Archives
All posts for the day November 13th, 2023
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-11-12-trudeau-controls-prices-of-food-in-groceries.html
Back in September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned grocery chains that they could be hit with new taxes if they do not take steps to control rising food prices. He asked the heads of the five largest supermarket chains, including Walmart and Costco, to come up with a plan.
“If their plan doesn’t provide real relief for the middle class and people working hard to join it, then we will take further action, and we are not ruling anything out including tax measures,” Trudeau said at the end of a caucus retreat in London, Ontario.
However, for ex-Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, Trudeau’s demand that grocery stores create the means for lowering the price of food is ironically a plan for “empty shelves.” “We import 50 percent of what we consume. And do you think [Trudeau] is going to put price controls on all the countries we import from? He can’t,” Ritz told the Post Millennial. According to him, it is similar to Trudeau’s push to phase out single-use plastics for meat, fruit, and vegetables in grocery stores. “As soon as that comes into play, then, everything that comes from California and Florida and so on that comes in a plastic bag — that can’t come in anymore.”
Ritz added that it would all mean that fewer products would be on the shelves because Americans are not going to change their way of doing things for “a little country that’s a minor part of their market share.” “It’s going to shrink, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “Our shelves are going to be empty and the prices have to go up because the overhead costs of those stores – all that handling all that transportation – are still there.” He also pointed out that the federal government’s carbon tax on gasoline and home heating fuel will also add “to that final price of goods.”
The former minister also denounced the Liberal government’s move to reduce fertilizer use by 30 percent by 2030 because they claim that the nitrogen in the product contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. He does not think these farmers will volunteer to give up using the fertilizer. Worse, just like the voluntary gun registry, it will become mandatory after a while. “That’s what they do best,” he said.
Lastly, he slammed the Trudeau government for being dominated by urban cabinet ministers who have no knowledge or appreciation of rural life. He said that they are disconnected from any type of rural groups, citing current Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAuley to have operated a small dairy farm, “but that’s some 40 years ago.” “Lawrence is getting a do-over coming back in for a second stint at this. And he’s the one whose loose lips started talking about a mandatory 30 percent reduction in fertilizer use. I think he got out ahead of the comms team led by [Trudeau Chief of Staff] Katie Telford, of course. And he’s spilled the beans, quite literally, and farmers are starting to be concerned.”
Ritz said the plan is a recipe for disaster for a “trading nation” like Canada. “It sends those ripples out across the world that Canadian agriculture is going to shrink, not grow to feed that hungry world,” he added.
Policies of current administration are to be blamed, not the grocers
Over a month after the measure Trudeau implemented, new government data showed that food prices in Canada continue to climb.
Though year-over-year inflation of consumer prices overall cooled to 3.8 percent in September, food prices increased 5.8 percent from a year ago, driven by surging prices of bakery products (up eight percent), fresh vegetables (7.6 percent), pasta products (10.8 percent), and poultry (6.5 percent).
Even before 2023, statistics showed that some seven million Canadians, including 1.8 million children, were in households struggling to put food on the table. Consumers are becoming restless and enraged. They accused grocers of price gouging.”If I’m paying that much, I hope there’s gold in that chicken,” one user responded to a viral tweet in January showing a $37 price tag on a package of chicken breasts.
However according to Mike von Massow, a food economics professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, while it’s easy to get angry at the grocer, there’s very little evidence that the grocers are taking advantage of the situation.
“Food prices have only gotten worse since then, and Trudeau has found the same scapegoat as many others unversed in basic economics: grocers,” the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) pointed out on its website. “Politicians such as Trudeau cannot admit it’s their own policies and money printing that are to blame for high food prices.” The non-profit further said that Trudeau is parroting the rhetoric of some U.S. politicians by aiming at grocers and “record profits.” One is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who argued that inflation is being driven by “corporate greed.”
Canada’s Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre mirrored the same sentiment. “[Trudeau] prints $600 billion, grows our money supply by 32 percent in three years,” Poilievre said. “That’s growing the money eight times faster than the economy. No wonder we have the worst inflation in four decades.” (Related: Canada’s grocery retail giants push back against accusations of price inflation, ask Trudeau to examine his policies first.)
Check out FoodInflation.news for more stories on the ever-surging prices of food in groceries and supermarkets.
Sources for this article include:
An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 7, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. [BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images]
A doctor at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said on Saturday that the Israeli army opens fire on those who want to flee the hospital, Anadolu reports.
The Israeli army has surrounded the hospital area and they are “not even a meter away, they are at the door,” Fadia Malhis, a gynecologist at the hospital, told an Anadolu correspondent in frequently interrupted phone conversations.
“They shoot anyone who wants to go out of the hospital. If anyone moves between units, they shoot them. There are many martyrs in the yard in front of the emergency room, the situation is very bad and dangerous, it is indescribable,” she said.
READ: Israeli tanks 20 meters away from Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City: Palestinian Red Crescent
“It is like a prison without water, electricity, or food. There were more than 100 martyrs in the garden. They opened fire at those who tried to bury the martyrs in the hospital yard. The hospital garden is full of martyrs. Some tried to escape from the hospital, and they also killed them. They fired at me too,” she added.
Citing a power outage in the hospital and underlining the deteriorating condition of infants in the incubators in the intensive care unit, she said: “There are 60 babies in the intensive care unit, 39 of them are intubated, one baby died in the afternoon. These (infants) will die one after the other.”
She called for immediate action to cease hostilities around the hospital, saying: “Please, save us, stop this war, otherwise we will die. There are dead people everywhere. Save us, the situation is very bad.”
https://en.ypagency.net/310067
SANAA, Nov. 11 (YPA) – 750 international journalists have signed a letter criticizing media coverage of Zionist-American aggression against Gaza and the killing of journalists while covering Gaza-related crimes.
Journalists from Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post criticized newsrooms for inhumane rhetoric justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Over 750 American journalists signed an open letter condemning the killing of journalists in Gaza and criticizing Western media coverage of the war, as reported by The Washington Post.
The newspaper pointed out that signing the letter was, for some journalists, a bold and even dangerous step, adding that journalists in media organizations had been expelled because they adopted public political positions that might expose them to accusations of bias, as the newspaper said, without specifying these means.
The letter’s authors said it was a call to recommit to justice and not abandon it.
YPA
The group’s share of global GDP in PPP terms is set to more than double that of the G7 by 2040, according to a report
BRICS currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but the group will be joined in January by Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
“The report indicated that the expanded BRICS are already larger than the G7. In 2022 the bloc accounted for 36% of the global economy, versus 30% for the advanced economy group.”
https://www.rt.com/business/586901-brics-economic-might-growth-g7/
Nov 12, 2023
© Getty Images / Andrea Nicolini
The rapid rise of the BRICS is transforming the global economy, with the group’s share of world GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) set to rise well beyond of that of the Group of Seven (G7) major advanced economies, Bloomberg reported this week.
BRICS currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but the group will be joined in January by Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
The G7 club of industrialized and developed countries consists of the US, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan.
The report indicated that the expanded BRICS are already larger than the G7. In 2022 the bloc accounted for 36% of the global economy, versus 30% for the advanced economy group.
“Our forecasts suggest an expanding workforce and ample room for technological catch-up will boost the BRICS+ share to 45% by 2040, compared with 21% for G7 economies. In effect, BRICS+ and the G7 will have swapped places in relative size between 2001 and 2040,” Bloomberg wrote.
BRICS trade surges ahead of enlargement – Bloomberg
The outlet also pointed out that the expanded BRICS economic group will contain some of the world’s largest oil exporters, namely Saudi Arabia, Russia, UAE and Iran, as well as some of its biggest importers – China and India.
“If it [BRICS] succeeds in shifting some settlement of oil transactions toward other currencies, that could have a knock-on effect on the share of the dollar in international trade and global foreign exchange reserves,” the report added, noting that the BRICS members have been working actively to abandon the greenback in their trade.
While highlighting the advantages of BRICS, such as its size, diversity and ambition, the report also pointed out some of the challenges facing the group, including China’s economic slowdown, the inability to shift away from the petrodollar in the near future, as well as a ‘reluctance’ to promote a single alternative.
“The BRICS will change the world, but perhaps more because of their rising share of GDP and divergent political and economic systems than through the realization of policymakers’ grand plans,” Bloomberg concluded.
The predominant trait observed in people who reach the age of 100 is curiosity. Other attributes like humor, religious faith, cheerfulness, and courage ranked second in importance.
Nov 13, 2023
CC0 / MaxPixel’s contributors /
Chimauchem Nwosu
A study of centenarians’ secret to longevity has been linked to several predominant attributes. These life choices underscore approaches to nurturing a healthy aging process.
A research team at the University of Madrid has named specific personality traits common among long-livers, with their results detailed in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
The study involved around 14,000 participants aged between 100 and 107 years. The researchers evaluated personality traits, finding that these participants commonly exhibited 19 traits: gratitude, enthusiasm for education, activity, curiosity, high intelligence, etc.
Country for Old Men? People Aged 80 And Above Make Up Top 10% of Japan for First Time
The predominant trait observed in people who reach the age of 100 is curiosity. Other attributes like humor, religious faith, cheerfulness, and courage ranked second in importance. Such qualities are crucial for keeping one healthy, particularly regarding mental health. Researchers plan to continue studying this remarkable age group.
Examining centenarians’ lifestyles highlights ways to foster a healthy advanced age. The experts emphasized the importance of nurturing curiosity, exploring different cultures, traveling, engaging in reading, and continuous intellectual activity for a higher probability of a lengthy and successful life.
Earlier studies revealed that engaging in memory exercises during youth contributes to maintaining memory abilities in later years.