apollo_fi wrote:
topal63 wrote:
Sounds like your believing in a myth. I think your plain old wrong then. It's just not true.
It is, more or less, possible to feed everyone in the world with our current technology and modern farming techniques. We simply don't do it - because we don't have a system in place to do it.
I have severe doubts that all humankind can be adequately fed, even using modern farming techniques, without reducing the amount of arable land used to produce feed for cattle.
Most 1st world people will consider it a change in the quality of their life if beef, pork and dairy products become less available, or prohitively expensive.
topal63 wrote:
We are not really a unified Global society. Since impoverished people are usually the ones starving & suffering the goal is build-up those societies in need; eliminating poverty by building a flourishing self-sustaining society would do far more than "throwing feed at cattle."
Definitely so. Though, it will help if the members of the flourishing, self sustaining society do not starve to death while their society is being built.
But they (we) have to be responsible for their (or our) own society; this is no easy task. Also, food and money to buy food are commodities.
Check out this article from the Christian Science Monitor:
Some Africans prefer hunger to a diet of gene-altered cornhttp://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1114/p12s01-woaf.html"Information, however, is often confused. Farmer Victor Bwalia heard that GM corn makes women infertile. His neighbor told him. Meanwhile, Amroando Dandola, who makes flip-flops, thinks it infects people with HIV/AIDS. That is what his grandfather, Augustine, thinks, too."
"After two years of drought, people here are hungry. Boys dive for mancada roots in the swamp. Men and women go into the forests looking for nuts and berries to boil. Countrywide, according to the World Food Program (WFP), 2.9 million Zambians are in need of food aid. Some 250 tons of it, more then half of which were donated by the US, were headed for Zambia when Mr. Mwanawasa decided, in mid-August, to reject it."
And here is another idea - Food Dumping Aid or Trade?:
http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/ngo … _aid_e.pdf"Food Aid is a ncessary evil; it should only be given for short periods of time to overcome disasters."
Food Dumping [Aid] Maintains Povertyhttp://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelate … umping.asp"In the industrialized northern countries, we instinctively believe that food aid is a very worthy cause and many do their utmost to genuinely help in this field. Web sites like the hungersite.com allow you to simply click a link and thereby donate food to someone in need in a developing country. However, there is more to it that selecting on a link."
"In fact, if priority is not placed on the political root causes of hunger, sites like this may unwittingly contribute to the harm that has already been inflicted on the poor in developing countries because the poor countries will remain dependent. (Providing free food in emergency situations of course is usually welcome, but we are concerned with systemmic root causes of hunger in non-emergency situations here as some one sixth of humanity goes hungry each day in non-emergency situations."
A few different sites (some for - some against)
http://www.ftncoalition.org/http://www.centeronhunger.org/http://www.fas.usda.gov/food-aid.asphttp://www.resurgence.org/resurgence/is … son204.htmhttp://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~agroeco3/t … ology.htmlHunger linked to Poverty:
http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basic … ional.html apollo_fi wrote:
topal63 wrote:
Sounds like your believing in a myth. I think your plain old wrong then. It's just not true.
It is, more or less, possible to feed everyone in the world with our current technology and modern farming techniques. We simply don't do it - because we don't have a system in place to do it.
I have severe doubts that all humankind can be adequately fed, even using modern farming techniques, without reducing the amount of arable land used to produce feed for cattle.
From:
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs … 8v5n3.html (12 Myths about hunger)
Myth 1 - Not Enough Food to Go Around
"Reality: Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,500 calories a day. That doesn't even count many other commonly eaten foods - vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day worldwide: two and half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk and eggs-enough to make most people fat! The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food. Even most "hungry countries" have enough food for all their people right now. Many are net exporters of food and other agricultural products."
Poverty and Hunger in America:http://www.secondharvest.org/export/sit … lstats.pdf
Last edited by topal63 (2007-05-16 15:10:12)
