Food crisis

[Snoopy]

Chickens coming home to roost.

"World Bank tackles food emergency"


BBC NEWS | Business | World Bank tackles food emergency

Any meat eaters want to eat less, or none?

Any Catholics want to start using contraception?

s.

[Pathless]

We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths

Robert Zoellick
World Bank head

That's kind of a weird statement in this situation. A bad, bad pun.

Part of the problem is that people can't eat money. Well, we can, but it's not very nutritious. This is where the fetishism of financial riches really becomes plainly absurd.

You know what else is absurd? I read somewhere recently that some "third world" countries where food shortages are happening are still exporting food in exchange for money. That's global capitalism and free markets in effect, y'all.



Also, this story from Haiti a little over a month ago:

While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin.

[path_of_one]

Currently, we have no problem producing enough food to feed everyone. The problem is distribution. As Pathless pointed out, getting food to the people who need it can be really difficult- not the least of the worries are governments who could care less if their people starve.

The question of meat-eating is simple. Consume less meat, and make sure the meat you do consume is free-range and eating the proper stuff. Cows should eat grass, not grain. We can't get nutrition from grass, but we can get nutrition from beef that got its nutrition from grass. Sheep and goats eat shrubs and grass. Pigs can eat almost anything and in most third world areas, function as a combo garbage disposal and protein supplier. Chickens and ducks can eat bugs. It's actually really expensive and difficult to be entirely vegetarian (and even more so vegan) and properly nourished. Humans are not herbivores. Meat, eggs, and dairy can be our friends if we produce stuff sustainably and eat in moderation.

It isn't what we eat necessarily, but rather how we produce it, that is the problem.

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by Pathless

We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths

Robert Zoellick
World Bank head

What else can we expect from the organisation set up to assure poverty and non-development but a glib, fatuous line like that?

tao

[dauer]

There was a PtN related to this.

Impact Games - Play the News - Crop Prices Soar

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Pathless

We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths

Robert Zoellick
World Bank head

That's kind of a weird statement in this situation. A bad, bad pun.

Part of the problem is that people can't eat money. Well, we can, but it's not very nutritious. This is where the fetishism of financial riches really becomes plainly absurd.

You know what else is absurd? I read somewhere recently that some "third world" countries where food shortages are happening are still exporting food in exchange for money. That's global capitalism and free markets in effect, y'all.

I wouldn't call Robert Mugabe a free market capitalist, by any possible stretch of the imagination. Just look at the food crisis in Zimbabwe and its 165,000% inflation rate.

Also, this story from Haiti a little over a month ago:

While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin.

Pretty disgraceful, especially since René Garcia Préval, the President of Haiti, is a so-called agronomist.

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

I wouldn't call Robert Mugabe a free market capitalist, by any possible stretch of the imagination.

Well, I didn't call him a free market capitalist, if that matters:

Originally Posted by Pathless

You know what else is absurd? I read somewhere recently that some "third world" countries where food shortages are happening are still exporting food in exchange for money. That's global capitalism and free markets in effect, y'all.

But I would wager that he and René Garcia Préval and the policy-makers in Zimbabwe and Haiti are somewhat beholden to global markets. Hey, and didn't Haiti have some kind of U.S.-instigated coup against their democratically-elected leader a few years back? I think so:

Democracy Now! | Haitian Prime Minister: "Coup D'Etat Machine in Motion"

Anyway, here's more disturbing, gut-turning news about how global capitalism evolves to save the world:

Profiteers Squeeze Billions Out of Growing Global Food Crisis | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

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.