Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Food Shortage Looming if Crop Fo cus Isn't Altered

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: emitch@att.net, livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Food Shortage Looming if Crop Fo cus Isn't Altered
  • Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:19:57 -0600


And I agree with you but Goodman made some seriously needed points.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 4/17/2008 at 6:58 AM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>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.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tradingpost
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:01 PM
> Subject: [Livingontheland] Food Shortage Looming if Crop Focus Isn't
>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.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
>
>_______________________________________________
>Livingontheland mailing list
>Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page