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El Nino is blamed for changing rainfall patterns, and that, combined with inadequate harvests and increasing conflict has led to a drop in cereal production already affecting Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. This could increase the number of people relying on food aid.
Dr. Norman Borlaug passed away this weekend at 95. He left behind an amazing legacy of contribution to humanity. It is likely that he saved more human lives than any other person in history. He did it by developing far more productive wheat than had ever been grown. His “short stature” wheat had shorter, thicker stems so that it could hold bigger heads of grain that would otherwise “lodge” (collapse over on to the ground where it can’t be harvested). It was also resistant to the devastating wheat disease called “Stem Rust.” This wheat ended up feeding millions of people around the world, particularly in Pakistan and India in the 1960s. Borlaug’s breakthrough was a key part of the “Green Revolution” and it did much to address the hunger and poverty issues of the time. For this, and his life-time of additional work Bourlag recieved the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Metal . Only Martin Luther King, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa have received all of these commendations. He was also awarded the National Medal of Science and a host of other awards from around the world. There is an excellent article about the life and career of this remarkable man in the Des Moines Register.
The Image above is corn growing in Zimbabwe.
There was a scholarly article published late last year by Dr. Robert Paarlberg entitled “The Ethics of Modern Agriculture.” I would encourage anyone concerned about both the environment and about feeding people to read it. It raises some important questions about the ethics of even well intentioned anti-technology activism.
Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley and also an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. He has no ties to agricultural interests or technology companies, but he has spent a lot of time thinking about the ethics of opposition to technologies that could help feed the poor people of the world. His book “Starved for Science” is a detailed review of how the precautionary principle thinking of the rich countries (particularly in Europe) has largely kept agricultural technologies out of Africa including ones that would help feed poor people there.
By Lester R. Brown
In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds or tipping points in nature. In my latest book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, I state that scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger the collapse of a fishery.
We know there were social tipping points in earlier civilizations, points at which they were overwhelmed by the forces threatening them. For instance, at some point the irrigation-related salt buildup in their soil overwhelmed the capacity of the Sumerians to deal with it. With the Mayans, there came a time when the effects of cutting too many trees and the associated loss of topsoil were simply more than they could manage.
The social tipping points that lead to decline and collapse when societies are overwhelmed by a single threat or by simultaneous multiple threats are not always easily anticipated. As a general matter, more economically advanced countries can deal with new threats more effectively than developing countries can. For example, while governments of industrial countries have been able to hold HIV infection rates among adults under 1 percent, many developing-country governments have failed to do so and are now struggling with much higher infection rates. This is most evident in some southern African countries, where up to 20 percent or more of adults are infected.
A similar situation exists with population growth. While populations in nearly all industrial countries except the United States have stopped growing, rapid growth continues in nearly all the countries of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Nearly all of the 80 million people being added to world population each year are born in countries where natural support systems are already deteriorating in the face of excessive population pressure, in the countries least able to support them. In these countries, the risk of state failure is growing.
Food Not Bombs, a group dedicated to non-violent social change through feeding the needy, continues to find itself at the center of controversy as they enter their 30th year in existence.
Groups in New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, and Connecticut have run afoul of local laws that seek to stop them from handing out free meals in public places to those in need. Though all Food Not Bombs groups are independent, they share the common goals of feeding vegetarian meals to the hungry while also protesting war and poverty.
Food Not Bombs finds food that would otherwise be discarded - from restaurants, grocery stores, and other sources and prepares meals to anyone and everyone.
Lester R. Brown - Earth Policy Institute
In the May issue of Scientific American Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute, discusses how food shortages could be the weak link that brings down civilization.
In this feature article, “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” Brown notes that the biggest threat to global political stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. Those crises are brought on by rising demand and ever worsening environmental degradation.
“In the twentieth century,” Brown says, “dramatic rises in grain prices results from poor harvests. They were event-driven and short-lived. In contrast, the recent escalation in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse the rise in food prices without a reversal in the trends themselves.”
Food banks across the country are seeing longer lines and new faces. Demand and need are up, but corporate and individual donations are waning as Americans become nervous about their financial future. Meanwhile, food prices have yet to fall.
April 1, 2009 has been declared April Food Day by organizers Pigtown*Design and Easy and Elegant Life; a call to action on behalf of the nation’s hungry. A plea to donate what you can, in any amount you can; even if it’s only a dollar.
In San Francisco, over 150,000 people live at or far below the the poverty line, and are in desperate need of food aid; in 2008 the food bank alone distributed 33 million pounds of food to local hungry residents, many of whom are seniors and children.
San Francisco’s Food Security Task Force has just released information showing the huge increase in numbers of people needing food assistance and the growing strain that is being put on food relief agencies. Hunger is [...]
As layoffs and home foreclosures continue, many Americans are experiencing hunger for the first time. Though the issue of hunger is often associated with developing countries, food bank demand in the US increased by 30% in 2008 from the previous year.
Recently, talking about the food crisis globally on our sister site Feel Good Style, I also thought about these same issues domestically, here in the United States, and rediscovered Feeding America (previously known as Second Harvest). Feeding America is a national supporter of local food-banks and kitchens, and they do all this through the use of grants. In their call for help they state that 35 million in the US don’t know where the next meal is coming from, stating that “one in eight Americans is struggling with hunger. Our goal is to fill their bowls with food, and their hearts and minds with hope.”
Not only is this cause to donate, but I am also reminded of how helping at a soup kitchen is one of those things that just feels really good. Their willingness to engage civil society to help care about starving citizens, shows how anyone can make changes to help the starving locally. Perhaps you own a farm, or a big garden and can donate something fresh? Or become a corporate sponsor? Feeding America states that “as a charity with national reach, we can engage the public and raise awareness of this critical issue on a national and local level.”
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