[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Bush offers $770m for food crisis

 

Mr Bush said more still needed to be done to fight the world's food crisis


George W Bush has offered $770m (£390m) in international food aid to help ease the effects of surging food prices that have sparked riots in some countries.
The US president said he was asking Congress to approve his request.
Soaring food and fuel prices have squeezed poor families at home and abroad, putting the White House under intense pressure to step in.
The move has been broadly welcomed, though critics point out the money will only be available from October.
That is because it is included in a funding measure that applies to the next fiscal year.
Critics also highlight what they say is the administration's contradictory policy of backing huge increases in the agricultural land devoted to biofuels.
'Silent tsunami'
"We're sending a clear message to the world that America will lead the fight against hunger for years to come," said Mr Bush, announcing the funding plan.
The new aid comprises $620m in direct food aid shipments, mainly to needy African nations, and $150m in long-term projects to help farmers in developing countries.

 

The new money would come in addition to some $200m the US president released for emergency food aid two weeks ago, but Mr Bush warned that "more needs to be done".
"In some of the world's poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food," he said.
"The American people are generous people and compassionate people. We believe in the timeless truth, to whom much is given, much is expected."
The new money is tied to a wider, $70bn spending measure that also covers funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009.
The proposal has received broad approval, though some have criticised the fact that the funds will only be available in the next fiscal year.
Others highlight what they say are contradictions in the policies of President Bush's administration, which is simultaneously providing generous subsidies to US farmers to cultivate corn-based biofuels such as ethanol.



"It's a very good move, a very urgent move - but it doesn't solve the problem," Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the BBC.
He says growing crops for fuel instead of food is one of the main causes of the price rises - but the White House counters that biofuel production accounts for only a small fraction of the recent food price increases.
'Unprecedented unrest'
Food price rises, dubbed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) a "silent tsunami", have sparked riots in some countries, including Haiti, Cameroon and Indonesia.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon set up a task force to tackle the crisis.


George W Bush on food aid pledge

He said the priority was to feed the hungry by closing a $755m (£380m) funding gap for the WFP this year.
Mr Ban said the world faced "widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale" because of soaring food prices, and urged donor countries to make more money available now.
The WFP believes 100 million people are currently going short of food.
It says only 62% of the $755m it needs to feed them has been pledged so far, and, of that, only $18m or 2.4% has actually been received.
Mr Ban said it was essential to support farmers in poor countries who were producing less because of the high cost of fertilizer and energy, and to this end he said the task force hoped to:

• Offer $200m financial support to farmers in the worst affected countries to boost food production
• Set up a $1.7bn programme to help countries with a food deficit to buy seeds

The task force, which Mr Ban will chair, will be made up of the heads of UN agencies and the World

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

typical of American response, just like the medical system, fuck prevention, lets just treat all the symptoms with expense bullshit! solve the problem, dont give it an overpriced bandaid!

why is there no food?

because of silly US goverment subsidies for biofuels, one of the worst blunders of all time, or perhaps as Bush said last week, because the Indians are simply getting more developed and eating more food now. so because the previously hungry have bread, the current hungry remain? bullshit!

In the United States, more consumable food is thrown out in the industrial process then Sub-Saharan Africa consumes! If we changed our system, and remove programs that cause these catastrophes, and if we tighten our belts so-to-speak, and manage and distribute our own resources properly, then the problem might begin to get solved, but if we continue financial aid bandaids, more carrot and stick foreign policies, without tackling the real underlying issues, then the world will only further collapse as has been the trend.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

bump

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

It's a bunch of bullshit really. Nobody should be starving. How many acres of land are used for growing heroin, tobacco, and cocaine? How much farm production in poverty and hunger stricken countries is owned by people from the 1st world and exported to 1st world countries?

The problem is simple, and the solution needed is pretty radical. Poor countries need to subsidize US industries and produce their own goods for themselves. Unfortunately everyone in those country either lacks balls or is too corrupt to do it.

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

Also, that's a huge slap in the face. That's like tipping someone a penny.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by SpectralJulianIsNotDead

Also, that's a huge slap in the face. That's like tipping someone a penny.

"it takes a revolution to make a solution! too much confusion so much frustration" bob marley

 

 

[i know this is peter tosh, but bob marley did have no machine gun telecaster, however remember that Bob wrote a song called Zimbabwe in 1977 and sang that song before a crowd of 100,000 Zimbabweans on April 18, 1980 celebrating their independence!]

"We free our people with music, help we free our people with music, with music oh music!" groundation

[evollove]

Now I'm confused. Is resource redistribution the solution to the world hunger problem or is it reggae music?

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by evollove

Now I'm confused. Is resource redistribution the solution to the world hunger problem or is it reggae music?

reggae music fo sho! see Iyah, them sing during revolution and its the songs that move the movement!

"Comin in Hot! Hot! Hot!
Firin' a firin' some shot! shot! shot!
Yes I'm a Coming in red hot
It's a musical shot! shot! shot!"