Sorry, but I believe this is a faulty
premise. Yes, the world's food economy is built on grain, but that's a
problem. Grain is a socioeconomic tool for those in power. For
optimum health, neither humans nor domestic animals should depend on
grain. I love bread too, but an optimum diet would contain very
little grain. We should eat mostly locally grown fruit and
vegetables. Cattle should eat mostly grass. International aid should
be directed away from grain shipments and toward helping farmers return to
local, traditional crops.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:01
PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Food Shortage
Looming if Crop Focus Isnt Altered
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 by The Capital Times (Madison,
Wisconsin) Food Shortage Looming if Crop Focus Isn't Altered by Jim
Goodman http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/281793
As
a child I was told to clean my plate because there were people starving in
China. It seemed silly. How would getting sick help hungry Chinese? That was
in the 1950s, the heart of the green revolution.
After college I was
ready to farm as one of the green revolutionaries. I was ready to feed the
world and open the cornucopia to everyone. Now, 40 years later, I admit I was
wrong - high-tech agriculture wasn't the answer. There is still plenty of
hunger in the world, and it looks like our daily bread could get a lot more
expensive.
In 1974 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that by 1980
"not a single child should go to bed hungry."
When the U.N. General
Assembly opened the Second United Nations Development Decade in 1980, it set
2000 as the new deadline for eliminating hunger.
In 2000 the U.N. set
2015 as the target date for completion of the U.N. Millennium Development
Goals - eight goals that respond to the world's main development challenges.
The first of these is, you guessed it, ending extreme poverty and
hunger.
In 2006 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
estimated 854 million people or 12.6 percent of the world's population was
undernourished.
An abundance of food is something we take for granted,
but we have money. Collectively as a nation, food has always been there, and
we could buy whatever we wanted. What if that changed? What if food became
really scarce and really expensive? Could it happen? It has already
started.
* Total world stocks of all grains are close to their lowest
level in 30 years. * USDA predicts wheat surpluses to be the smallest in 60
years. * A virulent strain of wheat rust that can reduce yields to zero is
spreading worldwide. * Wheat prices have risen well over 50 percent from a
year ago. * The FAO cites 37 countries as facing a food crisis due to
rising prices.
Food price is dependent on the price and availability of
grain. Since 1960 the world grain harvest has tripled, and the world
population has doubled. So why isn't there more grain available at a lower
price? Why have the prices jumped?
I can see what's gone wrong from my
front door. Beyond my wheat, pasture and hayfields, I see two crops,
genetically engineered corn and soy - two of the most widely grown crops in
the world. Government subsidies encourage planting more corn and soy while
companies like Monsanto deliver their package of GE seed and herbicides.
Government works in partnership with industry to establish an agricultural
system that places more value on commodity crops than food crops. It's the
neo-green revolution.
Too many acres growing corn and soy for animal
feed and agrofuels, too few growing wheat, rice, millet and vegetables for
people. With grain stocks low, record food prices and more people slipping
into poverty daily, droughts, floods or water shortages could trigger faster
and more devastating shifts in world food supplies. We could, in the near
future, experience food shortages and increased hunger in this country as
well.
Jacques Diouf, head of the FAO, has admitted that the best way to
feed poor countries is to let them grow their own food locally - food
sovereignty. International agencies and governments need to revisit their
agricultural policies and allow people to feed themselves by using farming
practices and crops they have developed and passed on through the
generations.
Monsanto's GE seeds and chemicals have not, nor will they
ever, make more food available at a lower price. The neo-green revolution is
failing. We need to prioritize grain for people, not for cattle or cars.
Unless we act, we will face food shortages, and our daily bread will not come
cheaply.
Jim Goodman is a farmer in Wonewoc and a policy fellow for the
Food and Society Fellows
Program.
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