[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Food crisis threatens 100m: UN

[mary rose]

This crisis demands that people everywhere begin to raise
their own food and stop relying on world trade networks
to provide what can be produced at home.

One of the many reasons I see a need for community learning
and information centers is the necessity for "information gathering"
in order to assess the needs of any given community before the
crisis occurs.  If there was a world database set up on the Internet,
which provided the assessment for each community, and communities
were linked together via the Net, then when a food crisis occurred
communities with the direst needs could be sent supplies ASAP from
communities who had excess stored so as to avoid people
going hungry.  But the key to this to to help people learn how to
raise their own food, and to assure that every community has
enough land on which people may grow their own food for
subsistence.  AND, this has to take precedence over using land
for the raising of cattle unless the land is unsuitable for the growing
of produce.

The world has to get it that cycling grain through beef and/or dairy
cattle is not an efficient way to create food.  In fact, cycling grain
through any type of animal in order to produce food is not an efficient
use of a product aimed at supplyiing food.

And, we need to rethink what types of grain should be grown. One
of the most efficient would be hemp. Hemp can be used
to make 20,000 different products, including paper. And is one of the
strongest of materials known to humankind   However, hemp can
also be eaten in the form of food products. i.e. hempburgers, and
cheese.  And it is highly nutritious.  It is a "no-till" grain, needs
little water and can be grown without fertilizer in poor soil.

Yet the U.S. inhibits its growth because it is a distant cousin of
marijuana, yet has no hallucinogenic qualities.  While at the same
time we grow corn to make ethanol?  Hemp could easily be used
to make ethanol as well, I think.

Is anyone else around here besides me confused about what goes
on the prohibits good things and promotes bad things.

Don't we need to straighten this mess out and begin using some
common sense?

BTW, in the war against drugs, the important thing is to "stop the
demand" and not the supplier.  As long as demand exists, and there
is money to be made from it, suppliers will find a way to meet demand.

You know, I am tired of living in a left-brain linear thinking society that
doesn't know its a-- from a hole in the ground.

Does anyone else have the same feelings?

You know, money only controls us IF we let it.

mary rose

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Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Food crisis threatens 100m: UN



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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-04/23/content_6636342.htm


 Food crisis threatens 100m: UN
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-23 06:26

LONDON: A "silent tsunami" unleashed by costlier food threatens 100 million 
people, the United Nations said Tuesday, but views differed as to how to 
stop it.

The Asian Development Bank said there was enough food to go round, and the 
key was to help the poor afford it. It said Asian governments which have 
curbed food exports were over-reacting.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would seek changes to EU 
biofuels targets if it was shown that planting crops for fuel was driving up 
food prices - a day after the bloc stood by its plans to boost biofuel use.

Britain also pledged $900 million to help the UN World Food Programme 
alleviate immediate problems and address longer-term solutions to "help put 
food on the table for nearly a billion people going hungry across the 
world".

The World Food Programme, whose head Josette Sheeran took part in a meeting 
of experts Brown called yesterday to discuss the crisis, said a "silent 
tsunami" threatened to plunge over 100 million people on every continent 
into hunger.

"This is the new face of hunger - the millions of people who were not in the 
urgent hunger category six months ago but now are," Sheeran said ahead of 
the meeting.

"The response calls for large-scale, high-level action by the global 
community, focused on emergency and longer-term solutions."

The WFP said this was the biggest challenge in its 45-year history. Riots in 
poor Asian and African countries have followed steep rises in food prices 
caused by many factors - dearer fuel, bad weather, rising disposable incomes 
boosting demand and the conversion of land to grow crops to be turned into 
biofuel.

"The era of cheap food is over," said Rajat Nag, managing director general 
of the Asian Development Bank.

Rice from Thailand, the world's top exporter, has more than doubled this 
year but Nag urged Asian governments not to distort markets with export 
curbs, and instead use fiscal measures to help the poor.

"We want to temper what we think is a bit of an over-reaction. There is 
still enough supply," he said.

India and Vietnam have limited exports, hoping to tame prices at home - 
while goading them higher abroad.

"Banning of exports is no different from hoarding at a national level," Nag 
said.

The comments from the ADB echoed statements by the International Monetary 
Fund and the United Nations, urging countries to ensure more funds in the 
hands of the poor to buy food, instead of resorting to protectionist trade 
barriers.

Other aid officials have used more dramatic language.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said dearer food risked wiping out 
progress on cutting poverty and his special rapporteur on the right to food, 
Jean Ziegler, said rises were leading to "mass murder".

Brown raised further doubts about the wisdom of using crops to help produce 
fuel, an idea whose recent popularity in the US and Europe has been dented 
by fears it harms the environment and makes food dearer.

"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of 
different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our 
support (for biofuels)," he said.

"If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also 
push for change in EU biofuels targets."

The EU's executive Commission on Monday stood by its target of getting 10 
percent of road transport fuel from crops and agricultural waste by 2020.

Brown called for more research into higher-yielding crop varieties that can 
withstand harsh climates and for an agricultural revolution in developing 
countries.

A global trade deal that opened up markets in rich countries was also 
needed, he said.