agriculture.

The function of the World Bank basically was to make Third World countries, the Global South,
dependent on the United States for their food supply, by only funding export agriculture, export
plantation crops, not growing their own food.

The function of the IMF was to use debt leverage to force other countries to impose austerity on
their populations, and to essentially say we will control what government you have, because if
your government does something that the United States officials don’t like, we’re just going to
raid your currency, force of austerity on you, and you’ll be voted out of power.

So essentially, the United States, what it calls the international organizations, as if this is a world
organization, is actually a very nationalistic tool of the United States to distort the agriculture and
industry and commercial development of other countries, to serve U.S. interests and specifically
U.S. financial interests.

And the mode of control, obviously, is not military anymore; it’s financial. And Super
Imperialism is about how America is different from European colonialism by controlling the
world financially and covertly, politically, not by military force.

And yet all of this requires an enormous subsidy of foreign countries that are now decoupling
from the dollar and no longer giving America the free ride that it has been getting since 1971,
when all governments could do with their balance-of-payments surpluses were to buy Treasury
bonds.

Now they’re buying gold. They’re buying each other’s currencies. They’re doing everything
except holding dollars. And that’s the big change in the world.

So when the Chinese ask me to rewrite this book for their audience – and I spend a lot of time
with China – I thought, well, I’m going to fix up Super Imperialism; I’m going to re-edit it; I’m
going to include some episodes that I didn’t include before; and I’m going to show how the
framework of international relations has been transformed in a way that isn’t being discussed in
the press.

BEN NORTON: Professor Hudson, you said something there that, not necessarily to push back,
but to complement your analysis, you said that it’s no longer about military domination, but
financial. I would say it’s both, and that they are kind of two sides of the same coin that reinforce
each other.

One of the points that you make throughout the book is that the U.S. military occupies many
parts of the world, including it has occupied Japan since 1945, Korea since the 1950s, the early
1950s; there are troops in Germany and many other countries.

So the US military presence clearly in Afghanistan and Syria right now and Iraq, it’s still a huge
part of it, but complementing that, you point out in your book, is that those U.S. military
occupations are essentially paid for by the country that is being occupied by the U.S. military.

Can you explain how that works? And how that that scheme – you keep calling it in your book,
again and again, a free lunch, that the U.S. has a free lunch; it has accomplished an economic
scheme that no other country was able to accomplish. Can you explain how that still operates
today?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well it’s not that the country that is hosting the troops is paying; it’s the
payment-surplus countries in general. It’s Saudi Arabia; it’s Germany; it’s the prosperous
countries that are paying.

Here’s what happens. And here’s what happened during the Vietnam War. And here’s what was
not in the Vietnam Papers that McNamara asked for.

When the United States spent money in Vietnam, or when it spends it now in the Near East or
the 800 military bases it has, these dollars go into the domestic economy. And when you’re in
Japan and Korea, what do you do? You turn these dollars, you make an export, you get the
spending – you turn it in for domestic currency to your central bank.

The central bank now ends up with these dollars that are thrown off by American military
spending. And what is the central bank going to do with the dollars? Well, central banks –
America told Japan already in the 1970s, when Japan was basically funding, 22 percent of the
entire U.S. budget deficit was funded by Japan in 1986.

And America said, look, we’re not going to let you buy any major company. We’re going to let
other, former whisky sellers, the Seagram people buy DuPont, but we won’t let you buy DuPont,
because you’re Japanese.

We’re not going to let you buy a company. You can buy Rockefeller Center, and lose a billion
dollars on it. You can buy a Pebble Beach golf course. But really, you’re going to have to take
the money that you’re getting in Japan for the US exports, and you’re going to have to invest it in
Treasury bills. Otherwise, we’re going to impose punitive tariffs against you and we’re going to
do something you don’t like.

Because remember, you Japanese, you’re the yakuza, you’re the crooks that we put in power to
fight the socialists to make sure Japan didn’t go socialist. You’re the gangs. You’re going to do
what we say.

And Japan did exactly what the United States told them to do, recycled its auto export earnings
and electronic exports to help finance the US balance-of-payments deficit and the US budget
deficit simultaneously.

So it was Japan, Germany, France, other countries that ended up with all these dollars that are
spent abroad.

For instance, the money America spent in Vietnam, because that was French Indo-China earlier,
the money was all sent to French banks. And General de Gaulle would turn in the dollars being
thrown off by the army in Vietnam to buy gold every month, much to their embarrassment.
Germany did the same thing with this dollars.

So basically, America wants the ability to say we have one power, we can wreck your economy.
If you don’t do it, we say, we can make you look like Libya, we can make you look like Iraq, and
we can tear you up. We can make you like Afghanistan.

We have one power. We don’t have economic power. We don’t have productivity. We don’t
have competitive power. But we can destroy you, and we’re willing to destroy you, because
otherwise we’re going under.

And we’re not going to feel safe unless we have the power to destroy you and prevent you from
having the power to fight back and protect yourself.

So it can only do this if it can control the financial system that recycles all of this military
spending abroad in the United States, otherwise America would have to either print the money or
tax its corporations and people, which would make it even more high cost.

So America essentially has painted itself into a corner as a result of its military spending. It has
lost its industrial advantage. It has lost its international competitiveness. And the only thing that
it has left to do is the power to destroy, if other countries don’t essentially surrender their
economies to control by the US, pretending to be objective and non-nationalistic by saying,
we’re not controlling you, the the World Bank is controlling you, the IMF is controlling you, the
international organizations are controlling you.

But it’s a double standard. And my book shows how this double standard has perverted these
seemingly international organizations into nationalistic arms, basically, of the Defense
Department and State Department.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Professor Hudson, you write in Super Imperialism about how the
United States, coming out of World War Two, was facing a balance-of-payments problem. It had
a surplus and it managed to resolve this problem through a cold war, in which it moved into
deficit spending in order to promote foreign export markets and world currency stability.

I wonder if you can expound on that and maybe take us into the new cold war and the economic
rationale for a very different United States, arguably a declining empire that has agitated a new
cold war.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, in 1944 and 1945, it was apparent that the war was going to be
over, and the United States had gained power since World War One, essentially by staying out of
war and by building up its own industry.

So the United States essentially structured the post-war world so that it would increase its
economic power. And indeed, from 1945 to 1951, the United States increased its balance, its
gold supply, to three-quarters of the world’s gold, monetary gold, all in the United States.

Well, this was a problem for the US, because Europe and other countries said, well, wait a
minute, we’ve been on the gold standard now for a century, but we’re not going to be
impoverished if you can have all the gold, but we’re going to go in a different standard.

This is what the discussion between John Maynard Keynes and the American Treasury was all
about at the end of World War Two. Europe said if you’re going to have all the gold and control
the money, we’re not going to operate without money, we’re just going to go off gold. That’s
how we de-dollarize, by going off gold, and the dollar was as good as gold.

So the United States then decided to go to war in Korea, and the Korean War, from 1950 to 1951
onwards, every single year, the balance-of-payments deficit got worse and worse, and the entire
balance-of-payments deficit was military.

So American military spending was actually welcomed by other countries because they said, oh,
now we don’t have to create a new monetary system and go it alone. Now we can still earn
enough dollars that we can finance our own economic growth. And they were amenable to
staying in the American economic orbit.

BEN NORTON: Professor Hudson, sorry to cut you off really quickly, but I just want to
underscore a point that you make in your book that I think is crucial to understand this transition
you’re talking about.

You say in the book that, before World War Two, and immediately after World War Two,
around that time period, from the 1920s into the 1940s, the U.S. was a global creditor.

But then the point you make is that after the Korean War, when the Cold War began getting hot,
and the U.S. began waging these these proxy wars against the Soviet Union and China and other
socialist and communist forces, in Korea and Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, your
argument is that from the ’50s on, the U.S. went from being the global creditor to the global
debtor, so a major shift.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Yes. The difference is that the American debt to foreign countries is a
debt that it never expects to pay, because how is it going to pay? The debt is owed by the U.S.
government to other governments.

BEN NORTON: In the form of treasuries, Treasury bonds.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Treasury bonds. Yeah, exactly. And this debt is basically created by
military spending. So America has been able to control other countries by issuing its money.

The debt that America has is the money of other countries. The central bank reserves that they
hold in dollars in Treasury bonds is counted as their monetary reserves for their own economy.

So just like the American dollars you have in your pocket are technically a debt of the U.S.
Treasury, these dollar bills or five dollar bills or 50 dollar bills, nobody expects them to be
repaid, because if they were repaid, they wouldn’t be any more money.

BEN NORTON: And no one can force the U.S. to repay them because of the U.S. military. So
at the end of the day, the reason that the U.S. can have this global debtor status is because no one
can invade it.

MICHAEL HUDSON: That was the case until recently. Well, you know, it’s true that the
United States cannot repay its debt because it doesn’t have enough gold to repay. And it’s not
going to repay in the way that Latin America or other countries repay, by selling its industry.

It’s not going to pay its foreign debt by saying, ok, why don’t you take that Amazon? Why don’t
you take General Motors? Why don’t you take Boeing? You know, we’ll pay by giving you the
industry just like we’ve made you countries give us your industry when you’re in debt.

America simply isn’t going to do that. But other countries don’t have to ask to get repaid for
their dollars. They can say, ok, we’re not going to hold dollars. So China has decided we want to
just minimize our holdings of dollars, except for what we need for trading on the foreign-
exchange markets to keep the exchange rate stable.

Russia is avoiding dollars. Iran is the avoiding values. Obviously, Venezuela is avoiding dollars,
because anything that Venezuela holds, the U.S. can simply grab their accounts.

So other countries are afraid to have their gold in the United States. Even Germany has said send
us back the gold that we have on deposit at the Federal Reserve. We don’t trust you anymore.
Give us our gold.

Everybody is dumping the dollar, and nobody wants to be repaid. The dollar now is like a hot
potato, and nobody wants to hold it except pliant satellite economies of the United States that
don’t want to upset the United States because of the power, bribery power if nothing else, that
the United States has over European politicians, Asian politicians, all the overt support that the
United States can wield.

But other economies are just dumping the dollar. And so all these dollars are being turned in to
hard currency, each other’s currencies, gold, each other’s industry, real economic means of
production.

And so now we’re winding down the whole free-lunch system of issuing dollars that will not be
repaid.

It’s as if you’re going to the grocery store and you give them an IOU and then they ask, well, you
know, you ran up a bill last month and you owe us 50 dollars. We have your IOU.

And you say, well, you give this IOU to your dairy suppliers, or your vegetable suppliers, just
use it as money, we’ll pay someday. And somehow your IOU that you got something for just
gets used as other people’s money.

Well, that’s what the United States does on a global scale.

BEN NORTON: Professor Hudson, another point that that you addressed recently, a few
minutes ago, also in your book you call food imperialism, is the role of the International
Monetary Fund, the IMF, and the World Bank in trying to make other countries dependent on
U.S. food exports.

In the new chapter, in your updated Super Imperialism book, you refer to this as “U.S. food
imperialism versus a new international economic order.” So can you explain your argument?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the World Bank ideally was supposed to make loans for other
countries to earn dollars. In other words, so they could buy American exports of things. But the
most central element of American diplomacy for the last 80 years has been to promote U.S. farm
exports.

So the World Bank did not make any loans to Chile or Venezuela or Latin America to increase
their own food supply. You have to buy your grain and your basic food from the United States.

We want to develop your agriculture, but we will only develop export crops because you are a
tropical country that can be exported, that we can’t grow in the United States, palm oil or
whatever, coffee, bananas.

We’re going to promote plantation crops, not food supply, so that countries have become more
and more dependent on the U.S. for food. And that means that the United States can do to other
countries what it tried to do to China after Mao’s revolution.

It can say, well, you had a revolution, we don’t like. We’re going to put sanctions on you and
we’re not going to export any more food to you. Now, you can starve if you don’t reject Mao’s
revolution and thank Chiang Kai-shek.
Well, Canada broke that. Canada said, well, if America won’t sell you the grain, we’re going to
sell you the grain. So that that broke it.

Other countries are now realizing in order to be independent and prevent the U.S. from “Your
money, or your life” threat, they’re all growing their own food. They’re all being independent.

The United States two years ago, more than two years ago, thought that it was going to really
hurt Russia by putting sanctions on agricultural exports to Russia, and said, boy, now you’re
going to suffer.

So all of a sudden, the Baltic countries couldn’t export cheese or other things to Russia. What
Russia did was say this is the most wonderful thing that has happened. Now we can develop our
own agriculture.

Russia is now producing its own cheese, that it used to get from Lithuania. Russia is now the
largest agricultural exporter in the world, and displaced the United States.

So the result of the United States trying to hurt Russia and make it a dependent has actually
forced Russia to become independent in food and immune from the U.S. food threat.

It still has the food threat over Latin America. And that’s why when Hillary went down to
Honduras and the Honduran president [Manuel Zelaya] wanted to develop Honduran agriculture,
immediately Hillary had a coup d’etat, had the army take over in a coup d’etat and establish a
dictatorship that promised the United States not to grow its own food, but to remain dependent
on the United States.

So the United States could feel secure, secure that it could starve Honduras to death if Honduras
didn’t do what it wanted, and was dependent on the U.S. for food.

That’s the kind of food strangulation that the United States has sought through every country.
And it has used the World Bank and the IMF and the international banking system to impose
sanctions, and to only make loans for industries and agriculture and sectors that do not compete
with the United States, but actually end up serving the U.S. economy as inputs.

So other countries are turned into economic and trade satellites of the United States. That’s the
aim of the U.S. control of the World Bank, the IMF.

And that’s why the United States will not join any organization in which it does not have veto
power. It insists on being able to veto any policy of other countries acting in their own interests
independently of the United States, or in ways that do not actually enable the United States to be
the main beneficiaries of foreign countries’ growth.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: That’s what we call the “rules-based order.”

MICHAEL HUDSON: Right. That’s exactly right.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: We make up the rules, and order everyone around. Mafia rule.

And ironically, after Hillary’s sort of instrumentalized coup in Honduras, her husband – or right
before Hillary entered the State Department, her husband had apologized for destroying Haiti’s
indigenous food economy, basically its ability to produce rice, so that they would import rice
from his home state of Arkansas.

So yeah there’s a certain irony there. We also saw, in WikiLeaks cables, Hillary go down to Haiti
and demand that they cancel a massive pay hike of sweatshop workers from something like 37
cents an hour to 45 cents an hour, which is consistent.

We’ve also seen the release of Meng Wanzhou, I guess she is the CFO or COO of Huawei, a
Chinese tech firm. And I think this is relevant to the conversation here.

A key facet of the U.S. great power competition with China revolves around tech. And you write
how, you describe how in the post-war period, the U.S. sought to foster dependency not only
with food, but also with military wares and specifically technology.

And now you have a situation where the U.S. is being outpaced by China in 5G and demanding
that the U.K. ban 5G.
So what is happening here? How will the U.S. fare in a world where it can no longer foster
dependency on its own technology? And what will it do to remedy the situation?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well when you say technology, what you really mean economically is
economic rent, monopoly rent. And America cannot compete on the basis of cost for industry. It
can’t compete in a profit-making industry because there aren’t profits.

You can’t make a profit if your labor costs, and your economy, and your transport costs, and
your health costs are so high. But you can make a monopoly rents.

And the function of technology for the United States is to make other countries obliged to pay
anything that the the large information technology and high tech companies can charge.

So the technology sector is really a monopoly sector, and it wants to keep it monopolized. The
problem is that no country for the last 5000 years has been able to keep a monopoly.

You remember that maybe 3000 years, 2000 years ago, China had a monopoly in silk. And then
Marco Polo and Catholic priests brought back silkworms to Italy and began the Italian silk. I
guess that was 1000 years ago.

So you can try to get a temporary monopoly on technology, like from Google or from Apple, but
ultimately, you can’t really prevent other countries from doing it. So the United States essentially
has not been doing much innovation.
Let’s take IBM as an example. IBM was really the first high-tech company that was made a
monopoly, but it wasn’t very imaginative. It had to be told by insurance companies to go and
begin making computers in the late ’30s and to develop it.

By the 1960s, IBM was using about $10 million a year to buy back its own shares. And Google
and Amazon are spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year now to buy back their own
shares, not to invest in new technology, in research and development, in developing new
technology and 5G technology, and the other technology that China is developing.

But when China is a mixed economy, the public and private sector together, when it is trying to
develop the technology sectors that are the mirror image of Google and other things, like TikTok
replacing Facebook, they’re doing it much better because they’re not trying to make capital gains
in stocks.

The purpose of technology, to China, isn’t to increase the price of the stock in the companies that
make it. They’re trying to lower the cost of production and develop new technologies to develop
their technology better.

So obviously, China is getting a lead. The United States has made a policy decision: We don’t
need a lead; all we need to do is establish a monopoly rent. And let China get way ahead of us.
Let it be more efficient. Let it be more lower cost. Let it be more modern.

As long as we have enough satellites in Europe and Latin America, and in Asia, to promise only
to buy U.S. goods, they’ll buy high-cost, less efficient, American 3G or 4G technology, and let
China and its Belt and Road Initiative countries develop 5G.

So we’re really having a technological divergence in the world. America, living in the short term,
wants to have high-priced, hit-and-run, very quick profits for Facebook and Google and the
others, while China’s trying to look at the long run and develop an actual technological economy
that will create a new non-dollar trading and currency area, that will be independent of U.S.
Threats.

And America in 10 years can tell China, well, we are not going to let you use Facebook or
Google anymore. China can say that’s fine. We have our own systems. They work much better.
We’ll go our own way.

BEN NORTON: Professor Hudson, there’s another really interesting part of your book Super
Imperialism, well you talk about this throughout, but specifically one of the arguments you make
is that one of the primary U.S. economic competitors after World War One, well, during and
after World War One, and then leading to World War Two, leading to the end of the British
Empire, was England, was Britain, the British economy.

Can you talk about how essentially the U.S. helped to collapse the Sterling Area? And for people
who don’t know, explain what the Sterling Area is, how the U.S. helped to collapse that.
And then also, the point you make in the book in the last chapter, is how the U.S. did something
similar to another so-called ally, to Japan, how in the 1980s, the U.S. basically waged a kind of
economic war against the Japanese economy, which permanently crippled it.

Japan had had been one of the largest economies in the world, and it has never really, truly
recovered from that. So can you talk about how the U.S. has waged economic war not only
against its adversaries, but even so-called allies like Britain and Japan?

MICHAEL HUDSON: The number one U.S. enemy has always been its closest friend, its
closest rival. It fought against England, and then France.

And they were getting a free lunch through the Sterling Area and the Franc Area in the following
way: England’s colonies had to do their banking in England. They had to keep the savings in
England. The government had to keep all of its revenues in England.

So when World War One broke out, England simply told the government, give us a gift of all of
your money. Mass famine in India, mass starvation, because England just grabbed the money
that India had in sterling.

Well, during World War Two, there wasn’t much international trade, and so raw materials
producers – India, Argentina, and other countries – had maintained close connections with
England. And there weren’t many consumer goods to buy. Countries had to be self-sufficient.

But India, Argentina, and the Sterling Area countries had to keep all of their money in sterling.

The United States insisted that, number one, that sterling balances that were held by India and
other countries be allowed to be spent outside of sterling. You couldn’t tie the sterling balances
to say they have to be spent in England.

And that was what the sterling balances were before. England says, ok, you’ve got a lot of
savings here in England in sterling; you have to spend that money on British goods and British
companies. You have to keep within the English economy.

Not only did the Americans say, first of all, no country can limit its spending to say you have to
keep the money in your former colonial power.

But it insisted as a condition to lending England the British Loan – in 1944, England was
desperate by the last year of the war. It needed food. It needed supplies. It needed industry.

And America said, we’re going to make you a loan, called the British Loan, but as a result,
you’re going to have to keep your own pound sterling at five dollars a sterling. You’re going to
have to keep it at a high price.

You’re not going to be able to devalue it in order to compete with us. And England, as a result,
from 1945 to about 1950, had to take this huge overvalued sterling, so that there was no way that
English companies could compete with American companies.
And America was able to undersell England and grab the Indian market, the Argentine market,
the market for almost all the countries that had been within the Sterling Area, and undersell it.

So America had essentially gained control of Britain’s domestic financial policy by insisting that
this policy be set in Washington, not in London.

So it asked England to commit economic suicide, and England said, well, we don’t have a
choice, otherwise we’re going to starve. And it threw its lot in with the United States, hoping the
United States would protect it.

And in the new edition of Super Imperialism, I quote the debates that occurred in the House of
Lords, when the House of Lords saw exactly what was going to happen.

They said, wait a minute, the United States is treating us as if we’re Germany; it treated us as if
we’re the defeated party in World War Two. Are we really going to go along with this?

And they saw just what was happening, and they said, well, we really don’t have a choice. We
surrender; we’re going to let our policy be run by the United States.

The same thing in Japan. In 1985, when there was the famous Plaza Accord, you had
Reagonomics going full blast. And Secretary of State James Baker said, what is Reaganomics? It
means we want low interest rates; we want to cut taxes on the rich, and even though we’re going
to cut taxes, we’re going to have a huge budget deficit.

Somebody is going to have to fund this. And in the past, countries running a budget deficit,
which Reagan and Bush quadrupled America’s foreign debt from 1981 to 1992 – who is going to
buy this debt? Because if we make Americans buy this debt, we’re going to have to pay high
interest.

So it told Japan, we want you to agree to buy a big chunk of our foreign debt. England and
Europe said, ok, we’re going to go along and we’re going to buy a big chunk of it too.

So essentially, America forced Japan not only to buy the debt, but to revalue its currency. And its
currency went from 240 yen per dollar to 200 yen, meaning a dollar would only buy 200 yen.
And then finally, America would only buy 100 yen.

And all of a sudden, car prices, electronic prices in Japan, export prices doubled; it lost the
market. And essentially went broke.

And that was what was called the bubble economy. The Reagan economy was a bubble economy
in America, but the bubble was felt or absorbed by Japan, by England, and by Europe.

That was the the genius of Reaganomics, to make other countries bear the costs of the American
tax cuts.
BEN NORTON: Professor Hudson, this is an article I have up here in The Wall Street Journal in
2018, titled “The Old U.S. Trade War with Japan Looms Over Today’s Dispute with China.”

Do you think there are parallels? I mean, clearly Japan has been a key U.S. ally since World War
Two, whereas China has become a serious adversary. So the political relationship between the
U.S. and Japan and the U.S. and China is very different.

But do you see parallels between the U.S. policy, economically, toward Japan in the ’80s and
now with China?

MICHAEL HUDSON: There was a lot of discussion recently in China about the Plaza Accord
and the Louvre Accord. There’s no parallel at all.

They’re looking at this as an object lesson. They say, we saw what the United States did to
Japan. We’re not going to let the United States do it to us.

We’re not going to inflate our economy and create a bubble here just so that we are as inflated as
the US economy is. We’re going to lower our prices. We’re not going to make a financial boom
and a real estate boom. We’re going to do just the opposite.

Instead of letting banks getting rich on real estate loans, like to Evergrande, we’re going to let
Evergrande go under. We’re going to let the bondholders of Evergrande go under. We’re going
to let the stockholders of Evergrande go under.

And we’re going to create a basic tax system and public support system to minimize the cost of
housing.

So that, while the American middle class and political parties think that they’re getting rich, as
their housing prices are going up, the Chinese people think they’re going to get rich as housing
prices go down, and they can afford more and more housing at a lower and lower price, while
their wages go up.

So there is no rivalry at all there. They’re looking at the United States and deciding we want to
go in a different direction. We’re looking at what’s happening with Japan, and we’re never going
to be like it.

And there are Japanese too – every company in Japan, as I was told when I visited Nippon Steel
years ago, the heads of the companies are all very pro-U.S. And they have to work with the
United States importers and corporations in order to succeed.

But the number two person or someone else is going to be an option number two, and option
number two is we can make a step function, all of a sudden we can switch. Do we want to
reorient our economy toward China instead of the United States?

This is the nightmare of the United States. What if Japan and Korea and other countries decide to
throw in their lot with with China instead of with the United States?
And now that America is putting the squeeze on Japan and other Asian countries to support its
military spending and its trade deficit even more, these countries are saying, what do we get out
of the U.S. relationship?

Wouldn’t we be better if we can make a deal with China to say, ok, about the South China Sea,
we’re going to make a map that all of us get to share in the South China Sea oil and gas reserves?
We’re going to have peace, and that includes Taiwan.

Most of the Taiwanese officials, including central bank officials that I used to meet with, all say,
you know, ultimately we want to, we plan on rejoining China. We’re going to try to take as much
of a business position in mainland China as we can.

But ultimately, the economy is going to re-merge. It’s just a question of when we can get a better
deal from China than we get in the United States.

And as the United States is in a state of rapid shrinkage of its economy right now, all of a sudden
other countries are saying that very quickly, well, let’s rethink our position and maybe we’re
going to do better off not following the neoliberal plan of the United States.

Let’s have a mixed economy where the government and industry and labor work together to
develop the economy instead of a polarized, financialized, Reagan- and Thatcherized economy
that you’re having in the United States and England.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah, maybe you can address the U.S. economy right now, which is in
a state of catastrophe, but which might actually be kind of a controlled demolition, if you
consider the discussions that began prior to the pandemic, in late 2019.

BlackRock was calling for just massive printing of money from the Fed. And they’ve just been
doping the economy ever since, to stave off inflation. But now Biden’s worst problem, the
greatest problem Biden faces now, is inflation, high food prices; gas prices are going up.

The U.K. is seeing record gas prices, too. And global supply chains are what we would call
verkakte.

And I don’t know if you want to address that, but the U.S. economy is just seeing massive,
massive amounts of workers being financially disempowered, a downwardly mobile middle
class, endless printing of money, and more wealth for this very – I mean, it’s not even the 1
percent; it’s like the 0.1 percent percent – and it’s beginning to plague Biden through inflation.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well that is happening, but not in the way you described. The Federal
Reserve has hardly spent any money into the economy at all.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well in the banking sector.

MICHAEL HUDSON: It’s printing trillions and trillions of dollars, more money, more essential
credit than ever before, but all of this credit has gone into the stock market and the bond market
and the packaged loan market.

It’s all gone for assets that the 1 percent of the economy hold. It has financed asset price
inflation, not domestic inflation. The domestic inflation is something that comes not from an
increase in the money supply, but from supply shortages.

And this is a result of the neoliberal management philosophy that corporations have. In order to
increase their reported profits, they have cut costs wherever they could. And one way they found
of cutting costs is to minimize inventories.

80 years ago, every company would have enough inventory on hand so that if there was an
interruption in its imports, in its raw materials, in the supplies that it needs, it has enough to get
by.

But the corporate managers said let’s have something called just-in-time inventory. That is, if we
need a part, we’re not trying to order it six months in advance and hold it in a warehouse; we’ll
just pay for it that day and order it.

And all of the companies together in the United States thought, the economy is going to shrink,
we don’t need any inventories, because everybody is going to be poor. They thought they were
going to be poor, because they were making the economy poor, by predatory practices that they
were following.

They were getting rich by impoverishing the economy. They thought the economy couldn’t buy
what they produce, so they didn’t need any inventories. Well, all of a sudden, they ran out; they
depleted all of the inventories.

And there were huge, huge orders, in China, in Asia, in Japan, in Korea, for electronics exports,
for chips, for everything else.

And now you see, the price of shipping has multiplied tenfold. It costs 10 times as much to ship a
container from China to New York today than it did a year ago.

So what is happening is a shortage from just the neoliberal, really socially incompetent
management of American corporations.

Other companies throughout the rest of the world have tried to, they keep inventories; they’re not
having this problem. This is unique only the United States is not. It’s not people are richer and
have so much more money; it’s that there’s a shortage.

In the case of housing, which has gone up – it’s the most rapid increase, over 10 percent in the
last year, that’s essentially because BlackRock has said, the era of rising into the middle class by
getting home ownership is over.
Our ideal here at BlackRock is the 19th-century ideal; really, it’s the 14th-century ideal. It’s the
landlords. We want to turn the American economy away from a home ownership economy into a
renter’s economy.

And if we had BlackRock and our fellow landlords can monopolize the control of housing, and
bid it all the way, we all of a sudden will have a monopoly in housing costs. We can raise it 10
percent this year, 10 percent next year.

And the banks are going to lend to us to buy out all of this real estate at 1 percent or 2 percent,
and they’ll charge 3 or 4 or 5 percent to other people.

All of a sudden you’re going to have a concentration of home ownership in the hands of large
corporations. And the middle-class ideal of home ownership is going to be squeezed out.

The other major growth is in pharmaceuticals and medical care. It’s way up, medical insurance,
10 or 15 percent.

The one thing that corporations in America are willing to fight to the death for is to prevent
socialized medicine, to prevent public health. Because they realize if we can prevent public
health in America, then workers, the American population is going to have only one way of
getting health care and avoiding the threat of bankruptcy if they get sick.

They’ll have to go to work for an employer. Because the health is going to, insurance is going to
come from the employer. And if they don’t go to work for the employer, they won’t get health
care, and they can go broke very easily.

And if they go on strike, they lose their health insurance, and then they’ll go broke. If they
complain about the job, they’ll get fired, they’ll lose the health insurance.

The new way of controlling labor, the class war in the United States, is to privatize
pharmaceuticals and health care and prevent people from having access to health care and
pharmaceuticals, unless it’s through their employer.

And that’s why wages have not gone up. Because this is what Alan Greenspan called the
traumatized worker syndrome. They’re powerless. They’re afraid to complain against the job.
They’re completely dependent on the employer for everything they have.

And in some cases, it may be like a Soviet Russia, they’ll even become dependent on their
employer for housing, as it was in Russia, because they can’t afford houses of their own, which
are now all corporately owned.

BEN NORTON: Well the difference, of course, was that in the Soviet Union, it was public
housing and it was provided to everyone as part of the government, whereas now we’re talking
about feudalism, neo-feudalism, where your landlord is your boss and you’re treated like a serf.
But you made an important point, Professor Hudson, about short-term versus long-term thinking.
And this actually, I think, is related to the energy crisis we have seen in Europe.

And it really reflects this idea you’re talking about of this neoliberal mentality that, we can just
get everything we want right here in the market in the short term.

And that’s this crisis now where the European Commission canceled all of these long-term
contracts that it had with Russia for importing gas and also oil from Russia. So the EU had
access to all of this Russian energy.

And then as a political protest against Russia, as part of the new cold war, they canceled all of
these long-term contracts, and instead, they were just buying Russian gas and oil on the spot
market, in the short term.

And then the price of gas and also oil just skyrocketed recently. And now there’s a huge demand
in Asia, and largely because countries in East Asia have for the most part recovered from the
coronavirus pandemic.

So now Europe has a huge shortage of gas and oil, and they’re of course blaming Russia, and
they’re doing all the typical things that they do.

But the irony is that it’s the same kind of short-term neoliberal philosophy that you’re talking
about, where the bankers who run the European Commission said, we don’t need contracts; we
don’t need long-term deals; we can just buy everything short term every single day by day or
week, week by week in the spot market.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, I think you’re talking also about the Nord Stream Two pipeline
that the Germans and the Europeans were blocking.

So when a European politician said we would rather all starve in the dark than have to buy from
the Russians, what they mean is, we would rather take the bribes that we’re getting into our bank
accounts from the Americans.

We would rarely get the high prices and all of the support from the Americans, and let our 99
percent of the population starve, so that we can get rich off what the Americans are paying us to
starve the Europeans of energy and freeze in the dark, just so that Russia won’t get get the
payment for this.

So obviously, Russia is thinking, well, it can now sell all the gas that it wants to China. At some
point, it’ll decide, if Europe doesn’t want to buy our gas, if it’s not going to open the Nord
Stream Two pipeline.

The pipeline is all there. All they have to do is open the pipeline, and the price of gas will come
down.
And the Europeans are – what Putin recognized, and [Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov have
been saying is, the European Commission does not represent Europe; Brussels works for
Washington.

Brussels is an arm of the U.S. State Department. It has nothing to do with the European
population. Europe is not a democracy; it’s an oligarchy. But it’s also a militarized oligarchy
controlled by the United States.

And so Europe is acting, is willing to have its houses freeze, its pipes freeze over, floods in
houses, just in order to please the Americans.

How long can this go on without there being a revolution?

The amazing thing is that protest is coming from the right, not from the left. You have the
Alternative für Deutschland party on the right, and Die Linke, the Left Party, has fallen.

The socialists have not taken an anti-American stand because America has gained such has
control, has made the European socialist parties, just like it has made the British Labor Party
under Tony Blair.

The socialist parties and left-wing parties of Europe are all pro-American. And they’re not
talking about economics. They’re not talking about welfare. I can’t even summarize what they’re
saying, because it’s a mush.

But the irony is that it’s the right wing that is becoming the nationalistic power in Europe to
break away from the United States, not the left.

And I don’t see Europe ending up as much more than a dead zone.

And I think President Biden feels the same way. He is obviously pivoting towards Asia and has
left Europe, and England, and Ukraine, and the Baltics just to go their own way.

And no matter how bad things look in the United States, I think things look worse for Europe
right now.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, you see the same dynamic at play with the protests in Italy and
France against the green pass, and the construction of what, in my opinion, is a kind of digital
authoritarianism, just exploiting the emergency atmosphere of the pandemic.

The right is gaining power. A nationalist right is gaining power.

And there are workers and unionists involved in these protests. Trieste, the Italian port city, is
seeing dock dockworkers rise up. But the left is, I mean, it seems to be largely absent.
And the same in the US, with the protests against government mandates. Whatever you think
about them, we need to make this objective observation and determine what it means for left-
right dynamics when workers are being intimidated.

This all is being guided, this policy, is being guided in many ways through the World Economic
Forum.

And there is a vocabulary out there about a Great Reset, which is something that Klaus Schwab,
the president of the World Economic Forum, has openly proposed in his latest book about the
pandemic.

But it has been denounced as a conspiracy theory by Naomi Klein in The Intercept.

And I think a lot of what we have been talking about is kind of consistent with how people
understand the Great Reset, you know, pivoting towards a kind of feudalistic and authoritarian
capitalism that is highly digitized, in order in order to manage an impoverished middle class.

What are your thoughts on the Great Reset? Is it a conspiracy theory? Is it something real? And
if so, what does it mean to you?

MICHAEL HUDSON: It would love to be a conspiracy, but not all conspiracies are successful.
They’re hoping that they can bamboozle the world into believing rhetoric instead of reality.

And they’re hoping that people will think that the future is something that has never been in the
world before. And what they’re calling democracy is a country without government.

There are only two kinds of governments possible in the world. One is the usual kind that you
have had ever since Sumer in Babylonia: a mixed economy, with the government providing basic
services, and the public private sector doing the trade and the innovation.

The other is something that you had briefly in Rome before it collapsed, and you’re now
idealizing in the United States: it’s an economy with no government at all. You get rid of all
government power to regulate or tax business.

You want all of the planning – you want a centrally planned economy, much more centrally
planned than you have in China and even in Russia. But the central planner is going to be Wall
Street, and the city of London, and the Paris Bourse.

You’re going to have financial planners take over the planning, and they’re going to do it with
the corporations as a means basically of subduing, of squeezing out more and more of a surplus
out of the people who produce it, labor, basically, and other countries that produce raw materials.

And that is the dream. Can they convince, can Klaus [Schwab] and the attendees who go to these
[World Economic Forum] meetings really convince people that you can get along without
government and let the neoliberals do to the world economy what Margaret Thatcher did for
England, and somehow think that you’re getting richer?
Because the cost of your housing is going up, and your salary is going up, but even more than it
goes up, you have to pay it for medical care, for housing, for your debt service, and for just the
cost of living.

How do we convince the world that they’re getting better and better when actually they’re
getting poorer and poorer, and we’re concentrating more and more of the wealth in our own
hands?

Now you can call that a conspiracy. I think it’s sort of a pipe dream if they think they can get the
rest of the world to go along with it.

And I guess it’s the Abraham Lincoln statement, you can fool some of the people some of the
time, some of them all, but you can’t fool China and Russia, and Iran, and India, and North
Korea, and South Korea all the time.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah, I mean, it could be a conspiracy, but that’s in many ways how
history is dictated.

I’d refer to Michael Parenti’s lecture on capitalism and conspiracy and class power from 1993,
where he makes the case that history is really not an accident. And now more than ever, it’s
being decided in Davos.

So I think that on that point – well I guess I’ll just pitch to Ben here. I know Ben as a question.

BEN NORTON: Yeah, this is this is a good question from [a viewer]. This is for Professor
Hudson.

What do you think of Richard Werner and Henry George, and about Jeff Snider’s assertion that
demand for U.S. debt is due to its value as collateral in the eurodollar system as opposed to the
petrodollar?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Richard Werner has been a friend of mine and a colleague for many
years. I think what he’s writing on money creation is wonderful.

We’re good colleagues. We’ve had some of the same students. I thoroughly applaud and support
him.

I loathe Henry George, because he essentially was an anti-socialist and a right-winger of the late-
19th century, and he spent his life fighting against socialism. He wanted to basically get rid of
government.

And his followers, essentially, George spent his time going, and George’s followers, for 20 years
before World War One, going around the country debating with socialists over, is the future of
the economy going to be socialist, or is it going to be the Ayn Rand-type economy that Henry
George wondered.
Well once the Russian Revolution occurred, the Georgists turned into anti-Bolsheviks. And the
followers of George in the United States basically became an anti-Semitic group, very friendly to
the Nazis, to the Nazi Party.

And in Germany, the Georgists were among the first to join the Nazi Party.

So I’m all for land taxation. That is a socialist policy. That’s the policy of Adam Smith, John
Stuart Mill, the whole 19th-century political economy aimed at getting rid of the landlord class
and getting rid of economic rent as unearned income.

Henry George did not have a theory of value and price, and without that you don’t have a
concept of economic rent.

So the Georgists today around the right wing of the political spectrum. I had some contact with
them at one point, and I was just appalled that they were the feeders, one of the feeder
organizations into the Ayn Rand movement.

So I can’t think of anyone more opposite from Richard Werner than the Henry George people.

BEN NORTON: And the other part of his question was about the eurodollar system as opposed
to the petrodollar.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Oh, they’re both the same system, the petrodollars, the deal was – and
this was what was done in the aftermath of my publication of Super Imperialism.

I went down to the White House and met with the Treasury officials and the State Department
officials, and they said, we have told Saudi Arabia – this is when the price of grain was
quadrupled, and Saudi Arabia quadrupled the price of oil in response.

So the Treasury told Saudi Arabia, you can keep charging whatever you want for the oil, but all
the export proceeds you have, you have to invest back in the United States.

You can invest it in the stock market. You can’t buy American companies. You can buy stocks
and bonds, and especially government treasury bonds to finance things.

So petrodollars were a means of recycling oil export proceeds into the American banking system
and into the U.S. government budget.

The eurodollars were the same thing, but slightly different.

Russia really created the eurodollar market, because it was afraid to hold dollars in the United
States in the 1950s, because the United States could simply grab the money, like it did with
Venezuela. And so it held them in England.

And so what happened was Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank found that they could then
borrow these dollars from their London branches. And Chase’s largest depositor, when I was
working for it, as their balance-of-payments economist in the 1960s, was the eurodollars from
the London branch.

So all of these dollars that other countries would accumulate and be afraid to invest in the United
States were put into British banks, that sent this money to the head offices back in the United
States to essentially liquefy the American economy.

And there were no reserve requirements on eurodollars. So if Chase or Citibank would get a
regular deposit from somebody, and make a loan against it, they’d have to keep reserves against
it. But you didn’t have to have any reserve requirements for the eurodollar deposit.

So the eurodollar system was a free lunch for the commercial banking system in the United
States in the 1950s and ’60s.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: I wanted to go back to some comments you made earlier about the U.S.
and Japan and how the U.S.’s best allies are often it often get treated as its worst enemies.

This kind of reminded me of the AUKUS deal and France. The former French ambassador to
Washington, I think his name is Gerard Araud, commented that after this deal, where France was
basically stabbed in the back – it had what, like I don’t know the dollar sum,

BEN NORTON: Over $60 billion.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Over $60 billion in diesel subs to Australia. And the deal was canceled
after it was inked, apparently because the U.S. just stepped in with more advanced nuclear subs.

And Araud said we need to return to a de Gaullist policy; we need a neo-de Gaullist policy.

I wanted you, professor, to weigh in. Just give us your thoughts on AUKUS, on the deal, what it
signals for the new cold war, but also for U.S.-French relations and the U.S. treatment of Europe.

And maybe you could remind us what happened when de Gaulle tried to collect on what he was
owed.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the English language is an enormous language, and it’s always
expanding the words. And one of the new terms that is come into the English language about two
years ago, a year or two ago, was a translation from the Russian: non-agreement capable.

In other words, just like a Trump wrote the bestseller The Art of Breaking the Deal, that’s
become the American policy: we can break any deal we want, because we can make our own
reality.

That’s what the neocons said: We make the deal, but we can make our own reality.

So the United States, and Australia – U.S. satellites would have a deal with France to say we’re
going to buy a submarine. But the Americans could say, wait a minute, buy our submarines,
because we need our companies would rather make profits in dollars than have you order
something from France that will make profits for French companies.

So without telling France at all, it told Australia, just break the deal. And Australia essentially –
it is not well known, but the prime minister actually lives in a basement of the Pentagon in
Washington.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: I thought they just kept his brain there in a jar.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well it is in a jar.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: What exists of it, anyway.

MICHAEL HUDSON: At any rate, Australia has never been known to do anything that
America or London didn’t want.

Well, once Australia actually elected a socialist prime minister, and all of a sudden the British
representatives said, no, you’re not allowed to elect anyone the queen of England doesn’t
recognize; you have to cancel the election.

And they did. They didn’t say we want to be free of England. They said, oh, ok, who should we
elect? And America told England to tell Australia to elect.

So Australia is hopeless.

But at any rate, this led France to say, we have been double crossed again. We want to look at,
just like Germany, we want to look at making better deals with Russia.

We can see that one part of the world is growing: China, Russia, the mixed economies, not the
oligarchy, the financialized economies. So they’re shifting.

And when you say what happened to de Gaulle – well, in May, I guess, was it [1968] – de Gaulle
had been cashing in the dollars he was getting from America’s spending in Southeast Asia, he
was cashing them in for gold.

So America, the CIA, bragged that it had organized the big May riots in Paris. And the riots led
to de Gaulle being replaced by a more left-wing party that was thoroughly under the control of
the United States.

So obviously, the French are worrying, ok, if we try to follow a policy of turning east, of turning
towards Russia, China, and the mixed economies, with active governments instead of banks,
America is going to try to do to us what it did not only to de Gaulle, but it did to Italy after
World War Two, getting rid of the communists; Greece after World War Two, assassinating the
communist leadership; essentially just coming and in every country, trying to interfere and
meddle in elections.
So they’re trying to prevent the United States from using the Green Party in Germany’s turn,
following the U.S., with a very nationalistic anti-Russian, pro-American position.

So Europe is realizing, breaking away from dependence on the United States, breaking away
from letting the United States have all of the European surplus, and telling us to freeze in the
dark and to impoverish ourselves, just so that U.S. neocons can create a world – breaking away is
not going to be a pretty sight.

They’re going to do to us what Hillary did the Honduras, and what and what Obama did to
Libya. And we have got to be prepared for that.

But at a certain point, we we just get tired of surrendering. At a certain point, we just can’t live
this way anymore.

And that’s the point at which Europe is maybe five years away from realizing.

BEN NORTON: Well, that’s a good image, and I think it’s important to stress that point, that
these policies that Washington carry out abroad always come back home, they always come back
home.

And just wrapping up here in the last few minutes. But that this actually reminded me, Professor
Hudson, have you heard of this book by this French executive, Frederic Pierucci, who wrote this
interesting book called The American Trap: My Battle to Expose America’s Secret Economic
War Against the Rest of the World?

It’s a very interesting book. This guy Frederic Pierucci, he was previously was an executive at
the French transport company Alstom. And the U.S. government accused him of so-called
corruption. And he was kind of the first case of like a Meng Wanzhou, before Meng Wanzhou, a
few years before her.

He was arrested actually in the United States, and he was held as what he claimed to be an
“economic hostage.” And this is the beginning of this campaign we now see against Alex Saab
from Venezuela, Meng Wanzhou from China, and also there’s a North Korean businessman
whom the U.S. is trying to imprison.

And what’s interesting is the Washington Post did a story about this book. Here’s the
Washington Post article; it’s titled “An unlikely winner in the U.S. trade war: A French
businessman’s book about his battle with the DOJ.” And here’s the translation of The American
Trap.

So I haven’t read this book; I want to get a copy of it. But essentially, from the summaries that
I’ve read about this book, The American Trap, he argues that the U.S. has been carrying out a
kind of economic war against French companies, in the same way it carried out those policies
you explained against Japanese companies in the 1980s.
MICHAEL HUDSON: That’s probably true. I have not heard of the book; nobody sent me a
copy. I don’t know about it.

But it seems that that’s the American modus operandi. It tries to prevent any real competition.

People talk about the Thucydides problem as if there’s a competition. The United States wants to
prevent any competition. And the real competition isn’t among countries; it’s economic systems.

And the economic system, as I said, is one of finance-centered oligarchy, as opposed to a

government promoting rising living standards and technology, and increasing our productivity.

And I think America has joined the wrong side of history. And it’s a result of the combination of
neoliberalism and the neocon military plan that somehow thinks that military force

can force other countries to submit to what you called neo- feudalism, which indeed it is.

And the question is – that has never worked over time. It’s very short term. But then these people
think, well, they’re probably in their 50s or 60s now; they only have 20 years to live.

All they care about is getting rich for the next 20 years. They don’t care if they leave a bankrupt
America in their place. That’s their business plan.

The business plan is to load the country down with debt, shrink the economy – but they’ll take
their money and run.

And the question is, where are they going to run to? If the rest of the world is going its own way,
that they’re driving the world to grow its own way. That’s the dynamic that is at work.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Ben, maybe we can put Professor Hudson’s book on screen now and
tell everyone where they can find it, the new edition.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I guess it’s easier to buy books on Amazon now than it is in the
bookstores. So it’s up there now.

BEN NORTON: And do you know if there’s going to be an e-book version? Because I’ve only
seen physical copies.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I don’t know how to make e-books. I just don’t know if there will.

The paperback will be out on, I think, [October 18 or 19].

BEN NORTON: Oh, great, there’s going to be a paperback out?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Yeah, but I don’t know about e-books.

BEN NORTON: Excellent, well, I would highly recommend checking out this book.
Fortunately, he sent Max and me a copy.

It’s incredible reading. As someone, I’m certainly not an economics expert, this book for me is
just really eye-opening.

I had a copy of the second edition that I would go back to regularly. I use it kind of like a
textbook, because there’s just so much good information in there. There’s a lot of history.

In fact, something that Professor Hudson talks about in his book is that one of the main
differences, well, one of the several differences – there are many differences between the way he
teaches economics and other mainstream economists – is that he actually talks about economic
history.

And in your book, Professor Hudson, you say that very few economists these days teach
economic history because – at least in U.S. economics departments – because if you actually
studied economic history, you would see how different it is from all of the neoliberal textbooks.

MICHAEL HUDSON: That’s right. There’s been a rewriting. America got rich by being a
mixed economy, where the government took an active role in subsidizing basic infrastructure.

And all this changed in the 1980s. And the neoliberalism has sort of pretended that Adam Smith
was an advocate of basically the neoliberalism of Ayn Rand, instead of being anti-landlord, anti-
monopoly, and not really thinking very much of the ethics of businessmen.

BEN NORTON: And then there’s one final question here, Professor Hudson: Are you thinking
of doing an audiobook version?

MICHAEL HUDSON: No, I don’t know anybody who does audio books.

BEN NORTON: Well, maybe we can talk about it.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Who should we get to read it? Is James Earl Jones still around?

I always have actors read my books, and I don’t know who they are. And I always ask the
publisher, can I please just, once, read the book? And they won’t let me in. Then they bring these
D-list actors in.

And it’s just so bizarre to listen to it. They read it so concisely. And I hate it.

So don’t. Sometimes you want to avoid an audio book. Don’t wish for it, because you just might
get it.

MICHAEL HUDSON: You’ve got to read, Because sometimes you want to look at the previous
page. I’m really old fashioned.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: No really, with this book, you really do want to read it. It’s the kind of
book you want to read several times.

As Ben said, it’s sort of like a textbook that has a rich narrative arc that courses through every
page. And then you might want to check the citations as well.

I mean, every historical episode could demand its own book. So I’m really benefiting from it.

I have benefited a lot from, I guess this is our third conversation, so I really hope he can make
these kind of a running series.

I’m actually at the tail end of three hours of livestreaming because I just did my own live stream.
So I’m sort of hallucinating. I really have nothing else to say.

BEN NORTON: And yeah, well, we’ll end on that. Do you have anything to add, Professor
Hudson, before we leave?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Yeah. It is a textbook in China. And as I said, they asked me to update
it.

So if you want to see what China’s strategy is vis-a-vis the United States, this explains what is on
their mind.

BEN NORTON: Great, well, on that note, I would say anyone who wants to check out Professor
Hudson’s work, they can go to Michael-Hudson.com. He has a lot of good resources.

I read his columns regularly, because I’m not an economics expert, so his columns are very
digestible. And he talks about current affairs and the new cold war.

So it’s always a pleasure to have you, Professor Hudson, thanks for joining us again.

agricultureAUKUSAustraliaBritainChinaeconomicsEvergrandefoodFranceHaitiIMFImperialismI
nternational Monetary FundJapanNew Cold WarRussiasanctionsUKWorld BankWorld
Economic Forum

Ben Norton

Assistant Editor
Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant editor of The Grayzone, and
the producer of the Moderate Rebels podcast, which he co-hosts with editor Max Blumenthal.
His website is BenNorton.com and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.

Max Blumenthal

Editor-in-Chief

The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the
author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One
Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of
publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza.
Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America's state of
perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.

Aman acreage expands

Sohel Parvez

Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:00 AM

Encouraged by favourable weather and good market prices, farmers have planted Aman paddy as
far as the eye can see with the crop’s acreage having grown a good 4.3 per cent to 56.2 lakh
hectares this season. The photo was taken at Gobindaganj in the northern district of Gaibandha
yesterday. PHOTO: Mostafa Shabuj

Farmers have expanded Aman paddy cultivation this season encouraged by favourable weather
and better prices for the staple in domestic markets.

The acreage of transplanted Aman rose 4.3 per cent to 56.2 lakh hectares this season from 53.8
lakh hectares the previous year, showed data from the Department of Agricultural Extension
(DAE) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

The planted area is higher than the DAE's target of 55.7 lakh hectares, said the organisation's
Director General Md Asadullah.

"Farmers could cultivate most of the area as we did not see floods this year. And until now, the
crop looks good," he added.

Supported by monsoon rains, Aman is the second biggest rice crop, accounting for about 38 per
cent of the total annual rice output of 3.76 crore tonnes in fiscal 2020-21.
The DAE official went on to say that farmers have started harvesting early maturing varieties. 

Some 21,000 hectares of paddy have already been harvested and 70,000 hectares will be
harvested in the next one week, Asadullah said.

Nirod Boron Saha, president of the Naogaon Dhanno-Chal Aratdar O Babosayee Samity, an
association of rice and paddy wholesalers in the rice hub, said overall growth of Aman has been
good aside from pest attacks in some areas.

"Rice prices will likely remain stable until mid-January next year if weather remains favourable,"
he added.

Rice prices have been increasing for the last two years amid stockpiling and slow delivery by
millers and farmers amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Prices of coarse grain, the benchmark grain, touched at Tk 47 per kilogramme in July, the
highest since September 2017, according to data from the Department of Agricultural Marketing.

Prices of the staple declined marginally later amid imports.

As of October 18 this year, public and private agencies imported nearly six lakh tonnes of rice
since the beginning of fiscal 2021-22 in July.

Total rice imports stood at 13.59 lakh tonnes the previous year, showed data from the food
ministry.

 https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/aman-acreage-expands-22025

Kellogg strike continues as trades union members

return

Deena Shanker
Bloomberg

Members of the Building and Construction Trades Council union planned to work Tuesday at the
Kellogg Co. cereal factory in Omaha, Nebraska, while the broader strike against the company
continues.
An estimated 100 third-party ironworkers, carpenters, electricians and other skilled tradespeople
planned to go back to the plant to avoid defaulting on their contracts, Dan Osborn, president of
the Omaha local of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International
Union, said Monday. Kellogg’s willingness to use other contractors during the strike has
endangered the trades union jobs, Osborn said. “They’ll lose their contracts.”

The company’s roughly 1,400 cereal workers in the bakery and confectionery union remain on
strike at plants in Battle Creek; Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis,
Tennessee. The locations produce cereals including Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Froot Loops,
Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes.

Kellogg confirmed the latest move, saying in an emailed statement that “per their request, our
third-party trade contractors are expected to come back to work as needed, starting this week.”

The Trades Council didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2021/10/19/kellogg-strike-continues-trades-union-members-
return/8522545002/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

What’s Brewing in a Beer Is Startling Complexity

High-powered chemistry lets researchers trace a beer back to its ingredients

 By Maddie Bender | Scientific American November 2021 Issue

Given its 13,000-year history, one might assume we’d have beer figured out by now. But recent
research examines the bubbly liquid’s composition with unprecedented focus, singling out a new
quality-control measure.

Beer contains three complex organic ingredients: grain, hops and yeast. Throughout the brewing
process, these all interact with one another’s by-products, creating hundreds of chemical
derivatives that can influence taste. Although some food chemists consider beer’s complexity
daunting, Stefan Pieczonka, a Technical University of Munich researcher pursuing what he calls
a “Ph.D. in beer,” saw untapped potential in it. Working with T.U.M. chemist Philippe Schmitt-
Kopplin, Pieczonka ran 400 samples of commercially available beers through a high-powered
mass spectrometer—a machine that teases apart mixtures of chemicals and identifies them by
splitting their molecules into charged ions, which it sorts using magnetic fields. The team also
ran a subset of the beers through a second type of mass spectrometer, and Schmitt-Kopplin says
combining these processes let the researchers identify more than 7,000 unique ions never before
found in beer. Working backward, they deduced the tens of thousands of molecules giving rise to
these ions and traced each molecule to one of the original ingredients of the brew. (Leftover
samples made for exciting lab happy hours, the researchers add.)

One newfound molecule originated from a reaction among compounds in yeast, hops and rice—
the last sometimes contaminates brewery tools or batches of grains for brewing. As no quality-
control test currently exists for detecting rice in beer as a contaminant or allergen, the researchers
propose testing for this new chemical. Their new work is detailed in Frontiers in Chemistry.

Beer expert Gwen Conley, who directs quality and innovation at Cutwater Spirits and was not
involved in the research, says such a test could augment quality assurance for both beer and
distilled spirits. “When it comes to beer,” she says, “every single stage could be tested.”

Knowing more about a beer’s ingredients can also aid historical research efforts. Pieczonka and
Schmitt-Kopplin are running the same analysis on an 1885 German beer to learn more about
19th-century brewing practices—and to re-create its taste.

This article was originally published with the title "Beer's Complexity" in Scientific American
325, 5, 17 (November 2021)

Given its 13,000-year history, one might assume we’d have beer figured out by now. But recent
research examines the bubbly liquid’s composition with unprecedented focus, singling out a new
quality-control measure.

Beer contains three complex organic ingredients: grain, hops and yeast. Throughout the brewing
process, these all interact with one another’s by-products, creating hundreds of chemical
derivatives that can influence taste. Although some food chemists consider beer’s complexity
daunting, Stefan Pieczonka, a Technical University of Munich researcher pursuing what he calls
a “Ph.D. in beer,” saw untapped potential in it. Working with T.U.M. chemist Philippe Schmitt-
Kopplin, Pieczonka ran 400 samples of commercially available beers through a high-powered
mass spectrometer—a machine that teases apart mixtures of chemicals and identifies them by
splitting their molecules into charged ions, which it sorts using magnetic fields. The team also
ran a subset of the beers through a second type of mass spectrometer, and Schmitt-Kopplin says
combining these processes let the researchers identify more than 7,000 unique ions never before
found in beer. Working backward, they deduced the tens of thousands of molecules giving rise to
these ions and traced each molecule to one of the original ingredients of the brew. (Leftover
samples made for exciting lab happy hours, the researchers add.)
One newfound molecule originated from a reaction among compounds in yeast, hops and rice—
the last sometimes contaminates brewery tools or batches of grains for brewing. As no quality-
control test currently exists for detecting rice in beer as a contaminant or allergen, the researchers
propose testing for this new chemical. Their new work is detailed in Frontiers in Chemistry.

Beer expert Gwen Conley, who directs quality and innovation at Cutwater Spirits and was not
involved in the research, says such a test could augment quality assurance for both beer and
distilled spirits. “When it comes to beer,” she says, “every single stage could be tested.”

Knowing more about a beer’s ingredients can also aid historical research efforts. Pieczonka and
Schmitt-Kopplin are running the same analysis on an 1885 German beer to learn more about
19th-century brewing practices—and to re-create its taste.

This article was originally published with the title "Beer's Complexity" in Scientific American
325, 5, 17 (November 2021)

Science seeks ancient plants to save favourite foods

From a bowl of rice to a cup of coffee, experts

say the foods we take for granted could become
much scarcer unless we can make them resistant
to climate change.
For more than 10,000 years humans have been
using selective breeding to adapt fruits and
vegetables to specific growing conditions that
today are changing at an alarming rate.
And the same breeding that has made crops
profitable has also made them vulnerable to
rising temperatures, drought, heavy rains, new
blights or plagues of insects.
When you select 'for the best' traits (like higher yields), you lose certain types of genes,
Benjamin Kilian, project lead for the Crop Wild Relatives Project at Crop Trust, told AFP.
We lost genetic diversity during domestication history... therefore the potential of the elite crops
to further adapt to the future -- to climate change and other challenges -- is limited.
The answer, scientists say, may be to reintroduce that genetic diversity by going back to
domesticated crops' wild ancestors.
- Disappearing farmlands -
According to a study published in May, global warming risks shifting nearly a third of
agricultural production outside its ideal climate for cultivation.
The International Potato Center predicts a 32-percent drop in harvests of potatoes and sweet
potatoes by 2060 due to climate change, while some estimates say coffee growers will lose half
of adapted lands before 2050.
Rice, the world's most important staple food crop, contributes massively to global warming by
releasing methane as it is cultivated. It is also threatened by rising seas that could put too much
salt into the water that floods rice paddies.
Older forms of these crops might have had resistance to salt water or high temperatures coded
into their genes -- and to get them back, experts are looking for their ancestors in the wild.
We're going to need to use as much biodiversity as we can... because it reduces risks, it provides
options, says agriculture expert Marleni Ramirez of Biodiversity International.
One potential resource is gene banks, like the Kew Millennium Seed Bank which has nearly
40,000 species of wild plants.
But not all wild relatives are in the gene banks, says Kilian.
Instead, he says it's up to expert botanists to take undertake a time-consuming search throughout
the wild, whose success can sometimes rely on luck.
- Race against time -
Between 2013 and 2018 the Global Crop Diversity Trust gathered more than 4,600 samples from
371 wild cousins of 28 priority crops including wheat, rice, sweet potatoes, bananas and apples.
Botanist Aaron Davis works at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens that partners with Crop Trust.
With his colleagues, he discovered a wild species of coffee in Sierra Leone that is more resistant
to climate change than the widely harvested arabica.
And he says they found it just in time.
If we had gone to Sierra Leone in 10 years, it would probably have been extinct, says Davis.
Of 124 coffee species, 60 percent are threatened with extinction, including the ones we might use
for breeding new resilient coffees.
In a survey of four Central American countries, one in four plants analysed was threatened with
extinction, including 70 wild species connected to major cultivated crops like corn and squash.
And the race isn't over once they've been harvested.
Wild plants may not be adapted to large-scale agriculture and creating new varieties can take
years or even decades -- perhaps too long to provide an answer to an impending food crisis.
Instead, experts say, we may have to find a way to live without certain staples.
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, while the planet is home to some
50,000 edible plants, just three of them -- rice, maize and wheat -- provide 60 percent of the
world's food energy intake.
Their disappearance could leave billions wondering what to eat and millions of farmers looking
for a new way to survive.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:32MD66C6bkMJ:https://jen.jiji.com/jc/i_afp
%3Fk%3D20211019042164a+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk
The benefits of physical exercise for people with
type 2 diabetes

Regular exercise, including both aerobic activity and resistance training, offers various and

substantial health benefits for people with type 2 diabetes.

Studies have shown that exercise promotes better blood glucose control and helps reduce excess
body weight — both of which are significant risk factors for diabetes. Specific types of exercise
may also help with health problems that older adults with diabetes often experience, such as
impaired balance and flexibility.

Other evidenceTrusted Source suggests that not exercising may increase some of the risks
associated with type 2 diabetes. These risks include cardiovascular disease, which refers to
conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels, and complications related to blood vessel
damage, such as eye and kidney disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source note that more than 34
million people in the United States have diabetes, about 90–95% of whom have type 2.

Keep reading to learn more about type 2 diabetes and physical exercise, as well as other lifestyle
practices that may help people manage the condition.

How can exercise benefit type 2 diabetes?

Share on PinterestAzmanJaka/Getty Images

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), exercise is critically important for
managing blood glucose. Understanding how type 2 diabetes causes blood glucose to rise makes
it clear how physical activity can help.

The pancreas makes the hormone insulin, which enables cells to take in glucose from the blood
to use as energy. In people with type 2 diabetes, a problem called insulin resistance occurs
whereby the cells become less sensitive and responsive to insulin.

As a compensatory measure, the pancreas makes more insulin to get the cells to respond.
However, because the pancreas cannot keep upTrusted Source the necessary pace, blood glucose
levels eventually rise.

Exercise helps counter the effects of type 2 diabetes in several ways. It increases insulin
sensitivity, which helps the cells use any available insulin to take up glucose from the blood.
Also, when muscle cells contract during exercise, they are able to take in glucose even when
insulin is unavailable.

The blood glucose-lowering effects of exercise last up to about 24 hours following a workout.

Although all exercise helps counter the effects of diabetes by promoting weight loss and
increasing insulin sensitivity, the specific types below provide additional advantages:

 Aerobic exercise: Regular aerobic training lowers blood pressure, triglyceride levels,

and A1C test results, which provide the average blood glucose level of the past 2–3
months. Research has linked moderate-to-high intensity aerobic exercise to substantially
lower cardiovascular and overall death risks in people with diabetes.

 Resistance exercise: Diabetes is a risk factor for poor muscle strength. Resistance

training helps counter this effect, as it increases muscle mass and strength.

 Other types of exercise: Older adults with diabetes tend to have limitations in balance
and flexibility. Stretching exercises increase flexibility and range of motion, while
balance training decreases the risk of falls and improves gait. Tai chi may improve
 balance, enhance quality of life, and lessen the symptoms of diabetes that affect the
nervous system.

What are the risks of no exercise?

Not engaging in regular exercise deprives a person of many health benefits. Research from
2017Trusted Source notes that a lack of exercise also worsens some of the risks and adverse
effects of type 2 diabetes.

Low cardiovascular fitness

Not exercising results in lower levels of cardiovascular fitness, which can be a particular
problem for people with diabetes because their risk of cardiovascular disease is two to four times
higher than that of people without the condition. Several health issues, including high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, contribute to this increased risk.

Low cardiovascular fitness strongly correlates with increased risk of death from all causes in
individuals with diabetes.

Elevated blood glucose levels

Without the effects of exercise, blood glucose stays higher than it would do otherwise. Studies
link elevated A1C levels to complications of diabetes that relate to blood vessel damage. High
blood glucose harms blood vessels in ways that lead toTrusted Source an array of health issues,
such as retinal damage, which can cause blindness.

Exercise helps keep blood glucose at healthy levels. Healthy blood glucose levels prevent
damage to the blood vessels.
ADVERTISEMENT

Looking for diabetes-friendly meals?

Noom has you covered with customizable nutrition guidance. Discover how you can eat
balanced and filling meals that keep your blood sugar in check.
LEARN MORE

What kind of exercise?

The CDCTrusted Source recommends getting a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity

exercise per week. The organization also advocates engaging in activities that exercise all of the
major muscle groups on at least 2 days of the week.

Examples of moderate intensity exercise include:

 walking briskly

 mowing the lawn

 bicycling

 dancing

 doing housework

 swimming

 playing sports

Regardless of how much exercise a person gets, research links sedentary behavior — which
involves prolonged sitting, such as working at a desk or watching TV — to a higher risk of
illness and death, warns the ADA.
Studies also link sedentary behavior to poor blood sugar control in people at risk of developing
type 2 diabetes. These individuals can improve their blood sugar levels by engaging in light
walking or exercise for 3 minutes every 30 minutes.

Other lifestyle remedies for type 2 diabetes

Lifestyle practices are very beneficial in managing type 2 diabetes. Aside from exercising,
the ADATrusted Source recommends the following:

Eat a well-balanced diet

A well-balanced diet includes appropriate portions of nutritious food and limits the intake of
non-nutritious food. Nutritious food includes:

 whole grains, such as oats and brown rice

 fruits and vegetables

 non-fried fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon

 unsalted nuts, seeds, and legumes, such as beans

 lean meats, such as chicken or turkey breast

Foods to limit include:

 sugary desserts and beverages, such as cakes, candy, sodas, and fruit juices

 salty foods

 fatty or processed meats, such as hot dogs, sausage, and fatty cuts of pork or beef

 partially hydrogenated and trans fats, such as shortening, coffee creamer, and some hard
margarines
Manage weight

Carrying excess body weight makes it harder for people to manage blood sugar. A person can
lose weight if they ingest fewer calories than they expend. Aside from managing total body
weight, it is important to lose excess belly fat, as a large waist circumference puts a person
at increased riskTrusted Source of diabetes.

Manage stress

Stress can sometimes lead to overeating and smoking, which can, in turn, have a negative effect
on blood sugar. Some stress-reducing activities includeTrusted Source:

 taking a walk in nature

 meeting a friend for coffee

 reading a book

 listening to music

 playing a favorite sport

Quit smoking

Smoking raises blood glucose and increases the risk of complications of diabetes. It has such an
effect that people who smoke have a 30–40%Trusted Source higher likelihood of developing
type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers.

Some herbs and supplements may also help improve blood glucose control in people with
diabetes, although people should not use them in place of prescribed medical treatments.

Learn about herbs and supplements for diabetes here.

Summary

The findings of studies on type 2 diabetes and physical exercise indicate that workouts help
increase insulin sensitivity, which promotes healthier levels of blood glucose.

In addition, resistance training reduces the decline in muscle strength associated with diabetes.

Aside from exercise, certain other lifestyle practices are beneficial. These include eating a
nutritious diet, managing body weight, quitting smoking, and taking steps to minimize stress.

ADVERTISEMENT

Looking for diabetes-friendly meals?

Noom has you covered with customizable nutrition guidance. Discover how you can eat
balanced and filling meals that keep your blood sugar in check.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/type-2-diabetes-physical-exercise

Multiple factors behind early onset of smog in Punjab

The Newspaper's Staff ReporterPublished October 19, 2021 - Updated a day ago

 White Star
LAHORE: The smog phenomenon, which normally descends in Lahore and Punjab in the first
week of November seems to have started three weeks early this year due to developmental
activity and T-20 cricket tournament blocking roads and prolonged summer helping early
maturity of rice crop and stubble burning in the province.

According to environment department officials, three major arteries in the city are blocked by
development projects. Ferozepur Road is blocked due to construction work at Ghulab Devi
Hospital, Sheranwala Gate Overhead Bridge blocking circular road and Shahkam Chowk
Flyover causing massive vehicular blockage and pollution.

Moreover, the T-20 Cricket Tournament caused hours-long traffic jams and coincided with the
onset of first smog spell over the city. The third contributing factor is the prolonged summer
spell that led to early rice maturity and stubble burning in the province, bringing smog spell
early.

“Only three pollutants – industries, brick kiln and cottage industry – fall under the environment
department,” says an official of the department.

Vehicles, which cause 43 per cent of pollution, fall under the transport department and stubble
burning under the agriculture department. There are some coordination issues, which worsen the
situation. To make the situation more complex, smog is a 24-hour phenomenon that requires 24-
hour coordination and control during the entire season. If this coordination collapses even for a
few hours, impact may last for days. This is what worsened the situation this year, he says.

On Monday, the department said Air Quality Index (AQI) was hovering at 121. Some
international bodies that measure Lahore Air Quality Index placed it at 156 – a hazardous limit,
which requires wearing of masks and limiting outside activity.

The department, however, thought that the situation can be considered normal as long as it is
under 200 mark.

Explaining background of the issue, an employee of the department says that the trouble started
in 2017, when smog descended on Nov 6. Next year, it started on Nov 2 and Nov 6 in 2019. In
2020, traffic reduction because of Covid delayed the phenomenon to January. However, this year
it has arrived early and air quality started deteriorating from mid-October.

On Oct 15, the AQI hit 178, to 181 next day, to 194 on Sunday and 153 on Monday as some
parts of the city received rain and 7.4 kilometre winds cleared the city environment to some
extent. However, the season has started and is set to worsen in the next 10 days when the
remaining rice crop is harvested and stubble burning picks pace.

“This stubble burning is a trans-boundary phenomenon and can only be controlled through a
regional approach,” he says. Even if Pakistan brings its industrial and vehicle pollution to zero,
smog would still happen because wind direction changes in November and carries pollution from
India to Pakistan,” he concludes.

A spokesman says the department has recently notified district anti-smog committees all over
Punjab under deputy commissioners during the current year. These committees will carry out all
necessary preventive measures before and during the smog incidence, in addition to regular
reporting to the anti-smog unit of EPD Punjab on a weekly basis.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1652857/multiple-factors-behind-early-onset-of-smog-in-punjab

Iran wants Pakistan to lift Covid travel ban

The Newspaper's Staff ReporterPublished October 19, 2021
Soldiers wearing facemasks stand guard at the closed Pakistan-Iran border in Taftan in this Feb
2020 file photo. — AFP

LAHORE: Iran has urged Pakistan to remove it from category C of its Covid-19-related
travel restrictions, as the ban is not only affecting the flight operations but also bilateral
trade between the two countries.

“Pakistan has retained Iran in category C in terms of coronavirus restrictions, which is adversely
affecting flight operations and bilateral trade between the two countries,” Iranian Consul General
Muhammad Raza Nazri said while speaking to the business community here at the Lahore
Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday.

Following directions of the National Command and Operation Centre, the government revised its
inbound air/land travel categories in June, keeping Iran, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia,

Iraq, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa,
Tunisia, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Namibia,
Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad, Tobago and Uruguay in category C and imposing a ban on people
travelling to Pakistan from these countries.

Mr Nazri said there was no such restriction from the Iranian side on the other hand. “Pakistan
should also remove the restriction on Iran,” he sought.
The consul general complained that the Pakistani consulate in Iran took a long time to issue visas
to Iranians, while the Tehran consulate in Islamabad issued travel documents without any delay.
He was of the view that despite the US sanctions on Iran, there is a lot to trade.

“The Iranian trucks should be allowed to enter Pakistan,” he sought.

The diplomat also complained about the imposition of 50 per cent duty on Iranian apples, while
in Afghanistan the duty is just 10pc.

“We request Pakistan to reduce this duty too.”

On the issue of barter trade, he said it was decided that rice and denim would be exported from
Pakistan to Iran and in exchange Islamabad will buy electricity from Tehran. But the State Bank
of Pakistan refused to facilitate this deal and has kept it pending.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1652861/iran-wants-pakistan-to-lift-covid-travel-ban

ShopRite With U.S. Rice

By Lesley Dixon

ARLINGTON, VA -- USA Rice recently partnered with ShopRite, a retailers' cooperative of

supermarkets, to conduct National Rice Month (NRM) promotions and activities that started in late
August and ran through early October. USA Rice worked with retail dietitians across seventeen store
locations to host a series of promotions that highlighted the nutritional benefits of rice, promoted NRM,
and encouraged the use of U.S.-grown rice.

On-site registered dietitians answer rice questions

“The promotional partnership with ShopRite was a great avenue to further spread NRM messaging,” said
Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice director of domestic promotion. “The partnership deployed a combination of
tactics to reach ShopRite shoppers in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, from highlighting
rice’s role in family meals to the tabling of rice resources in stores to a demo on making different rice
bowls, the diversity of promotions meant there was something for every consumer.”

The promotional events differed by store locations, but the underlying themes of celebrating National
Rice Month and promoting domestic rice remained a constant. The retail promotions targeted multiple
audiences including seniors, parents, students, and every-day customers. In all, the partnership featured a
mix of in-store events, community events, virtual promotions, and cooking demonstrations. For each
event, USA Rice resources were distributed, in-store member brands were highlighted, and consumers
heard and discussed the nutritional benefits of rice consumption with the store’s retail dietitians.
“I set up a spin wheel and asked true or false questions about rice to the customers using USA Rice’s
handouts,” said Danielle Buonforte, RD, ShopRite of Lincoln Park, New Jersey. “I had children stop by
who loved the rice coloring book and the adults enjoyed learning new facts about U.S.-grown rice and
rice recipes they didn't know. I had great educational conversations about how rice fits in the diets of
people with diabetes and other chronic diseases. Overall, the event was fantastic and made folks aware of
National Rice Month.”

Resources distributed include the USA Rice RD Guide to U.S.-Grown Rice, Rice Nutrition 101 one-
pager, How to Build a Better Bowl brochure, student activity books, and recipe brochures. Resources are
available to members digitally or print by request.
 “It was great to partner with USA Rice to promote U.S.-grown rice and National Rice Month in
our stores,” said Dana McLaughlin, RDN manager of health and wellness for ShopRite. “Our
customers loved learning more about domestic rice and taking home all the different rice
resources and fun promotional items. We hope to partner with USA Rice again in the future to
continue to promote U.S.-grown rice in our stores.”

ShopRite operates stores in six states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
and Pennsylvania. The supermarket chain has been the largest retailer of food in New Jersey for
nearly 70 years and is also number one in the entire New York metropolitan area and the largest
retailer of food in greater Philadelphia.

USA Rice Daily

USD goes up as economy rebounds, imports rise in

Bangladesh
 Meraj Mavis
  Published at 09:22 pm October 18th, 2021
Settlement of LCs ballooned by 45.3% year-on-year to $10.76 billion, while LCs worth
$12.13 billion were opened during July-August of the current fiscal year

The interbank exchange rate of dollars has risen to Tk85.65 from Tk84.8 in just two and a
half months, according to Bangladesh Bank data, with per dollar value in the open market
standing at Tk90.
Bankers and economists say that the increase in post-Covid-19 business transactions, the
opening of a large number of letters of credit (LCs) in the last few months, and payment
of old dues are the main reasons behind the rising price of the greenback.

Settlement of LCs ballooned by 45.3% year-on-year to $10.76 billion in July-August,

according to central bank data.

In these two months, LCs worth $12.13 billion were opened for importing various
products — a 48.6% rise year-on-year rise.

Market insiders said that although the spot rate of dollar rose by Tk0.85 during the two-
month period, the value of BDT against the USD went up by around Tk2-5 in the open
market.

“I had to buy a few dollars last Friday to pay for an ad. The price was Tk91 per dollar.
But last month, I bought dollars from the open market for Tk86. The price is fluctuating
by Tk2-5 every day in the open market,” said a businessman who recently paid a third-
party agency for a boost on Facebook.

Rise in prices of various commodities, including oil, in the international market also
played a role in this, economists said.

Oil prices hit multi-year high on Monday buoyed by recovering demand and high natural
gas and coal prices, reports Reuters.

Brent crude oil futures were up 0.7% to $85.45 a barrel by 0900 GMT, after hitting
$86.04 — the highest since October 2018.

AB Mirza Azizul Islam, economist and former financial adviser to a caretaker

government, told Dhaka Tribune: “The increase in post-Covid-19 business transactions in
the dollar market may have had an impact. In the past few months, imports of various
food items, including rice and lentil, have gone up.”

Furthermore, remittance inflow and international investments have also dropped, adding
to the problem.
Remittance inflows to Bangladesh fell to a 16-month low of $1.72 billion in September.
Earnings were the lowest since May last year as since then, the monthly inflow has
ranged between $1.83 billion and $1.78 billion until August of this year.

A rise in the costs of purchasing machinery and increase in travel costs due to reopening
of borders has also driven up the demand for USD, economists said.

Capital machinery imports rose to $639 million in the first two months of the current
fiscal year — a 11% increase from the same period of the previous fiscal year.

“Apart from this, people have been visiting abroad for travel and treatment. This has put
pressure on the dollar. As a result, prices have gone up in banks and the open market,”
Azizul Islam said.

Moreover, the rise in prices of cotton, yarn and oil in the international market may also
have had an impact on this, he added.

Despite having adequate forex reserves in the country, the Bangladesh Bank is concerned
about this upward trend in the price of dollars.

Forex reserves of the Bangladesh Bank stood at $46.16 billion as of Sunday.

According to central bank data, an average of $350 to $400 million is needed per month
to meet import costs, meaning it is possible to meet the import cost for 10 to 11 months
with the current reserves.

To keep the situation stable and maintain the value of taka, the central bank has been
continuously boosting the sales of USD.

“As of September, Bangladesh Bank sold $641 million to banks,” said Serajul Islam,
executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank.

Islam explained that business is on the recovery in both international and domestic
markets.

“Transactions are increasing, and that is normal. If you start something after stopping for
a long time, there is more speed. If you notice, the number of LC openings has increased
a lot since the beginning of the current financial year,” he added.
Moreover, businesses have started paying past dues, which has increased the demand for
dollars in the market, resulting in the price going up a bit.

Another Bangladesh Bank official, seeking anonymity, said that the country has started
investing money from the reserve.

Sri Lanka has already been given a loan from the reserve. Investments are also being
made in government bills and bonds of different countries, he said.

“As a result, it is expected that the rate at which income from Covid-19 reserves declined
may now increase again. Because interest rates have already started rising in the
international market,” the official said.

https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2021/10/18/usd-goes-up-as-economy-rebounds-imports-rise-in-
bangladesh

Women perspectives must be included in COVID-19

pandemic responses
By

GNA

Oct 18, 2021

Rural Women

Mr Obrain Nyarko, Oti Regional Director of Agriculture, says there is the need to fully include
the perspectives of women in the formulation and implementation of programmes at all stages of
the pandemic response to leverage on the gains made.

He noted that when women lead, they made the conscientious effort to put the welfare and needs
of the people first.

Mr Nyarko in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Emmanuel Minah, Krachi East Municipal
Director of Agriculture during the 2021 World Rural Women’s Day Celebration at Gbi Wegbe
noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had brought with it a “New Normal” where the “Old
Normal” had given way to the “New Normal.”
He noted that COVID-19 and the lesson learnt, had taught that women’s participation in nation-
building was important in achieving an equitable future and a more prosperous future.

Mr Nyarko said it was not misplaced to celebrate the effort of women who through exemplary
leadership had helped to shape a more equitable future and recover from the COVID-19
pandemic.

He noted that there were women who served as frontliners of the COVID-19 crisis as health
workers and also served as some of the most exemplary and effective leaders in combating the
pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light the skills and knowledge of women to effectively
lead. The entire world has come to accept that women bring on board different perspectives,
knowledge, and skills that work better for all.”

The Regional Director said most countries that had been successful in fighting the COVID-19
pandemic including Germany, Denmark, Ethiopia, and Finland were led by women adding that
“all these countries have been recognised for the effectiveness of their nation’s response to the
COVID-19.”

The celebration was on the theme: “Celebrating the efforts of Women and Girls around the
World to shape a more Equitable Future and Recovery from COVID-19 pandemic.”

Madam Qudiratu N. Ishak from the German Association of Rural Women (Dlv), Ghana Office,
said the Dlv had been in Ghana since 2017 and operational in the Volta, Oti, and Brong Ahafo
regions and worked in three main intervention areas including rice processing.

She said they were supporting rice women groups in the Volta, Oti, and Northern regions in the
processing of their rice by improving the quality, adding that the first phase of the project trained
the women on rice parboiling.

Madam Ishak said the women groups had also received training on marketing, quality assurance
and also helped them to network by taking them to farmers’ day and rice festivals to expose them
to other people and see what they were doing.

She said the second intervention area was in regards to nutrition by training women groups in
Northern and Bono East regions with emphasis on home gardening adding that there was the
need for the knowledge on how staples were combined with other things to get the
micronutrients.

Madam Ishak said the third intervention was strengthening groups that were identified to be in
need of support by giving them capacity building training and group dynamics training.

She said there were many challenges the rural women faced that only the German Association of
Rural Women could not solve including the unavailability of rice mills for women in the Volta
region in rice production which affected the quality of rice produced.
Madam Ishak said since the machines were expensive and the women could not afford them, the
Association of Rural Women gave the women advocacy and lobbying skills to be able to lobby
for some of the interventions from the government.

She said water was also a challenge for women in the Northern region with regards to rice
parboiling and drying of the rice, adding that some of them had no nice platforms where they
dried their rice.

Madam Ishak called on partners that could give grants to come on board to provide grants,
machinery to assist the women since there had been quality in terms of their rice production and
packaging as a result of the training and support they received.

Madam Janet Adade, CEO of ELSJYNE Enterprise and Women Leader, told the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) that the celebration which had begun in 2018, had impacted the various women
groups in the Volta and Oti regions and thanked the stakeholders who put the celebrations
together.

She said the celebration over the years, served as motivation to other women in most
communities to also form groups adding they had begun with ten women groups in the Hohoe
Municipality which had increased to about 50 groups.

Madam Adade said the groups had taken measures such as registering with the various
Assemblies and contributing monies to help themselves such as the purchase of agro inputs, hire
machines to come and work for them.

She said they still had some challenges as rural women including the difficulty in bringing the
women together while calling on organisations, individuals, and government to come to the aid
of the women farmers through the provision of harvesters, tillers and processing and packaging
machines.

ELSJYNE Enterprise presented farming tools to outstanding women groups from Likpe,
Fodome, Akpafu, and Wli as well as other individuals.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1fU0RmdrNSwJ:https://
newsghana.com.gh/women-perspectives-must-be-included-in-covid-19-pandemic-responses/
+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

DA, BOC steps up drive vs. big-time veggie smugglers:

Dar
By Mar Serrano October 19, 2021, 7:17 pm
ALBAY VISIT. Agriculture Secretary William Dar speaks on transforming Philippine
agriculture during the signing of an agreement for the implementation of the Provincial-led
Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Services (PAFES) program in Albay on Tuesday (Oct. 19,
2021). The undertaking is in preparation for the "full devolution" under the Mandanas Ruling
that will take effect next year. (Photo by Mar Serrano)

LEGAZPI CITY – Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar on Tuesday said the
ongoing investigation into the importation of smuggled vegetables from China has resulted in the
raid of at least three warehouses owned by big-time smugglers in Metro Manila and Subic,
Zambales.

Dar, in an ambush interview here, said the DA and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have stepped
up the surveillance operation to pin down suspected smugglers of imported vegetables especially
cheap imported carrots, which according to reports, have been flooding the markets of the
National Capital Region.

He said the BOC-initiated raids have resulted in the confiscation of multi-million pesos worth of
smuggled agricultural products and the agency is now preparing to file charges against three
businessmen tagged as behind the illegal shipments.

Dar, however, refused to reveal the identities of the alleged big-time smugglers pending the
formal filing of the cases.

The DA chief visited Albay to turn over PHP38 million worth of production input and farm
equipment to various farmers' groups and irrigators' associations.

He also led the signing of a memorandum of agreement with Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara
together with other parties involved in the implementation of the Provincial-led Agriculture and
Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES) program.

Dar said PAFES is a modality of implementing agriculture and fisheries extension services in the
provinces with the impending implementation of “full devolution” as stipulated in the Mandanas
Ruling to take effect in 2022.

PAFES is being piloted in selected provinces. In the Bicol region, the province of Albay was
selected as the pilot province.

Dar also turned over PHP29.5 million worth of farm machinery and equipment to various
farmers' associations in Albay comprising 14 units of four-wheel-drive tractors and six units of
rice combine harvesters. (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1157
11th Pre-harvest Conference and Exhibitions
open tomorrow in Tamale
Source: Joy Business  

  18 October 2021 2:44pm

Alberta Akosa Founder, Agri-house Foundation

The 11th edition of the Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Conference and Exhibitions, organised by

Agrihouse Foundation is set open tomorrow, Tuesday, 19 October, at the Aliu Mamaha Sport Stadium in

Tamale, in the Northern Region.

The three (3) days leading Agribusiness market linkage conference and exhibitions event, is on the theme,

‘Working Together to Improve Market Channels for Agri-foods Beyond the Pandemic.”

This year’s event is in collaboration with the Northern Regional Coordinating Council – NRCC, and the

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

Sponsors of the event are YARA, Ecobank Ghana PLC, World Food Programme, ADB-Agricultural

Development Bank, GIZ MOAP, Demeter Ghana Limited, United Fertilisers Company Limited (UFCL),

and HD PLUS.

Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, has noted that, this year’s

event will bring a pool of Agric value chain actors and stakeholders together, to further highlight, explore

innovative ways and identify pandemic preparedness solutions, that will contribute to the growth of
knowledge in producing good food, providing good food and marketing good food, to strengthen our

communities and the nation as a whole, thereby, sustaining markets for agri-foods.

The over thousand participants who have registered to be part of the event will receive training in various

capacity building topics that can help them adopt best farming practices to increase their yields and

productivity.

She said sessions like the Commodity Breakout Session and Farmer-Buyer Matchmaking Dialogues

would connect aggregators and farmers of rice, maize, millet, sorghum, soyabeans, groundnut, yam and

tubers, etc to buyers and processing companies that looking to purchase raw materials in large quantities,

ahead of the harvest season. Such engagements allow for direct market for the farmers, and halts concerns

like post-harvest losses.

She further noted, there would be a showcasing of successful agribusiness modules that has worked, as

part of the capacity building sessions; to consciously introduce farmers and stakeholders to successful

cases studies of agribusinesses and projects, that they could possibly adopt, as they curve a growth and

investment path, for their respective Agribusinesses.

 She said a Gender Workshop, and Agri-Youth Forum would be held respectively, to underscore the

efforts of women in the agric space, while highlighting support structures that can be improved or

designed to help them scale-up their efforts to build sustainable food systems

The Agri-Youth Forum will be both practical and motivational; a session that will shed light on how

today’s Youth, can connect to the future of agriculture, through diverse innovative and creative

approaches.  
There will also be the Development Panel conversations, where institutions, including Yara, Ecobank,

World Food Programme, GIZ MOAP, ADB, Demeter, UFCL and other Public Units, will deliberate and

agree on realistic ways to cooperate and work together, to improve upon and build resilient markets. This

panel will deliberate the theme of 2021 pre-harvest, and as part of commitments, raise a call to action that

will enable them curve a working pathway, with timeliness to achieve, improve, strengthen and sustain a

resilient agri-market.

This year’s Field demonstrations, she stressed, will offer farmers and actors the opportunity to get

practical learn, appreciate and adopt best practices in Farm Management.  This will take place at the

Agrihouse Foundation AGRI-VILLAGE, a Ten (10) acre land, donated by the Bamvim Lana (Chief of

Bamvim).  Companies leading various Training sessions, will setup mini-demonstration fields for a more

engaging practical session.

Throughout the three days event a colourful Exhibition will be mounted to make room for the over 1oo

exhibitors who have registered to be at the event to display their produce, products and services.  

“This year’s Pre-Harvest event will not come short in playing its role in facilitating farmers and agro-

processors to access opportunities to expand their growth potentials and build new partnerships. We have

a strong team with the capacity to ensure that,” Ms. Akosa has assured.

Impacts of Pre-harvest Agribusiness Conference and Exhibitions

Started in October 2010 in Tamale in the Northern Region, by the USAID ADVANCE, the Annual Pre-

harvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference event, was handed over to Agrihouse Foundation, in

2018, in an effort to scale the event up and to allow for more public and private sector participation.
The handing over was also to allow for further growth, sustainability and expansion. Since the handing

over in 2018, Agrihouse Foundation, together with Partners have steadily grown the platform, from a

day’s event, to a 3-day event.

The Farmer, private, public and stakeholder participation has also increased significantly over the last

3years, making huge impacts, through market linkages, trainings, demonstrations and other capacity

building sessions.

Pre-harvest has created and continues to connect, through exhibitions, and training sessions, companies

that are into fertilisers, seeds, irrigation, machinery and equipment, finance, transportation, ICT,

processors, packagers, marketers, government institutions, development partners, among others. over

90% of companies and participants have been linked to markets through the exhibitions.

Pre-harvest has become a leading event on the Ghanaian agricultural calendar and has served as a

stimulating platform for training, and for creating increased stakeholder linkages, exhibitions and

expanded opportunities. It operates from a facilitative dimension by presenting a highly engaging and

coordinated platform that ensures that smallholder farmers are connected to markets, finance, inputs,

equipment, and information.

These activities are geared towards capturing the marketing challenges faced by the actors especially in

the pandemic and how other modernised marketing platforms can serve as a solution to maximise the

output of the actors along the value chain. Farmers, actors along the value chain and participants will be

equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to observe good agricultural practices.

In 2020, (10th edition), the event recorded a total of 3,122 participants and 122 exhibitors including

farmers, traders, commodity brokers, input companies, machinery and equipment providers, transporters,
financial institutions, ICT, Innovations, Poultry and Livestock companies, packaging and processing

companies, development practitioners and government agencies, among others.

Report on the 2019 event showed that about 70 business deals were made during the Exhibition. More

than GHS232, 420, 745 of agri products and equipment were sold and bought. The event has improved

the livelihoods of the players along the value chain by boosting their confidence i.e. created a stimulus

platform for collaborating with other actors for business deals/increased stakeholders linkages.

It has given agro-processors a strong drive to access their raw materials locally, agribusiness

development, grown the local economy through the expansion of agribusiness opportunities and has

become a platform of growth for agribusiness entrepreneurs. The event will remain one of the leading

events in the country, where farmers, businesses, government and ideas meet to network, build capacity,

learn and explore business opportunities, sign deals and close contracts.

In 2018, the event won the Agribusiness event of the Year, for helping to promotes business partnerships

among value chain actors, especially farmers, buyers, processors, transporters, input dealers, equipment

dealers, financial institutions, telecom companies and policy makers. Over the years, through continuous

improvement, it has accelerated the transformation of agribusiness in Northern Ghana, alongside

Government’s initiatives.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/11th-pre-harvest-conference-and-exhibitions-open-tomorrow-in-tamale

New Rice Recipes Put Little Chefs in Charge

By Deborah Willenborg
ARLINGTON, VA – USA Rice has debuted six new rice recipes designed with younger
audiences in mind. The new “Kids Kitchen” recipe series helps children learn how to cook with
simple, fun recipes that get them actively involved in the kitchen. For each recipe, kids are
responsible for the prep, assembly, and plating, while the adult safely handles steps requiring an
oven or stovetop.Simple rice recipes give young chefs a sense of accomplishment

Budding chefs learn cooking basics as they create tasty rice dishes they will love. Each recipe
involves steps of gathering all the ingredients before starting, measuring each ingredient out,
minimal chopping, final presentation steps, and how to clean up. The recipes yield four to six
generous servings with an average prep time of sixteen minutes, cook time of twenty-six
minutes, and include multiple meal parts using primarily U.S.-grown long grain rice.“Over the
last couple of years, we have seen a return to at-home cooking and that shift has trickled down to
even the youngest at-home cooks,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice director of domestic
promotion. “If you have a little one excited to help out in the kitchen, these kid-friendly concepts
are perfect. The rice recipes teach the fundamentals of cooking and using rice.”

The six new rice dishes include full nutritional information and are available to access through
the consumer recipe database at thinkrice.com.
USA Rice Daily

Pakistan set to harvest Basmati bumper crop this year

ByAPP
Punjab Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi has said that Pakistan is set to
harvest record Basmati crop this year due to extraordinary efforts by the agriculture ministry and
the farming community.

“Pakistani Basmati rice is popular all over the world for its unique aroma and quality. Pakistan is
one of the leading rice exporting countries in the world. This year, the paddy crop has been
planted on more than 5.3 million acres. With the farmer friendly policies of the government and
the hard work of the farmers, we will be able to achieve record yields which will increase the
income of the farmers and strengthen the national economy,” said the minister while addressing
a seminar on paddy  crops in Kabirwala in collaboration with a private rice company.

He said that Basmati varieties are the hallmark of Punjab.

“The long green variety of rice has been developed and will soon be made available to farmers
for normal cultivation. This year, better paddy production will bring prosperity to the farmers as
rice exports are expected to increase to 3 billion,” he said.

The Provincial Minister further said that the agriculture sector is one of the top priorities of the
government and therefore under the Prime Minister’s Agricultural Emergency Program,
implementation of projects worth about Rs. 300 billion has been initiated from the current
financial year.
He said that a huge amount of Rs. 4 billion was being spent in Punjab for increasing paddy
production per acre under which approved varieties of seeds and modern agricultural machinery
were being provided to paddy farmers on subsidy rate.

The Minister said that the present government, in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran
Khan, will make the agricultural sector so active and developed that our agriculture will be able
to achieve a prominent position in the local and international market in line with international
requirements.

On the occasion, the Agriculture Minister appealed to the farmers to refrain from setting fire to
the paddy fields after harvesting the paddy. Do this because this illegal practice increases
environmental pollution, which in turn increases public health problems.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/10/16/pakistan-set-to-harvest-basmati-bumper-crop-this-year/

Why European Court ruling on Super Basmati trademark

is unlikely to affect India
Subramani Ra Mancombu  Chennai | Updated on October 19, 2021
Court of Justice upholds non-registered trademark given in 2017
A judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union upholding the European Union (EU)
registration of “Abresham Super Basmati Selaa Grade One World’s Best Rice” under the
Union’s provisions for non-registered trademark in 2017 has led to claims by Pakistan trade that
its geographical indication (GI) rights have been upheld.

However, the claims are seen as a mere “pipe dream” by an expert in Basmati cultivation and its
GI rights, since the trademark was obtained before the Indian Patent Office awarded the GI tag
for Basmati rice growing in specific regions of the country.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice upheld the registration for
the trademark for the non-registered product on the ground that the party opposing the process
did not sufficiently explain how the distinctiveness of the word “Basmati” would be affected.

The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan has reacted saying it had “successfully” worked
against the Indian application of GI tag and exclusive marketing rights for its Basmati rice in the
EU.

Trademark for rice products

The Court of Justice’s ruling came on an appeal filed against the European Union Intellectual
Property Office (EUIPO) judgement by UK-based Indo European Food Ltd, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of India’s Kohinoor Foods Ltd that markets Basmati rice under three brands.

On October 13, 2017, the UK firm had opposed the application of Venice-based Hamid Ahmad
Chakari being published by the EU trade markets in its bulletin, a process that recognises that
Chakari’s request had been accepted.

Chakari, who buys rice from Pakistan and distributes in the EU, had obtained the non-registered
trademark for flour of rice, rice-based snack food, rice cakes, rice pulp for culinary purposes,
extruded food products made of rice, rice meal for forage.
Indo European Food Ltd argued that it was entitled to rely upon the goodwill associated with the
name “Basmati” that had a reputation amongst a significant section in the UK, which recognised
it as a particular class of rice.

Lack of evidence
It said the word element “Abresham Super Basmati Selaa Grade One World’s Best Rice” clearly
tried to represent that the product was “Basmati” rice. In case, the rice was of a type other than
“Basmati”, then the goods would be falsely described, leading to the likelihood of
misrepresentation.

It will result in damage to the goodwill that “Basmati” rice commanded and also constitute “food
fraud” in the UK, where the damage could be substantial. Indo European Ltd argument was
rejected on April 5, 2019, on the grounds that it failed to submit sufficient evidence to prove that
it has suffered or is likely to suffer damage as a result of the registration of the trademark.

The third board of appeal of EUIPO, rejecting the UK firm’s appeal, said the registering of the
trademark “could not cause a direct loss of sales” to Indo European Ltd as the contested goods
were other than rice, whereas the applicant sold only rice.

Higher prices may cheer basmati farmers

“Likewise, there was no argument to explain how use of the mark applied for could affect the
distinctiveness of the name ‘basmati’”, the EUIPO board of appeal said.

The Court of Justice, however, agreed that even if the goodwill attached to the name “Basmati”
related only to fragrant, long grain rice as a variety or class of goods, a non-negligible part of the
public might believe that the goods such as flour of rice, rice-based snack food, rice pulp or rice
meal for forage, labelled “Abresham Super Basmati Selaa Grade One World’s Best Rice”, could
in some way be associated with Basmati rice.

But the appeal was rejected since Indo European Ltd “failed to demonstrate” that the trademark
would result in “Basmati” name being misrepresented.
Wrong impression
According to S Chandrasekaran, who has authored the book, Basmati Rice: The Natural History
Geographical Indication”, Pakistan has got a wrong impression that the Court of Justice had
indirectly recognised its Super Basmati variety.

The case revolved around a non-registered product in 2017, a period before India got GI tag for
its Basmati rice. Once the Indian Patent Office gave the GI tag for its Basmati rice, it protects the
fragrant rice across the world for its exclusivity.

The Indian registration supersedes even non-registered claims and it is an internationally settled
law, the expert said.

The domestic protection that Basmati rice has got in India provides New Delhi the legal means to
challenge any registered or non-registered trademark post-2017, Chandrasekaran said.

The issue assumes significance in view of India applying for an exclusive GI tag for its Basmati
rice last year. Though Pakistan has opposed providing the GI tag that could offer India exclusive
marketing rights of the long grain rice, its chances are seen poor since it has not got its domestic
act together on the GI front properly.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5ccffXkzbo8J:https://
www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/why-european-court-ruling-on-super-basmati-
trademark-is-unlikely-to-affect-india/article37068489.ece+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

Create these delicious, quick and easy weekday recipes

each day, for supper for yourself and the family this
week.
These 10 yummy and quick dinner recipes can all be prepared in under 40 minutes,
and not only are they quick to make, but they are also super delicious.

Create these delicious, quick and easy weekday recipes each day, for supper for
yourself and the family this week.

Salmon pasta
Salmon pasta. Picture: iStock
Ingredients

 whole-wheat penne or other whole-wheat pasta 240g

 3 x 120g fillets of salmon
 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
 1 onion, thinly sliced
 2 garlic cloves, crushed
 125ml of vegetable stock
 100ml of reduced-fat crème fraîche
 200g of frozen peas
 ½ small bunch of dill, roughly chopped
 1 lemon, zested

Instructions

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Reduce the heat
to medium, cover with a metal colander or tiered steamer and add the salmon.
Cover with a lid and leave the pasta to cook and the fish to steam for 10
minutes. Drain the pasta and flake the salmon, removing the skin.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Cook
the onion, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the onion is golden and softened. Add
the garlic, cooking for 1 minute until fragrant.
3. Add the stock, crème fraîche and peas, stirring together then simmering for 2
minutes until the peas are just cooked through. Add the pasta and toss to coat.
Add the salmon, half the dill and lemon zest, and toss to combine, seasoning
well. Serve in warm bowls with more dill scattered over.

This recipe was found on olivemagazine.com

Prawn tikka masala

Prawn tikka masala. Picture: iStock
Ingredients

 1 large onion, roughly chopped

 1 thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and grated
 2 large garlic cloves
 1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil
 2-3 tablespoon of tikka curry paste
 400g of can chopped tomatoes
 2 tablespoon of tomato purée
 ½ tablespoon of light brown soft sugar
  3 cardamom pods, bashed
 200g of brown basmati rice
 3 tablespoon of ground almonds
 300g if raw king prawns
 1 tablespoon of double cream
 ½ bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
 naan breads, warmed, to serve (optional)

Instructions

1. Put the onion, ginger and garlic in a food processor and blitz to a smooth paste.
Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish or pan over a medium heat.
Add the onion paste and fry for 8 minutes or until lightly golden. Stir in the
curry paste and fry for 1 min more. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, sugar and
cardamom pods. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for another 10 minutes.
2. Cook the rice following pack instructions.
3. Scoop the cardamom out of the curry sauce and discard, then blitz with a hand
blender, or in a clean food processor. Return to the pan, add the almonds and
prawns, and cook for 5 minutes. Season to taste and stir through the cream and
coriander. Serve with the rice and naan breads, if you like.

This recipe was found on bbcgoodfood.com

chicken roastQuick chicken roast. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked

 4 anchovies in oil, drained, chopped
 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
 2 tablespoons of olive oil
 2 garlic cloves, chopped
 Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
 8 chicken thighs (bone in, skin on)
 800g of baby potatoes, halved lengthways
 100g of speck or streaky bacon
 250g of baby tomatoes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

 2. Combine the thyme, anchovies, oregano, chilli, oil, garlic and lemon zest in a
bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Add the potatoes and toss to combine.
Place on a large baking tray and scatter over the speck.
3. Cut the zested lemon into wedges and add to the tray. Season and roast for 40
minutes or until chicken is golden and potatoes tender. Remove from the oven
and top with tomatoes. Roast for a further 10-15 minutes until tomatoes are
blistered.
4. Squeeze over roasted lemon juice to serve.

This recipe was found on delicious.com.au

Butternut risottoButternut risotto. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or butter)

 2 cups of sliced leeks (one extra large leek)
 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
 8 sage leaves, chopped
 1 cup of rice or short-grain Spanish rice
 2 heaping cups of butternut squash, cubed
 1/4 cup of white wine (or skip it)
 2 cups of veggie stock or chicken stock or broth (or water and one teaspoon or
cube veggie bouillon)
 1/2 teaspoon of salt
 1/8 teaspoon of white pepper (or sub black pepper to taste)
 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg the nutmeg makes this- don’t leave it out!
 2–3 handfuls of baby spinach or chopped kale 1/4 – 1/2 cup parmesan,
pecorino, manchego, goat cheese, vegan cheese or cashew cheese – or the leave
cheese out and use leek oil for garnish. Or stir in 1-2 tablespoons of butter or
ghee, or a drizzle of olive oil.

ALSO READ: Five pasta recipes that can be prepared in under 25 minutes

Instructions

1. Slice and rinse leeks, separating rings (rinsing will help them to soften faster).
2. Set Instant Pot to the “Saute” function.
3. Heat oil in the instant pot, add the rinsed leeks and stir for 2 minutes. Add
garlic, sage and rice, stir for 2 minutes.
4. Add butternut squash, and keep stirring for a couple of minutes, until there is a
bit of browning on the bottom of the instant pot.
 5. Add the wine and scrape up the browned bits-  a wooden spoon is good for this.
Let all the wine cook off, about 2-3 minutes. Add the stock or broth. Scrape up
more browned bits. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg, and give a good stir.
6. Seal the instant pot and pressure cook on HIGH for 6 minutes. Naturally,
release for 5 minutes, then manually release.
7. While the Instant pot is going you could make the leek oil and/or the maple
glazed pecans.
8. Stir the risotto, adding the spinach and cheese or butter if you like, or leave
them out. As the butternut breaks down a bit, it will add a nice natural
creaminess to the risotto.
9. Garnish with optional leek oil or maple glazed pecans.

This recipe was found on feastingathome.com

Pork noodle stir-fryPork noodle stir-fry. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 3 tablespoon of sesame oil

 350g of lean pork mince
 350g of egg noodles
 thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and chopped, or 1½ tablespoon of ginger
purée
 3 garlic cloves, crushed, or 1 tablespoon of garlic purée
 320g of stir-fry vegetables
 4 tablespoon of low-salt soy sauce
 2 teaspoon of cornflour
 4 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the mince, break it up with a spoon
and fry over a high heat for about 8 minutes until browning. While the meat
cooks, boil a kettle, then pour the hot water over the noodles. Set aside for 5-10
minutes to soften.
2. Add the ginger, garlic and veg to the pan and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Mix 1
tbsp soy sauce with the cornflour to make a paste. Add the remaining soy
sauce, the chilli sauce and 2 tbsp water. Drain the noodles and add to the pan
with the sauce. Cook until the sauce coats the noodles, adding a splash of water
if needed, then serve.

This recipe was found on bbcgoodfood.com

Beef noodle saladBeef noodle salad. Picture: iStock
Ingredients

 400g of sirloin steak

 1 tablespoon of oil
 1 teaspoon of paprika
 Salt and pepper to season
 ½ of red and ½ of green pepper
 200g of mushrooms, halved
 3 courgettes, sliced
 2 cups of crispy noodles
 1 cup of basil leaves
 Zest of 1 lemon
 ¼ cup of lemon juice
 2 teaspoon of fish sauce
 2 teaspoon of sesame oil
 2 tablespoon of honey
 1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
 ½ cup of basil

Instructions

1. To make the dressing, place lemon, fish sauce, sesame, honey, ginger and basil
in a jar and shake well to combine.
2. Rub steak with oil, paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Preheat a barbecue to a high heat. Cook the steak for 3 or 4 minutes each side.
Set aside.
4. Cook the peppers, mushrooms and courgettes on the grill until just cooked.
5. Place the vegetables in a large bowl, Slice the meat thinly and add to the bowl.
Toss through the dressing, crispy noodles and basil. Serve immediately with
extra basil leaves to garnish.

This recipe was found on viva.co.nz

Chicken ranch wrapsChicken ranch wrap. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 2 cups of cooked grilled chicken breasts chopped (seasoned with your favorite
spices)
 ¼ cup of ranch dressing
  ½ cup of mozzarella cheese
 ¼ cup of cilantro minced (optional)
 4 8” tortillas

Instructions

1. Lay tortillas on a clean flat surface. Place about ½ cup chicken, 1 tablespoon
ranch, 2 tablespoons of cheese, and 1 tablespoon of minced cilantro on each
tortilla. Fold tightly to form a burrito shape.
2. Heat a heavy-duty pan or grill to medium heat. Coat with a light layer or oil or
cooking spray and cook wraps for 1-2 minutes on each side or until the tortilla
is crispy and golden. Remove from heat, slice in half and serve immediately.

This recipe was found on gimmedelicious.com

Minty lamb with beetroot and charred broccoliMinty lamb. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 ½ bunch of mint, leaves chopped

 ½ bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped
 ¼ cup of pine nuts, toasted
 2 tablespoon of grated parmesan
 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
 ⅔ cup of olive oil, plus extra to brush
 12 x French-trimmed lamb cutlets
 3 teaspoon of dried mint
 1 broccoli, sliced lengthways
 1½ tablespoons of lemon juice
 100g of watercress
 2 beetroots, cut into thin matchsticks
 120g of marinated feta, drained, crumbled

Instructions

1. Whiz the fresh mint, parsley, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic in a food processor
until a paste. Gradually add ½ cup (125ml) oil and whiz until combined. Set
aside.
2. Brush lamb with a little extra oil, then season and coat in dried mint. In a
separate bowl, toss broccoli and 1 tbs oil. Preheat a chargrill pan to medium-
high heat.
 3. Cook broccoli, turning, for 3-4 minutes until lightly charred. Set aside. Cook
lamb for 4 minutes each side for medium-rare or until cooked to your liking.
4. Whisk the lemon juice and remaining 1 tbs oil together in a bowl. Season.
5. Arrange broccoli, watercress, beetroot and feta on a platter. Top with the lamb,
then drizzle over lemon dressing and mint pesto to serve.

This recipe was found on delicious.com.au

Vegetable tikka masalaVegetable tikka masala. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 1–2 tablespoons of coconut oil, olive oil or ghee

 1 extra-large shallot – chopped
 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger
 4 fat garlic cloves, rough chopped
 1 teaspoon of cumin
 1 teaspoon of coriander
 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
 ½ teaspoon of paprika or chili powder
 1 teaspoon of garam masala or curry powder
 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds– optional
 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds– optional
 1 teaspoon of fenugreek leaves– optional
 1 teaspoon of salt
 1½ cups of tomatoes, diced
 1 can of full fat coconut milk
 1 red bell pepper, diced
 1 small head cauliflower, sliced into pieces, or small florets
 1 zucchini- cut into half-moons
 Squeeze of lemon
 Cilantro for garnish
 Optional additions: Crispy tofu, pan-seared paneer cheese, or 1 can of
chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
( See notes for Instant Pot)Add shallot, ginger and garlic, and reduce heat to
medium to prevent burning, stirring frequently about 3 minutes until fragrant
and golden. Add spices, seeds and salt and lightly toast, while stirring 1-2
minutes, which will enhance their flavor.
 2. Add the diced tomato, cook 2 more minutes, until they soften, then add the
coconut milk and stir to incorporate, bringing to a simmer. Add cauliflower, red
bell pepper, and zucchini, give a stir, cover and let simmer 10-12 minutes on
medium low heat. Check the cauliflower – it should be just tender, or continue
simmering uncovered until desired tenderness (the smaller you cut the pieces
the faster this will cook).Taste, add a squeeze of lemon juice. Add more salt if
necessary. If you like it spicy, add cayenne to taste.
3. Gently fold in the crispy tofu, seared paneer or chickpeas and give a stir and
warm through.
4. Serve in bowls over basmati rice or with naan. Garnish with cilantro.

This recipe was found on feastingathome.com

Fettuccine alfredoFettuccine alfredo. Picture: iStock

Ingredients

 400g of fettuccine
 150ml of double cream
 75g of parmesan or vegetarian alternative, finely grated, plus a little extra
 20g of butter
 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
 A handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Cook the fettucine in a large pan of boiling salted water following pack
instructions, then drain well, reserving some of the cooking water.
2. While the pasta cooks, heat the double cream in a frying pan until it just comes
to a simmer, then add in the parmesan, butter and black pepper, stir to melt the
cheese.
3. Tip in the pasta and toss really well, adding enough of the pasta cooking water
to make a sauce that coats the pasta well. Season. Divide between 4 bowls and
scatter over some parsley and a little more parmesan, if you like.

This recipe was found on olivemagazine.com

http://www.calricenews.org/2021/10/18/intrepid-section-18-expiration-update/#:~:text=Please%20make
%20certain%20that%20the,expired%20on%20October%204%2C%2020
Liberia: FAO, Japan Sign Agreement to Improve Rice
and Fish Cultivation
19 OCTOBER 2021

FrontPageAfrica (Monrovia)

By Henry Karmo

Monrovia — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed a
funding agreement with the Embassy of Japan in Liberia.
The Funding Agreement which is in the tone of USD$3,564,000 is geared towards the
implementation of a three-year project Strengthening Capacities in the Fisheries and Rice
Cultivation Sectors for Food Security and Nutrition Improvement.
FAO will implement this project in partnership with the Government of Liberia through the
National Fishery and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) and Ministry of Agriculture.
The project is designed to address challenges of less marine fisheries production which is partly
due to the fact that fisher forks, fishmongers and processors are not adequately capacitated and
equipped to stay safe and healthy at sea and undue post-catch losses which remain unfulfilled in
all nine coastal fishing counties.
The growing threats to sustainably managing marine resources is among the top constraints faced
by the fisheries sector. Hence, this project seeks, in the medium term to address these
quadripartite challenges confronting fisheries, through a well-coordinated, stakeholder-driven
approach. Strategically also, the project shall support improvement in local rice production,
whilst promoting the integration of agri-aquaculture production in rice fields.
Having contributed to addressing these, the project is expected to impact the country by helping
reduce poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and livelihoods vulnerability among women and
men of both young and middle ages. As an outcome, it will directly ensure that 3,000 fisher
folks, rice farmers, fish-famers, and fishmongers and processors have resilient livelihoods and
income, food and nutrition security amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Local communities in ten
counties will be impacted, with value chain actors and producers empowered in a climate-smart
and environmentally-friendly manner, through the four outputs which includes;
Enhanced small-scale fisheries at the sea; Female fish processors livelihoods improved;
Integrated agri-aquaculture promoted in rice fields; and Capacity developed to combat illegal,
unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The project has two specific objectives and one overall project outcome which is to reduced
poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and livelihoods vulnerability among women and men of
both young and middle-ages.
Objective one is to strengthen the small-scale fisheries sector through the creation of
employment, the diversification of income and the improvement of methods and safety of fisher
folks, capacity of fishmongers and curtailing of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
fishing.
Objective two is promote an inimitable method of integrating rice and fish farming using
climate-smart agricultural practices. In a COVID-ravaging era, the project will contribute to
income diversification, resilience building, and sustainable livelihoods. The project seeks to
contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular to Goals 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 14.
Speaking at the According to the FAO Representative, Madam Mariatou Njie, said the project
aims to achieve its objectives and outcome through four project outputs. The four outputs
include: Enhanced small-scale fisheries in the sea, Female fish processors livelihoods improved,
integrated agri-aquaculture promoted in rice fields and Capacity developed to combat illegal,
unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
In her explanation, output one will focus on enhancing the small-scale fisheries production, in
three different angles. First, promoting the establishment of community-based fisheries
management frameworks, including the replacement of existing fishing gear with more
sustainable ones. Secondly, ensuring decent work for fishers on board, from the water to the
landing sites. The output will, from one side, strengthen the safety of small-scale fishers in the
sea, with the distribution of high-quality outboard engines and onboard safety equipment (life
jackets, GPS, night-time lights, horns, buoys) in 100 boats from 9 different fishing communities,
accompanied by sea safety trainings.
In his remarks, the Japanese Ambassador, H.E. HIMIENO Tsutomu emphasized the importance
of output two that will enhance climate smart, sustainable and healthy fish processing
infrastructure (including FTTs) will be built and renewal energy and durable fish processing
equipment will be distributed for female fish processors groups in 10 fishing communities. A
female-to-female knowledge exchange will be organized from the previous female beneficiaries
to the new ones, as well as capacity development trainings to improve the efficiency,
productivity and hygiene practices through Kaizen approach and in accordance with COVID-19
health and safety protocols.
"The third output will promote integration of fish farming within rice fields in 10 localities
(exploring synergies and complementarity with JICA Project). Fish juveniles and related
equipment will be distributed to the various farmers along with technical aquaculture training.
This output will pilot test the manufacture of Eco-fuel briquettes using rice production waste in
the 10 localities to be used as fuel by female fish processors, distributing a briquettes machine
and training 20 young technicians" the Japanese Ambassador added.
In her response, the General Director of National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA),
Hon. Emma Metieh-Glassco expressed profound appreciations for theintended capacity
development to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. "Two interagency
workshops will be organized. Building on FCWC's support to NaFAA's MCS capacity, new IUU
combat technologies (remote electronic monitoring, cameras) will be provided with the relevant
training to the NaFAA fisheries officers involved. NaFAA hopes the vessel monitoring system
with hybrid mobile-satellite devices for monitoring the small-scale fleet, linked with an
anonymous 'whistleblower' system (essentially involving the artisanal sector in monitoring IUU
activities at-sea) that will be introduced and relevant officers trained will strengthen their
surveillance capacity" said Hon. Emma Metieh-Glassco.
The project will target above 10 counties in total (9 coastal and Bong). The Outputs 1, 2 and 4
will mainly target nine coastal countries while the Output 3 focuses on Bong County.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202110190310.html

China's hybrid double-cropping rice yields over 1.6 tons,

hitting new record
Updated 18:40, 17-Oct-2021

A hybrid double-cropping rice paddy field yielded over 1.6 tons per mu (about 0.067 hectares) in
two growing seasons in one year, hitting a new record, according to CMG on Sunday.

China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center, aka the Hunan Rice Research Center, has released the
assessment results from a test field, showing the late-season rice yields 936.1 kilogram per mu.
The total yield of the paddy field this year reached 1603.9 kilogram per mu, a combination of the
early-season yield of 667.8 kilogram and the late-season yield.

The yield has broken its last year record of 1,530.7 kilogram, becoming the highest-yielding
hybrid rice in the world.

The hybrid double-cropping rice is developed by the late Chinese renowned agronomist Yuan
Longping's team in Hunan Province. It can be planted twice and harvest twice in the paddy field
in a year.

The cycles of planting double-cropping rice includes one from late May to late July and the other
one starts from late July and harvests in November. Single cropping rice seedlings are
transplanted in late June and harvested in late October.

Usually single cropping rice has higher production per mu, but its total annual yield is way lower
than the double cropping rice.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-17/China-s-hybrid-rice-yield-breaks-record-14qI8nvGkc8/
index.html
Govt to resolve problems faced by fragrant rice padi
farmers in Kelantan soon - MAFI

File pix

18/10/2021 05:52 PM

KOTA BHARU, Oct 18 -- The government will resolve the problems faced by fragrant rice padi farmers in
Kelantan in marketing their crops soon.

Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) Deputy Minister II Dr Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh
said his team had identified several causes to the decline in the sales of the crops, including the
COVID-19 pandemic that hit the country, which resulted in padi farmers incurring losses.

“Fragrant rice padi cannot be processed in the same machines used for other padi varieties, so
there is a problem (to process) it in Kelantan. Therefore, the crops will usually be taken to
Kedah.
"However, recently there was an excess of the crops in Kedah, also due to the pandemic, which
caused a momentary disruption. This matter will gradually recover. In addition, interstate travel
has also been allowed, so we guarantee it (situation) will recover," he said.

Nik Muhammad Zawawi said this to reporters after officiating at the Kemubu Agricultural
Development Authority's (KADA) Outstanding Service Award Ceremony for 2020 at the KADA
headquarters, here, today, which was also attended by KADA chairman Datuk Kamarudin Md
Nor and general manager Nik Roslan Idris.

On Oct 7, the media reported that more than 200 fragrant rice padi farmers in the state claimed a
loss of almost RM100,000 due to the worsening problems in marketing their crops this year.

According to the report, Koperasi Padi Wangi Kelantan Berhad chairman Zailan Awang claimed
that the situation involved crops cultivated on about 40 hectares of land in several districts,
including Pasir Puteh, Machang, Bachok and Kota Bharu.

Meanwhile, Nik Muhammad Zawawi also shared the government's intention to have a monopoly
in the percentage of exports in the next few years as well as to reduce the country's dependence
on foreign products.

"Currently, the percentage of the country's imports for basic food, including paddy, is around 30
per cent while for exports it is around 20 per cent. So, we intend to increase exports over
imports.

"The government is ready (to go) in that direction, but we hope the people accept the system and
all the plans made by the government so that this matter can be realised," he added.

--BERNAMA