TWeeD ([info]densaer) wrote,
@ 2008-04-24 23:24:00
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Wanted: food analysis.
Dear LJ friends/enemies/others:

I'm trying to find some thoughtful analysis on why it seems that the global food system is going haywire. Confluence of events? Is it the media? Something else?

If you've come across any really good analysis, please drop me a link.

Thanks.

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[info]satyrlovesong
2008-04-25 02:32 pm UTC (link)
Honestly, I've been wondering that myself. I don't think that the situation has changed so much really, but I do think it's getting a lot more press. Famines are a historical fact, and "world wide" famines are fairly common as well - our definition of "world wide" has just changed.

I think we (humanity) probably have enough food to distribute equitably around the world. We have swift global transport. We have efficient instant communication. We have the ability to track shipments.

But we still have human nature. We still have greed, and hatred and fear. We still have bribery and selfishness. We still have "us" and "them".

And we still have the power to manipulate the starving masses into war by giving or taking away resources. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can see starvation as a manipulation tool. Look at Gais Marius - after distributing the Senate's grain to the Head Count, he convinced the Senate to allow the Head Count into the army in order to stave off the barbarian invasion (Gaul, if I remember correctly). These dispossessed fought for him and died for him because he fed them! Now as dictators go, Marius wasn't that bad a guy (at least to the Romans) but he WAS a pretty serious war monger and a very capable general. He took the destitute and conquered much of the known world.

Seems like a pretty good way to get troops, if you're that sort of personality. A little starvation, a little ethnic pride, a touch of fear and a charismatic personality to lead you? I shudder to think.

But then I've also been wondering for some time when China's penchant for boy children coupled with their population restrictions was going to get ugly. There's a gender imbalance there, and all that excess testosterone has to bleed off someplace. If *I* were a megalomaniac of some stripe or another, I'd use that energy as cannon fodder - 'cause you just KNOW that the guys at the top still have access to the ladyfolk. It's the poor that once again lack the resources, whether that's food, women, or whatever.

Ok, enough rambling now. Nothing of real substance. No good articles. Just a bunch of ideas swimming in the back of my head.

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[info]lazygarden
2008-04-25 03:28 pm UTC (link)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89732502

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[info]lazygarden
2008-04-25 03:29 pm UTC (link)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/business/rice.php

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[info]lazygarden
2008-04-25 03:33 pm UTC (link)
Basically, what is comes down to is inflation and rising fuel prices are limiting how far people are willing to ship food. This affects not only most of the world, in regards to rice, but also domestic transporters. Truckers are no longer making money off of the food shipments so their prices will increase to cover the gas. This directly affects the price of the food being shipped.

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[info]banacheq
2008-04-25 03:58 pm UTC (link)
Oddly enough, I got an email a week ago (before I had heard anything) and kinda blew off my friend who sent it to me as being her usual hippy self, but here's what her email said:

"Companies that were involved in the US military's rice-killing operations are now telling us that they hold in their hands the future of rice. 'Rice is Life' -- that is why the US government dedicated so much money and military power to killing it in Vietnam. And that is why US corporations are targeting rice today, because taking over rice means taking over life. And for those who resist this, who want to farm rice without poisoning their fields or themselves with toxic chemicals, who want to keep rice free of corporate patents, and who want to protect rice because it is life, they are faced with a new kind of battle. Because the philosophy of the powerful political and corporate elites remains unchanged: If they can't control it, they'll kill it."

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2004/Monsanto-Vietnam-Rice3jun04.htm


And of course yesterday I saw all the CNN stuff on rice shortages.

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