Going Green is all the Rage! Everywhere you turn, you find something about going 'Green'
Going Green is not the solution to all of our problems. As a matter of fact we are creating an ever growing problem that is actually killing the worlds poor; right before our eyes!
No your not going to see this on the MSM because that would be far too harsh for us to deal with. We are already far to stressed as a nation and we think we are such 'Do Gooders' when we all jump on a collective bandwagon.
Wake up America! The Worlds Poor are Starving and We are Helping!
Biofuels the source of world food crisis: leaked report
Stephen C. Webster / Raw Story | July 4, 2008
The United States Government’s Agriculture department recently claimed that the production of biofuels, or plant-based gas for use in combustion engines, has contributed a mere 3 percent to the growing cost of food worldwide. However, a leaked report from the World Bank, detailed in a new report by the
It is believed, say the story’s sources, that the report has been complete since April 2008, though not published so as to avoid embarrassing President George W. Bush.
“Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises,” said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam, as quoted by The Guardian. “It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat.”
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The World Bank’s report estimates that rising food costs have pushed nearly 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line. The report also states that even massive droughts in Africa have had less of an effect on food prices than the
Additionally, the World Bank estimates a full third of corn produced in the
13 comments:
A few points.
1. Ethanol based fuels make no sense. All that we do is for political purposes, and not scientific. This is something we should stop doing.
2. Biodiesel makes a lot of sense. This is something that we should continue to do, but...
3. We should not be using food crops to make biofuel. The technology to make biodiesel from switch grass is coming along. Also, we should not be using plants that require fertilizer...
Thus, the article's attempt to oversimplify the problem is half right and half wrong.
I don't buy this at all. 75%?? A bit exaggerated when you consider food fuels are still for the most part on the research level.
I definitely don't buy someone choosing to not release a story because it may embarrass GW. Aren't we a little late for that concern?
Domestically, the increase in food prices is very directly related to the gas/diesel prices. I married into a family of truckers and I see how much of a struggle it is to survive in their industry because no one is willing to pay the price for the more than $4 per gallon diesel. When you get something like 6 miles a gallon in a tractor trailor, imagine how much that adds up. The truckers eat up some of the cost, but ultimately, its bound to be the consumer.
Can someone tell me--don't we produce a surplus of food domestically?
I guess you gotta rob Peter to pay Paul.
So let me see if I understand.
We're supposed to keep digging up oil because some women in Africa "decided" to have too many babies?
How about they learn to control their population so we can use renewable resources?
look at the price of corn n soybeans per bushel,locally, more than double what it was last year, seen some increase with the floods/crop damage out west recently
10:01 Please tell me if there is a logical thought process that led you to that conclusion.
wymzie, you of all people should know not to trust anything that the world bank says. these are the most capitalistic corporate power devils on the face of the earth. they dont give a shit about some poor starving people, especially if their black. all they care about is money, and how to control it and keep it for the select few in this world. go green, shit its just another illusion to keep the populous from engaging issues that are actually important, its something for the corporate controlled media outlets to play with like a new toy. the only green the world bank cares about is..., well you know.
Angela,
This is 10:01
The main point of the article is that food prices are too high, so we shouldn't use food stock to make fuel. That in the competition of food vs. fuel, we must let food win out, lest people starve.
I don't buy it.
When fertilizer was developed and we learned how to increase food production 10 fold, guess what happened? Yup. The population also increased 10 fold.
As long as humanity controls its population by starvation, drought, famine, pestilence,... then there will not be enough food.
The best thing we (the USA) can do for the third world is to teach them how to control their population. This is done by properly educating young women and giving them control of their own bodies.
It's like the old saying:
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
If you buy that argument, then there's no good reason we should not be using crops as a renewable fuel source.
Is that enough logic for you (or was your post a rhetorical question)?
The conclusion is derived from the fact that the North American Free Trade Agreement has allowed OUR huge corporations to go to ASIA and sell farmers genetically enginerred patented corn seed that must be grown using the genetically engineered patened chemicals and fertilizers. If they cannot afford to do this and try to bypass the process in anyway the companies sue the farmers for patent infringement and the crops fail. The farmers are enticed to grow corn (instead of their staple crop of RICE that feed 2/3 of population of the world) promising big returns because the US is going Green and is going to be producing Bio-Deisal.
It is the greed that gets them. It is the greed that keeps it happening and in the end we have millions of starving people. That are not just Africans.
Have you bought a bag of rice lately? 50lb bags last year were $18. at SAMS this year they are closer to $50.
Bio-Deisal can be made from other things than corn, but unfortunately that is not what most of the processing plants are setting up to use.
Food crops are not necessary and should not be used to make it.
If you are paying any attention to the G8 Summit that is happening in Japan this week you will see that it is the responsibilty of the US, Canada, and Europe to clean up the mess. Yet China, and India are by far the worlds biggest polluters.
Before Globalization, these people road bicycles and used animals for transportation. Now they use cars, yet are not being held to the level of accountabilty that each and every one of us as Americans and citizens of other developed nations are having to live by.
They have no inspection stations, they don't recycle.
When you do your recycling do gooder deed of the day and take your old computer to the special collection point for it to be recycled; feel proud of yourself and know that it is going to Malaysia and a child is sitting in a heap of computers and sorting it for you.
Just as long as our children aren't doing having to do it; it will be fine. Right?
There are ways to go green, but we are allowing ourselves to be fooled into thinking that if we are going green the whole world will be better, and it just isn't.
Globalization is not a good thing. India doesn't have the infrastructure to take care of all of those pesky little 6 pack holders, and disposable diapers. All of that shit is strewn everywhere, and they can't clean it up. If you want to go green stop buying individual drinks, use a glass, and wash it when your finished. Stop buying your food in a box, buy a piece of beef or a whole chicken and cook it in a pan that requires you to wash it.
Don't buy all those stupid Christmas lights, Halloween lights, Easter lights and plastic eggs, Mardi Gras Beads, and all that other shit that is made out of polyETHOLene, and polystyrene. You don't need it. If we stop buying it they will quit making it!
Sorry for the rant, the whole situation just really pisses me off.
wymzie, yet you shop at sams club, for the first time youve dissappointed me girl.
Wymzie, thank you for your post. I think I was just having a hard time figuring out how they draw the line between the US (and solely GW, according to the article) and the food shortage.
And 10:01 thank you for clarifying because the way you'd said it at first, it made me wonder how you could draw a line between African women, who don't have the education and resources to adequately use birth control, and a food shortage. I think that I disagree with your point, but I understand it a lot better.
The reason I disagree with it is partly the same thing that bothers me with Wymzie's statement, which I wholeheartedly agree is the most likely problem we're having right now. My problem is, how can the US be held responsible when speculation leads to production of a different crop in a different country?
This just leads me to my point. We need to buy and sell domestically. It may be more expensive, but there's a reason its more expensive. Its been made by people making decent and honest wages and made to a higher standard than anything made in another country. This Walmart era of globalization is poisonous to us and other countries in so many commonly unseen ways. If we focused more on using domestic products for our own mass consumption, we wouldn't be blamed for creating problems in a world-wide market. America could be self-sufficient and we certainly have the resources for it. As I understand it, we may be the only continent fully capable of sustaining itself without any outside influence because our population is still moderately under control and we have an abundance of natural resources. Our economy would be booming right now if our products weren't made in China and our tech support wasn't in India.
Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that an item or food can be made and shipped here from halfway across the world and still cost less than the same exact item made down the street? I know I'm opening a can of worms by even bringing this up, because there are SOOOO many reasons why that is, but still......
America going green would be GREAT for America if we weren't using the rest of the world to do it.
Live American. Buy American.
(Don't even get me started on Walmart. I know its an unrelated subject, but actually...not really.)
Witness Al Bore's new mansion in Tennessee. Not many have such a HUGE "carbon footprint".(a means devised by Mr. Bore to BILK more money from those who follow his hypocritical rant.)
my experience with gasohol for a few pennies less per gallon, does NOT give the same hi mileage as regular gas. Sooooooooooooooooooo, What's the point? Might as well get the real thing.
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