Website review: New Statesman - How the rich starve...
liamvictor discovered this in Politics
•33 reviews since Apr 19, 2008
politics, biofuels, biofuel
•newstatesman.com/200804170025
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liamvictor discovered 4 weeks ago- World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol.
- mtgmanfl rated 14 days ago
- There is no easy answer to the worlds growing need for energy. But burning food as a fuel source is just dumb.
- IW84NO1 rated 2 weeks ago
- According to the World Bank, global maize production increased by 51 million tonnes between 2004 and 2007. During that time, biofuels use in the US alone (mostly ethanol) rose by 50 million tonnes, soaking up almost the entire global increase. Next year, the use of US corn for ethanol is forecast to rise to 114 million tonnes - nearly a third of the whole projected US crop. American cars now burn enough corn to cover all the import needs of the 82 nations classed by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as "low-income food-deficit countries". There could scarcely be a better way to starve the poor.
- IntrepidDreamer rated 3 weeks ago
- [from the article] The message could not have been clearer if the Prime Min ister, Gordon Brown, had personally put a torch to a pyre of corn and rice in Parliament Square: even as you take to the streets to protest your empty bellies and hungry children, we will burn your food in our cars. The UK is not uniquely implicated in this scandal: the EU, the United States, India, Brazil and China all have targets to increase biofuels use. But a look at the raw data confirms today's dire situation. According to the World Bank, global maize production increased by 51 million tonnes between 2004 and 2007. During that time, biofuels use in the US alone (mostly ethanol) rose by 50 million tonnes, soaking up almost the entire global increase. High transportation costs caused by rich countries' unecessary wars and now high food prices resulting from their pollution -- something is wrong here. While we should not be alarmist about the current high food prices, and appealing to the needs of poor folk does this to some extent, I think there is something immoral about how the governments of wealthy nations are forcing clean air policies that do not consider the effect on basic commodity prices. I favor ecologically sound policy, but let's not also forget that most of the pollution created by the rich will impact on Third World economies through higher prices to control the pollution they have created, thus making everyone poorer. Food consumption represents 30% or more of many poor families' household budgets and a doubling of basic commodity prices has a significant impact on their welfare. Please do us all a favor by considering the rest of the planet when crafting environmental policy. >enable rant mode [and as a reaction to some other comments on this article] Please do not insult us by telling us we make too many babies or that we should simply revert to subsistence societies. Too many babies are caused by poverty, not the other way around. Those among us who are able to find jobs in high wage countries are more productive than your natives. Certainly most poor countries have been industrializing for years but wages continue to be low because a combination of bad government at home and immigrant unfriendly policies abroad. Low wages caused by investment unfriendly situations are not easy to correct in corrupt Third World governments. Do not make it more difficult than it already is by blaming us for the low productivity caused by this and by not allowing your industries to compete for our labor. - seb > rant mode off
- akapearlofagirl rated 4 weeks ago
- "The irony is extraordinary. At a time when world leaders are expressing grave concern about diminishing food stocks and a coming global food crisis, our government brings into force measures to increase the use of biofuels - a policy that will further increase food prices, and further worsen the plight of the world's poor."
- javamanjoe rated 4 weeks ago
- HOW THE RICH STARVE THE WORLD. World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol. Plus Iain Macwhirter on how food prices are rocketing
- verbalintercours rated 4 weeks ago
- This may be read wrong, but the earth is facing an overpopulation problem. I don't agree with starving the citizens of third world countries but something needs to be done. My solution? Stop the industrialization of third world countries. They need to go back to subsistence farming, and start surviving as humans have done for thousands of years. Stop building schools and factories. Encourage people to move out of the city and into the country. Most importantly they need to be cut off from any supply of antibiotics. Stopping common diseases puts an enormous strain on their resources.
- robbyyy2121 rated 4 weeks ago
- The whole issue of the poors need for food competing with the wests need for energy through biofuels worries me. Is it a backwards step?
- eskimowarlord rated 4 weeks ago
- So what are we going to do, continue ignoring more efficient biofuels like hemp? I know I'd rather eat corn than put it in my gas tank.
- bradystory rated 4 weeks ago
- Please go to bradystuff.weebly.com
- Ausearth rated 4 weeks ago
- From the page: "How the rich starved the world"
