WILL YOUR GREAT GRANDCHILDREN STARVE?

WHAT IF THIS IS TRUE? THE WORLD CANNOT FEED ITS POPULATION!

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GOOD MORNING FLINT ,by Terry Bankert 08/10/2008
,http://attorneybankert.com/ ,
full article with citations posted, http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/ ,

Summary for discussion at Flint Talk thread Good Morning Flint: http://www.flinttalk.com/viewforum.php?f=2

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REFLECTIONS:What if it were true that the world cannot feed its population? History shows this is not a problem unique to today. But if true and its world wide the stakes are much higher. What if Globalization is followed by a return to Economic Localization? What if it is true that throughout human history food collection was a primary societal organizational objective? Well, we cannot feed our world population mush less the new number 10 years from now. Globalization as an organizing economic theory will collapse when populations are starving. We want to eat before we" text message". Our economic organizing principals, in emergening localization, will change but really only return that tried and true paradigm... we will to anything to survive. We must eat to survive. This paradigm shift has already begun world wide and in America. We are running out of time to avoid famine.

I looked to what is happening now in the world , The Sudan ,to understand what may happen to America in 10 years. My thoughts , observations and question, follow:

1. THE RICH WILL RAID THE LAND RESOURCES OF THE POOR, PEOPLE AND COUNTRIES.

2.WHY DO WE HAVE A CRISIS? IT BASED ON ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION OVER PEOPLE’S LIVES?

3.BIG MONEY WILL GRAVITATE TO BIG FARMING

4.BIG MONEY WILL FEED THE WORLD MARKET AND LET THE HOST COUNTRY STARVE.

5. WE MUST CAUSE A MASSIVE INCREASE IN FOOD PRODUCTION.

6.LIKE THE INHABITANTS OF A RESORT ISLAND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL THE FOOD HAS TO BE IMPORTED?WE BECOME ECONOMICLY VULNERABLE.

7.THERE IS A FUTURE IN AGRIBUSINESS FOR THE NEW GRADUATES

8.WE FEED THEIR POOR ,THERE RICH FEED THE WORLD.

9.CORPORATIONS BECOME IMMORAL... HEARD THAT BEFORE REGIMES BECOME PARASITIC AGAINST THEIR OWN PEOPLE.

10.STARVATION BECOMES PART OF PLANNED GENOCIDE, JUST TOO MANY OF ....THEM.


11.HOW MANY CHILDREN WILL DIE, GREAT NATIONS STAY SILENT BREADBASKET OR PROFIT CENTERS...

12.WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF FARMING?

13.THE HUNGRY AT ONE TIME ATE THEIR BELTS AND SHOES NOW THEY EAT MUD IN HAITI.

14.GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS WILL DENY THEIR PLUNDERING.

15.THE GOOD, ( AMERICANS STAND SILENT), THE BAD (SUDANES CREATE A NEW FOOD HOLOCAUST),THE UGLY WORLD ( CHILDREN STARVE AS THE WORLD WRENCHES ITS HANDS).

16.THE SUDANESE ARE NOT THE ONLY POOR BEING PLUNDERED.

17.TIME OUTS, ALLOWANCE TAKEN AWAY OR WILL THEY BE GROUNDED, JUST WHAT WILL THESE SANCTIONS BE?

18.BAD POLICY, BAD RESULTS

19.WE WANT TO SELL THEM OUR STUFF RATHER THAN GIVEN THEM AN EQUIVALENT AMOUNT OF MONEY TO BUY FROM THEIR OWN FARMERS AND GROW THEIR OWN PRODUCTION CAPABILITIES.

20.SUDANESE OFFICIALS GET MONEY ,ARABS GET FOOD, OIL MONEY AT WORK.

21.WE ARE MANY AND THEY ARE FEW, BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WE ARE FEW AND THEY ARE MANY?

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In 2006, before the food crisis hit, there were 850million people who were hungry at some point during the year. Of those, seven out of ten were women. Today, the number of hungry people is closer to a billion[4]When will you care? What if it were an undisputed fact that your grandchildren will face starvation in America unless you act today, would you act?[trb]

THIS IS NOT A NEW PROBLEM, JUST A NEW ERA WITH HIGHER STAKES.Hanging in the Newseum in Washington, DC, is a photo that is about as heart-rending an image as you’re likely to find anywhere. Taken by Kevin Carter for The New York Times in 1993, the photo depicts a starving Sudanese toddler crumpled on the ground, as if her stick-like legs could no longer bear the weight of her large head and swollen stomach, bloated from the malnourishment disease called kwashiorkor. While that alone is disturbing, what makes the tableau truly haunting is the vulture patiently waiting just a few feet behind the emaciated child. This photograph earned Carter a Pulitzer Prize and epitomized the toll famine is taking on developing countries around the world.[5]

GLOBALIZATION REPLACED BY LOCALIZATION." Our American economy will become intensely local and smaller in scale. It will do so steadily and by degrees as the amount of cheap energy decreases and the global contest for it becomes more intense. The scale of all human enterprise will contract with the supply of energy......The downscaling of America is the single most important task facing the American people....Producing food will become a problem of supreme urgency."[1 at 239]

IN MOST OF THE HUMAN HISTORY CULTURES WERE ORGANIZED AROUND FOOD PRODUCTION, THIS WILL RETURN."The U.S. economy of the decade to come will center on Farming, not High-Tech, or " information" or service or space travel or tourism or finance. All other activities will secondary to food production which will require much more human labor....Americans will be compelled to radically reorganize the way food is produce or starve.[1 at 239]

ITS ALREADY STARTING IN AMERICAEven in America, there are reports of middle-class women skipping meals so their children can eat. The food crisis is hitting everywhere. [4]

WE ARE SIMPLE CHILDREN NOT DEALING WITH ADULT REALITIESPerhaps the Great political question of the years ahead is how do we become a reality- based nation." [1at 324]

WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIMESO what if it is true, we are running out of oil out populations are increasing middle class consumer consumption demands take resources from food production. Seen the price of rice lately and did you pay attention to the news items about Africa starving. So then what if it is true that in the life times of our children American will struggle to feed itself? WHAT DO WE DO TODAY?[trb]Darfur Withers as Sudan Sells Food [2]

TO DEFINE OUR FUTURE PROBLEM I PROPOSE WE LOOK TO THE CHAOS AROUND US AND SAY "What if we are next what can we learn, plan for and act on? [trb]

THE RICH WILL RAID THE LAND RESOURCE OF THE POOREven as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat. [2]And, on top of this, price speculation and collusion within the food industry have added another layer to the cost of food. In Britain, Spain and South Africa, price-fixing enquiries are under way to see whether supermarkets have used the crisis to overcharge consumers. [4]Perhaps, we might think, there just isn't enough food. But the world's food production has been growing faster than the population every year since the Sixties. [4] Has it gone to applications that do not feed people?[trb]

WHY DO WE HAVE A CRISIS? IS IT BASED ON ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION OVER PEOPLE’S LIVES?So, a quarter of the world food-price crisis is because we think it's a better idea to burn food than eat it. [4]There's a fistful of reasons why prices are so high. [4]First, the price of oil is connected to our food. It's not just through the energy used to bring food to our door. On the average American farm, the greatest use of energy is on fertilizers, which require tremendous amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture. More expensive oil means pricier fertilizer which, in turn, means dearer food. [4]Another reason prices are high is because of the boom in 'biofuels'. In 2006, the American government spent $12billion (£6billion) to turn maize into ethanol, which was mixed with petrol and sold as 'flexible fuel'. [4]This made farmers think they'd be better off growing maize rather than wheat. So the supply of wheat was cut and the price rose. Speculators saw the boom in the maize market and bet the price of white maize, grown in Mexico, would go up. The price soared. With it, so did the price of the Mexican staple, tortillas. That's why there were 'tortilla riots' in Mexico City last year. [4]

BIG MONEY WILL GRAVITATE TO BIG FARMINGHere in the bone-dry desert, where desiccated donkey carcasses line the road, huge green fields suddenly materialize. Beans. Wheat. Sorghum. Melons. Peanuts. Pumpkins. Eggplant. It is all grown here, part of an ambitious government plan for Sudanese self-sufficiency, creating giant mechanized farms that rise out of the sand like mirages.[2]

BIG MONEY WILL FEED THE WORLD MARKET AND LET THE HOST COUNTRY STARVEBut how much of this bonanza is getting back to the hungry Sudanese, like the 2.5 million driven into camps in Darfur? And why is a country that exports so many of its own crops receiving more free food than anywhere else in the world, especially when the Sudanese government is blamed for creating the crisis in the first place?[2]

A GOVERNOR SPEAKS OUT TO SURVIVE WE MUST CAUSE A MASSIVE INCREASE IN FOOD PRODUCTION.Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has stressed the need to deploy the energy and creative minds of youth in the State in massive food production. Uduaghan said this on Monday while inaugurating a committee on youth agricultural programme in Asaba. According to the governor, it would help to stave off imminent starvation that stared the nation like others in every part of the world in the face. [3]

LIKE THE INHABITANTS OF A RESORT ISLAND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL THE FOOD HAS TO BE IMPORTED?African countries that rely on donated food usually cannot produce enough on their own. Somalia, Ethiopia, Niger and Zimbabwe are all recent examples of how war, natural disasters or gross mismanagement can cut deep into food production, pushing millions of people to the brink of starvation. [2]

THERE IS A FUTURE IN AGRIBUSINESS FOR THE NEW GRADUATESBut here in Sudan, there seem to be plenty of calories to go around. The country is already growing wheat for Saudi Arabia, sorghum for camels in the United Arab Emirates and vine-ripened tomatoes for the Jordanian Army. Now the government is plowing $5 billion into new agribusiness projects, many of them to produce food for export.[2]


WE FEED THEIR POOR THERE RICH FEED THE WORLDTake sorghum, a staple of the Sudanese diet, typically eaten in flat, spongy bread. Last year, the United States government, as part of its response to the emergency in Darfur, shipped in 283,000 tons of sorghum, at high cost, from as far away as Houston. Oddly enough, that is about the same amount that Sudan exported, according to United Nations officials.[2]

CORPORATIONS BECOME IMMORAL... HEARD THAT BEFOREThis year, Sudanese companies, including many that are linked to the government in Khartoum, are on track to ship out twice that amount, even as the United Nations is being forced to cut rations to Darfur. [2]

REGIMES BECOME PARASITIC AGAINST THEIR OWN PEOPLEEric Reeves, a professor at Smith College and an outspoken activist who has written frequently on the Darfur crisis, called this anomaly "one of the least reported and most scandalous features of the Khartoum regime’s domestic policies." It was emblematic, he said, of the Sudanese government’s strategy to manipulate "national wealth and power to further enrich itself and its cronies, while the marginalized regions of the country suffer from terrible poverty." [2]

STARVATION BECOMES PART OF PLANNED GENOCIDE, JUST TOO MANY OF ....THEMAid groups gave up long ago on the Sudanese government helping the people of Darfur. After all, the nation’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been accused of masterminding genocide in Darfur. United Nations officials have said that if they do not bring food into the region, the government surely will not.[2]

HOW MANY CHILDREN WILL DIE, GREAT NATIONS STAY SILENTThat leaves the United Nations and Western aid groups feeding more than three million Darfurians. But the lifeline is fraying. Security is deteriorating. Aid trucks are getting hijacked nearly every day and deliveries are being made less and less frequently. The result: less food and soaring malnutrition rates, particularly among children.[2]

BREADBASKET OR PROFIT CENTERS...WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF FARMING?On top of this is the broader problem of trying to find affordable grains on the world market when prices are higher than they have been in decades. United Nations officials in Sudan say that the fact that they have to import some of the same commodities that Sudan not only produces but exports is a source of constant frustration. [2]"Sudan could be self-sufficient," said Kenro Oshidari, the director of the United Nations World Food Program in Sudan. "It does have the potential to be the breadbasket of Africa."[2]

THE HUNGRY AT ONE TIME ATE THEIR BELTS AND SHOES NOW THEY EAT MUD IN HAITIVisitors to the shanty towns of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, will find something unusual in the markets. It's a dry, yellow, round food product, about the size of a digestive biscuit. They're mud cakes, made from clay, salt, oil and water. Eat one, and you'll keep hunger at bay for a few hours. In Haiti, the market for mud cakes is booming. With the price of food soaring, but with wages static or falling, the poor are forced into desperation. Haiti finds itself at the whip end of a food crisis that stretches around the world.[4]

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS WILL DENY THEIR PLUNDERINGSudanese officials say that is precisely their goal, and they deny that Sudanese agribusiness is being built at the expense of their own people. They reject accusations that they are neglecting far-flung areas like Darfur, much less waging a war of hunger and deprivation against them. [2]

THE GOOD, ( AMERICANS STAND SILENT), THE BAD (SUDANES CREATE A NEW FOOD HOLOCAUST),THE UGLY WORLD ( CHILDREN STARVE AS THE WORLD WRENCHES ITS HANDS)Instead, Sudanese officials say they are simply trying to build up their economy. They say they know what it is like to be vilified, having been squeezed by American sanctions for more than a decade. And it could get worse, with Mr. Bashir facing genocide charges at the International Criminal Court in connection with the massacres in Darfur.[2]

THE SUDANESE ARE NOT THE ONLY POOR BEING PLUNDEREDGlobally, food prices rose 55 per cent from June 2007 to February 2008. In March alone, the price of rice went up 87 per cent - and rice accounts for one fifth of all calories eaten on Earth. The prices of all staples have soared and are set to rise for the next decade[4]

TIME OUTS, ALLOWANCE TAKEN AWAY OR WILL THEY BE GROUNDED, JUST WHAT WILL THESE SANCTIONS BE?"Sanctions are never far from our mind," said Al-Amin Dafa Allah, chairman of the National Assembly’s agricultural committee. "We’re trying to minimize our reliance on the outside."[2]

BAD POLICY, BAD RESULTSIn fact, part of the reason relief agencies bring their own food into Sudan stems from the American policy of giving crops, not money, as foreign aid. [2]But there are things we can do to beat it. When it comes to food aid, the United States has one of the most destructive policies: the food has to come from American farms and be delivered by American ships. [4]Many European countries, by contrast, just give the World Food Program cash, which can be used to buy food locally. Last year, the program bought 117,000 tons of Sudanese sorghum. United Nations officials said they would like to buy more, but they had run-ins with Sudanese suppliers who could make more money with exports.[2]Tragically, of course, hunger has only become an even graver issue in the last 15 years -- a point made clear in a report released July 29 from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Recommending urgent action for long-term relief, the CSIS report calls for "a strategic U.S. approach to the global food crisis." [5]

WE WANT TO SELL THEM OUR STUFF RATHER THAN GIVEN THEM AN EQUIVALENT AMOUNT OF MONEY TO BUY FROM THEIR OWN FARMERS AND GROW THEIR OWN PRODUCTION CAPABILITIES"We don’t get discounts," said Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program. Sudanese officials say they want to sell more crops to the United Nations, but lost in this discussion about buying and selling food is whether the Sudanese government should be donating food to its own needy people. [2]The answer is for donor countries to buy food as close as possible to where it's needed. [4]

SUDANESE OFFICIALS GET MONEY ARABS GET FOOD, OIL MONEY AT WORKFor now, Sudanese officials seem more interested in doing business with their new partners in the Middle East. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, nearly one million square miles. It has 208 million acres of arable land, with less than a quarter being cultivated. The Sudanese government is striking deals left and right with Arab countries just across the Red Sea: the Arab countries bring the money, the soil scientists and the $200,000 tractors. Sudan supplies the land.[2]...The last time the government gave the World Food Program any food for Darfur was in 2006. It was 22,000 tons of Sudanese-grown sorghum. It was a fraction of what the people needed, United Nations officials said, and some of the grain was rancid and infested with weevils.[2]

WE ARE MANY AND THEY ARE FEW, BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WE ARE FEW AND THEY ARE MANY?The United Nations estimates that 854 million people -- nearly 13 percent of the world’s human population -- go hungry every day. And the problem is only getting worse. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN’s World Food Program, says, "The world’s misery index is rising."[5]But certain hunger-beating policies simply don't fit the current fads in international development economics. Perhaps that's the greatest tragedy here. It's not a lack of food that is causing this crisis - it's a lack of political will. [4]

—END—

Posted here by Terry Bankert 8/8/08, full article and cites at link above For more on alternative Energy: http://energyalternativesadvisor.blogspot.com/

Also see Blogging for Michigan: http://bloggingformichigan.com/

–sources-

[1]"The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler 2005 Grove Press ISBN: 10:0-8021-4249-4From the author " Surviving the End of Oil, climate change, and other converging catastrophes of the 21st Century.See:http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emergency

[2]The New York Timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/world/africa/10sudan.html?em

[3]The Tide onlinehttp://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=08/08/2008&qrTitle=Food%20production:%20Uduaghan%20inaugurates%20youth%20agric%20programme&qrColumn=BUSINESS

[4]Mail onlinehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1043125/Tortilla-riots-mud-cakes-food-expensive.html

[5]OENhttp://www.opednews.com/articles/Feast-or-Famine-Meat-Prod-by-Mark-Hawthorne-080808-523.html

[TRB]Comments of Terry Bankert to include CAP headlineshttp://attorneybankert.com/

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