Eons: View message "food politics " in Current Events & Politics Group

Message 717 of 1486

food politics

I once heard, if you give a man a fish he eats for the day, if you teach a man to fish he can eat forever (or in my case disappear at least for the weekend) How about if we make that a standard for foreign aid regarding food. We send thousands of tons of wheat rice to places like africa. The price must include shipping and handling. Does our government purchase an amount on hand for "disasters and then for regular aid? From what I have read Countries in africa or afganistan etc. need food because of damage done to their farm environment. does not really matter for this how. But if they had high yield seed, irrigation systems and pest control they would be better off. in addition the price of what we pay would not be so dictated by others then the actual market. Just think farmers get their subsidy then another boost in price due to increase demand from what our government purchases. the government should stockpile for international disasters that is what we do. it is the second aspect getting countries dependent that seems to have negative consequences.
yichel

posted by yichel

I agree with that one yich...

posted by elchucko1
4 months ago

US companies like Monsanto are vilified by people who believe genetically modified crops are bad food. Fields of GMO (genetically modified organisms) food have been burned down by environmentalists who claim the fields "contaminate" organic locally grown food.

I believe GMO can solve food shortages. Plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain drought tolerance as well. Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used. The best known example of this is the use of B.t. genes in corn and other crops. B.t., or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are lethal to insect larvae. B.t. crystal protein genes have been transferred into corn, enabling the corn to produce its own pesticides against insects such as the European corn borer. view link

Do people who are starving from lack of food due to drought want GMO food? No!

Yichel, I'm not sure, but doesn't USAID GIVE food away, not sell it? And have US family farms made a rebound due to the higher cost of food, or are they just passing on higher operating costs and still struggling to survive?

I do agree we should send food rather than arms to countries and make sure NGO's deliver the food to the people, not the armies. And I agree we should use the Peace Corps to teach people how to irrigate their land to farm more efficiently. But that assumes the people are both healthy and safe enough to farm, which is not the case in so many countries.

And let's make sure we don't have Americans going hungry before we give food to the rest of the world!