A unit of wheat for a Denarius, three units of barley for the same – a world food crisis, is coming.
James issues a prophetic warning to the rich (I am not opposed to wealth as such, nor do I despise the rich per se, so here I refer to exploitation as that is the context of James’ message).
He says in James 5:2, “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted away.”
Never has this prophesy been more relevant than today. The black, third horse of the apocalypse, described in Revelation 6:5, comes onto the world stage carrying a scale, to measure out barley and wheat against Denarii (Roman money, a symbol of world money and its role in food trade).
In the past week a report appeared in local newspapers about the growing shortage of world maize stocks, because of the high opportunity costs of maize in the burgeoning bio-fuels industry. Producers can achieve 3-4 times the profit margin of food-maize and they are fast switching to that market. It is a simple fact of economics that if you can get a better price in an alternative market that is the market most will follow.
This is hurting poorer nations and the poorer they are, the harder they will be hit, for maize is staple to many poor nations. The price of maize has trebled in recent years, impacting heavily on those debt-ridden, marginal economies where the bulk of humanity lives (or exists). What is really tragic is that the poor nations cannot even participate in the economic opportunities that higher prices bring, because rich nations subsidize domestic production. This makes it unviable for the vast tracts of arable land in poorer nations to be developed to their potential as a global bread-basket.
The switch to bio-fuels is partly driven by environmental concerns although world hunger could devastate the global environment (hungry people will destroy society and the environment, whilst increasing the welfare burdens of the world). The more imminent driver of the shift to bio-fuels has been the steep increase in world oil prices, from around $30 per barrel at the turn of the decade to over $100 today. It is now a simple reality of survival for the rich nations. They cannot sustain their own economies, let alone feed the poor nations, without the life-blood of all modern economies: energy.
The oil issue is also threatening to push Mid-East tensions over the threshold because the opportunity cost of peace and stability is becoming too high in the face of rising demands for oil, aggravated by the threat of political opportunism. In simple terms the cost of fighting for Middle East oil is now being offset by the economic value of oil at its current market price and the cost of peace-keeping is being eclipsed by the value of winning the world’s most valued prize. Economics is simply driving the world to a fait accompli.
Russia and China are both pulling strings in the Middle East to secure their stake in oil markets and to exploit regional dynamics to advance their strategic ambitions. This reality is drawing the world powers into an inevitable clash on the plains of Megiddo where the last great World conflict is destined to happen. I suggest that Armageddon is no longer a far off figment of movie-maker’s imaginations, but an imminent threat to world peace.
James issues a prophetic warning to the rich (I am not opposed to wealth as such, nor do I despise the rich per se, so here I refer to exploitation as that is the context of James’ message).
He says in James 5:2, “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted away.”
Never has this prophesy been more relevant than today. The black, third horse of the apocalypse, described in Revelation 6:5, comes onto the world stage carrying a scale, to measure out barley and wheat against Denarii (Roman money, a symbol of world money and its role in food trade).
In the past week a report appeared in local newspapers about the growing shortage of world maize stocks, because of the high opportunity costs of maize in the burgeoning bio-fuels industry. Producers can achieve 3-4 times the profit margin of food-maize and they are fast switching to that market. It is a simple fact of economics that if you can get a better price in an alternative market that is the market most will follow.
This is hurting poorer nations and the poorer they are, the harder they will be hit, for maize is staple to many poor nations. The price of maize has trebled in recent years, impacting heavily on those debt-ridden, marginal economies where the bulk of humanity lives (or exists). What is really tragic is that the poor nations cannot even participate in the economic opportunities that higher prices bring, because rich nations subsidize domestic production. This makes it unviable for the vast tracts of arable land in poorer nations to be developed to their potential as a global bread-basket.
The switch to bio-fuels is partly driven by environmental concerns although world hunger could devastate the global environment (hungry people will destroy society and the environment, whilst increasing the welfare burdens of the world). The more imminent driver of the shift to bio-fuels has been the steep increase in world oil prices, from around $30 per barrel at the turn of the decade to over $100 today. It is now a simple reality of survival for the rich nations. They cannot sustain their own economies, let alone feed the poor nations, without the life-blood of all modern economies: energy.
The oil issue is also threatening to push Mid-East tensions over the threshold because the opportunity cost of peace and stability is becoming too high in the face of rising demands for oil, aggravated by the threat of political opportunism. In simple terms the cost of fighting for Middle East oil is now being offset by the economic value of oil at its current market price and the cost of peace-keeping is being eclipsed by the value of winning the world’s most valued prize. Economics is simply driving the world to a fait accompli.
Russia and China are both pulling strings in the Middle East to secure their stake in oil markets and to exploit regional dynamics to advance their strategic ambitions. This reality is drawing the world powers into an inevitable clash on the plains of Megiddo where the last great World conflict is destined to happen. I suggest that Armageddon is no longer a far off figment of movie-maker’s imaginations, but an imminent threat to world peace.
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