Boy, I feel like I am beating a dead horse. BBC reports:
“US President George W Bush has ordered the release of $200m in emergency aid to alleviate food shortages in Africa and other parts of the world.”
Meanwhile, the farm bill languishes in Congress and is facing a Presidential veto.
Congress wants to include tax cuts for
- Biofuels
- Timber Companies
- Race Horses
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga, defended the latter, saying, “Horse racing is a huge agricultural industry.”
Now, I’m confused. We need to contribute $200 million to relieve world hunger while we give major domestic tax breaks to those growing fuel, paper and Christmas trees, and race horses!
What are we going to eat here in this country? I guess that doesn’t matter, since we will be able to drive to the race track where we can have paper race forms helping us decide which horse to put our money on.
“Let them eat cake,” were words famously spoken when the French populace was starving. Seems just as applicable now…
Per Bloomberg - ” Further gains in food prices would be ‘terrible’ for the world’s poor and throw hundreds of thousands of them into starvation…Governments throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East are seeking to combat food inflation and avoid social unrest by curbing exports or lifting import duties on basic food staples such as rice. Global food prices surged 57 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the United Nations, and the World Bank warns civil disturbances may be triggered in 33 countries.”
The price increases are presumably triggered by worldwide shortages of cereal grains, especially rice, which in turn have led to export restrictions by major producers.
Or so it is reported…
A closer look ties it all back into the unstustainable system that has developed over the past 60 years.
Bettina Luescher, the chief North American spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program, cites several factors, including, “…a rise in oil and energy prices and an economic boom in developing countries like India and China that is increasing demand, as well as climate changes causing droughts and floods [and], some farmers are shifting their crops from food to those used for alternative fuels, like corn used for ethanol, because of rising demand.”
It is not a third world problem.
In the US there is a multi year drought taking its toll in the southeast. There are hay shortages over most of the country. Livestock and poultry producers are reducing production due to increased feed prices. Dairy production is down across the country, and some States (Missouri for instance) that used to export dairy products now import.
Things are changing, and the change is accelerating, even as the US and global economy enter the most significant slump in at least 25 years and the US dollar is at record lows against virtually all foreign currencies.
Reading the Capital Press and now even making it into mainstream media it appears we have a bit of a problem on our hands.
Call me a contrarian, but I find this kind of exciting. A core group of people have spoken about the unsustainable agricultural systems that have arisen over the past 50 years - one that has farmers starving even as they work their own land. One that enriches corporate megolyths like Cargill and ADM and Monsanto while leaving everyone else to starve.
Riots are no fun for anyone, but perhaps better than starvation!
They do signal change…
I suspect that the day of the CSA may be approaching. As food prices rise, it is quite possible that local growers with good business sense will once again be able to make a livable income.
‘Business as usual is no longer an option,’ states the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which will be formally launched on 15 April by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The report’s authors recommend that agricultural science place greater emphasis on safeguarding natural resources and on ‘agro-ecological’ practices, including the use of natural fertilizers, traditional seeds and intensified natural practices, and reducing the distance between production and the consumer.
The global shipping of food staples which can be produced locally is simply insane! Poor farmers in 3rd world countries can not afford to purchase hwat is not produced locally, and the poor US farmer is being driven into indigence since they can not compete with low priced imports.
Buy local. It may cost a bit more, but it is better, fresher and greener.