Venezuela Is Running Out Of Beer | Emergency Preparedness

Venezuela Is Running Out Of Beer

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2 Jun ’16 - 8:12 am

Crazy how fast they are spiraling, I think coke just closed their factories there as well

Lorenzo Mendoza greets and kisses worker at his shuttered brewery in Caracas, Venezuela. He's trying to boost morale.

Mendoza is the chief executive of Venezuelan food giant Empresas Polar, which was founded in 1941 and is now the largest private company in this socialist country.

But Polar has come upon tough times. Many of its processing plants are running at half-speed, and thousands of employees have been furloughed since April, when all four of the company's breweries were shut down by a barley shortage.

The government controls access to foreign currency, and Mendoza says it has refused to provide the dollars Polar needs to import barley, which doesn't grow in Venezuela's tropical climate.

As Mendoza leaves the brewery, Polar workers break into a chant: "¡Materias primas ya, queremos trabajar!" — "Raw materials now — we want to work!"

It's not just these workers who are frustrated — Venezuela has fallen on hard economic times recently, even though it's home to the largest oil reserves in the world. Petroleum prices have plummeted and analysts say the government's economic policies are making matters a lot worse.

more http://www.npr.org/s.....mic-crisis

DangerDuke

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2 Jun ’16 - 10:24 am

They're running out of more than beer, pets have been coming up missing. People are going to the store, and buying two scoops of coffee, or a tablespoon of mayonnaise. people now get their pay checks in knapsacks. This is what 700% inflation looks like.

But lets try that here is the call from the flavor of the week crowd.

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9 Jun ’16 - 9:05 am

yeah, dumpster diving is a thing

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Until recently, Julio Noguera worked at a bakery. Now he spends his evenings searching through the garbage for food.

"I come here looking for food because if I didn't, I'd starve to death," Noguera said as he sorted through a pile of moldy potatoes. "With things like they are, no one helps anyone and no one gives away meals."

Across town, unemployed people converge every dusk at a trash heap on a downtown Caracas sidewalk to pick through rotten fruit and vegetables tossed out by nearby shops. They are frequently joined by small business owners, college students and pensioners - people who consider themselves middle class even though their living standards have long ago been pulverized by triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a collapsing currency.

Venezuela's poverty had eased during the administration of the late President Hugo Chavez. But a study by three leading Caracas universities found that 76 percent of Venezuelans are now under the poverty line, compared with 52 percent in 2014.

Staples such as corn flour and cooking oil are subsidized, costing pennies at the strongest of two official exchange rates. But fruit and vegetables have become an unaffordable luxury for many Venezuelan families.

"We're seeing terrible sacrifices across many sections of society," said Carlos Aponte, a sociology professor at the Central University of Venezuela. "A few years ago, Venezuela didn't have the kind of extreme poverty that would drive people to eat garbage."

more http://www.cbsnews.c.....ving-food/