I heard on the news yesterday that there’s food riots going on around the world. Apparently the cost of grain (rice and wheat) has risen so much that the poorest of the poor can’t afford to buy food. So, we rich people can afford to buy it and throw it out because we have too much, but the poor who could gladly live on our left overs, can’t afford it. How warped is that.
Then, I read a survey about Australians being concerned with climate change, (90% are concerned) but didn’t think that the new Government is any better than the previous one. Here’s a clue for you, you can’t expect change from that lot – you have to make a change yourself. It all sounds great to reduce carbon emissions, but the only way that’s going to happen is if you stop consuming. The wheels of industry only continue to turn because we demand its goods. So before you buy the next ‘single-serve’ yoghurt in a tub, have a thought for the resources used to create said tub.
Food shortages, caused by two things, weather/climate and greed. It would seem that huge amounts of land have been turned over to growing bio-fuel crops instead of food crops. Therefore less food. Don’t worry about having fuel for transporting the food, there’s no food to transport….
And cost, the price of rice has risen 75% in two months. This has caused riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cameroon. Why has it risen? Its that old supply and demand thing – so who’s making the money out of this?
For what seems to me to be a tragic human trait, we let people starve because they have no way to ‘pay’ There’s plenty to go around, we just need to share.
You do understand that money is a purely man made thing. We could do away with it tomorrow. Of course, that would mean that all the people who have money would become just like everyone else. Of course, all the people who don’t have money, want to have it (well, most of us). How much longer does this crap need to go on? We have so much, they have so little – lets stop the bullshit and start helping our world in a way that actually does help. Forget the money, people are fighting over food for fuck sake. How can we let that happen. Mr. Rudd has said he’d put it on our political agenda. Well, lets hope we get more action that it just being an agenda item. Then there’s the quaint term “food security” what the fuck does that mean? That we want to make sure our food is secure so the Indonesians don’t come screaming across our borders to raid our silos?
I get accused of having too simple a view of the world. Well, that may be so, but it seems to make sense to me…. starving people…. fat people…. you work it out.
Pingback: Bruce Llama » Blog Archive » Where’s all the food?