food and water- a global crisis

basic human needs- food and water.  there is no survival without them.  and yet, we here in the west believe that we will always have them.  massive flooding in our midwest and an ongoing drought in australia and other parts of the globe- means food shortages due to the way we produce food and ship it around the globe (the whole globilization thing).  so, since we are the haves- and most of the world are have nots- guess who’s going to starve first?

for your perusal

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canaries

i don’t know if there is a solution to global climate change or not, but the fact that there are so many folks who know how these things work predicting famine and drought for much of the world- gives me pause.

“After all, the wealthiest countries continue to show little or no interest in altering the policies that have contributed so decisively to the food crisis in the first place. Take the United States. It “ties”—places restrictions on—about 70% of its aid. That means recipient countries must use that aid to buy U.S. products, which, of course, will do little to strengthen local economies. Washington has also cut its international agricultural research by as much as 75% at a time when agricultural production is no longer keeping pace with population increases. Add in the $280 billion farm bill that Congress has just passed which, unbelievably enough, provides continued subsidies to “farmers” (read: agribusiness) already benefiting enormously from high food prices. And the European Union, like the United States, is refusing to backtrack on its commitment to boost biofuels produced from grain.”

read article here

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enormous implications

wheat crop failure could be total

Perspective

Today on our planet, people are rioting because they are staring into the maw of starvation. They riot now, because soon they won’t have the strength. They are fighting for their survival. In Haiti, they are eating dirt.

“The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend,” he said on CNN’s “American Morning,” in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. “There are riots all over the world in the poor countries … and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States.” - CNN

This isn’t a pocket of hunger; this is affecting multiple countries (Egypt, Haiti, Bangladesh and others) simultaneously. (And yeah, we shouldn’t be making gas out of corn, but I’ve been saying that for 18 months or more. Methanol is the better option. We will never run out of shit, witness DC, but that’s another post.) Besides, the primary issues are rice and wheat.

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