First you drive up grain prices, then you cut aid to those you've hurt most. Neat trick, eh?
Grain prices are up, everybody knows that. Wheat alone has shot up around 80% in the past year and corn, well it's way up too, in part due to diversion of stocks for ethanol production. It's a great time for agribusiness but, in fairness, it might not be quite so good if you're starving.
As the Washington Post reports, soaring grain prices are being met in the U.S., not with a commensurate increase in funding, but with a commensurate decrease in the amount of food that'll go to those who need it most:
"The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India."
Relax, it's not like the poor have SUVs anyway. They don't even need ethanol.
Grain prices are up, everybody knows that. Wheat alone has shot up around 80% in the past year and corn, well it's way up too, in part due to diversion of stocks for ethanol production. It's a great time for agribusiness but, in fairness, it might not be quite so good if you're starving.
As the Washington Post reports, soaring grain prices are being met in the U.S., not with a commensurate increase in funding, but with a commensurate decrease in the amount of food that'll go to those who need it most:
"The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India."
Relax, it's not like the poor have SUVs anyway. They don't even need ethanol.
Well, as long as our SUVs don't starve. That would be a real tragedy. A real affront to vehicular rights.
ReplyDeleteOut of sight, out of mind. You know Jenny, I think we're foolish if we don't come to a clear understanding of this problem now, before it gets worse, and address it realistically.
ReplyDeleteThose getting the shit end of the stick look to the industrialized world and see the source of many of their problems - climate change induced crop failures, subsidized agriculture that tramples their future, grain diversion for biofuel.
Is this the sort of situation that can ignite radicalism? Of course it is. Who are we going to blame that on, Allah?
It has begun and I don't expect it's going to get anything but worse during the balance of my lifetime.
Doesn't it just make you picture a little kid, gathering all her toys around her like a wall, saying "mine! mine!"?
ReplyDeleteHow sad that we haven't yet learned the most basic of kindergarten values: sharing.
No question that it's sad. I wonder what type of people we'll have to become in order to be steeled against this suffering? I think we either accept responsibility for what we've done to others or we have to consciously turn our backs to them. Of the latter I'm sure we're quite capable.
ReplyDelete