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Yet again, you have not addressed the central topic or advocated a solution to it (if you even believe one should be worked out).

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I have no idea how some people justify cultivating large amounts of soy (which is also a driving force behind the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest) for export to chicken factories in Europe, while millions in that nation (Brazil) go hungry, instead of growing grains for to meet the nutritional needs of impoverished people living there.

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I did not say that wealthy landowners/large corporate interests were the only ones producing soy, but in a land where roughly 3% own approximately 65% of suitable farmland, they do constitute the majority.

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Where he doesn't own land, this doesn't necessarily help him.

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If doesn't matter what the landless farmer grows, he gets paid what his superiors feel like paying him, which not surprisingly, is next-to-nothing.

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This is the primary cause behind cultivation of drug crops, as all but the most oblivious policymakers & analysts know.

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At least with wheat cultivation he could buy it for himself & his family locally if it were available & affordable.

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Instead, as it is, he has to rely on a corrupt & self-serving government/ruling business class to see to it that his food needs are met...

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Though plenty of wheat is produced globally, they can't afford it due to no fault of their own.

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Before colonialism these places, despite their faults, were self-sufficient in grain production, because they understood that not only was self-sufficiency in grain production in the (obvious) best interest of their society, but also that without it they were not truly free & were instead dependent upon a foreign power's will as to whether or not they would have enough of the most basic item for human survival; food (second counting water, I guess).

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I have addressed this issue comprehensively, backed by statistics & presenting the realities of agriculture in Brazil (which are not unlike, in many cases virtually identical, those in other nations).

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The limited framework from which those questions are presented make presuppositions that are not backed by history or present reality, & are intend to play upon the ignorance of First World consumers who know very little (& admittedly often don't care) about issues of unjust land distribution in places where they import exotic crops from.

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Where have you yet offered a solution in any of your posts?

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The title of thread...

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... & the fact that there are about 15 million undernourished people in Brazil.

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Let's say we are in the Antebellum South having a town hall meeting about slavery.

1. What must Jim do in order to obtain a farm that is rightfully his according to all relevant legal documents?

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2. What right do you have to take away Jim's slaves, which he bought at a legal slave auction & now legally owns?

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3. Why should Jim's farm & possessions be redistributed among his slaves & they be made private owners of an amount of land that allows them to be economically self-sufficient?

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To answer the questions presented (in the most minimal way that is acceptable to any humanist)...

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1. He must see to it that the workers (& their families) have access to adequate amounts of nutritional food & clean water, the availability of affordable housing & healthcare, & educational opportunities for their children (& thus they have an opportunity to be something other than an impoverished & landless peasant)... & that all who have been rendered landless (or are otherwise unemployed) as a result of the current system have access to employment & thus the aforementioned things. This is not Bob's sole obligation, but must be done working in collaboration with all business & the government & legal system which presently serves his profit interests over those of the impoverished majority.

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3. Bob would still be the owner of a comparatively large amount of land (which he may actually have to work some of himself... god forbid members of the oligarchy get a little soil on their delicate hands). The first lands seized would be land that is fertile but not being used because the owner finds it more profitable to not grow anything on it in a given season or for consecutive years. The second part was already addressed above.

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Landless peasants live in a condition of de facto slavery.

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Edit: I don't have time to elaborate right now...

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Ok, now that we all know (as I suspected all along) that you have zero concern solving the problem* of malnutrition & starvation under neoliberalism, there is no point to continue.

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Multinationals Make Billions In Profit Out of Growing Global Food Crisis
Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger

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Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

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The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world’s poor - who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food - into hunger and destitution.

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The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world’s richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

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Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

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Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February rise more than 12-fold, from $42.2m to $520.8m, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The prices of some kinds of fertiliser have more than tripled over the past year as demand has outstripped supply. As a result, plans to increase harvests in developing countries have been hit hard.

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Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, called the escalating earnings and profits “immoral” late last week. He said that the benefits of the food price increases were being kept by the big companies, and were not finding their way down to farmers in the developing world.

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The soaring prices of food and fertilisers mainly come from increased demand. This has partly been caused by the boom in biofuels, which require vast amounts of grain, but even more by increasing appetites for meat, especially in India and China; producing 1lb of beef in a feedlot, for example, takes 7lbs of grain.

World food stocks at record lows, export bans and a drought in Australia have contributed to the crisis, but experts are also fingering food speculation. Professor Bob Watson - chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who led the giant International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development - last week identified it as a factor.

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Index-fund investment in grain and meat has increased almost fivefold to over $47bn in the past year, concludes AgResource Co, a Chicago-based research firm. And the official US Commodity Futures Trading Commission held special hearings in Washington two weeks ago to examine how much speculators were helping to push up food prices.

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Cargill says that its results “reflect the cumulative effect of having invested more than $18bn in fixed and working capital over the past seven years to expand our physical facilities, service capabilities, and knowledge around the world”.

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The revelations are bound to increase outrage over multinational companies following last week’s disclosure that Shell and BP between them recorded profits of £14bn in the first three months of the year - or £3m an hour - on the back of rising oil prices. Shell promptly attracted even greater condemnation by announcing that it was pulling out of plans to build the world’s biggest wind farm off the Kent coast.

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World leaders are to meet next month at a special summit on the food crisis, and it will be high on the agenda of the G8 summit of the world’s richest countries in Hokkaido, Japan, in July.

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EntheogenicPeace said:

When the land was taken by theft (through colonialism), & does not serve the needs of the people, then land reform is justified... except, of course, to those profiting from injustice.

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zappaisgod said:

I myself am a little confused as to how increased fertilizer use has led to less food production.

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zappaisgod said:

I thought fertilizer WAS nutrients. Ahh, we're getting too far afield but you certainly seem to know what you're talking about. I defer to your expertise.

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EntheogenicPeace said:

What he did was redistribute the land among himself & his friends & they operated it (horribly) with no desire to even feed the people of Zimbabwe.

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