In Food Aid Crunch, U.S. Reluctant To Tap Crop Trust

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the United States scrambles to prevent soaring food prices from eating into global food aid programs this year, the Bush administration appears reluctant to tap a "rainy day" stash of almost a million tonnes of wheat.

The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which contains 915,000 tonnes of grain, mostly wheat, and $117 million in cash, was set up as a fund of last resort when hunger emergencies erupt in the world's most vulnerable corners.

Several members of Congress, including Kansas Republican Jerry Moran, will send a letter to President George W. Bush next week, calling for extra funding for U.S. and U.N. food aid programs, an aide said.

They will also ask the administration to tap the crop trust for the first time since 2005, when hundreds of thousands of tonnes were used to help staunch famine in Africa.

--
After global food prices shot up close to 40 percent in 2007, the U.N. World Food Program has been sounding the alarm, too, as it seeks an extra $500 million or more for this year.

Despite a sharp drop in the last two weeks, wheat prices are still more than double what they were a year ago.

Corn and soybeans have had a record run, too, as investors pour money into commodity markets now driven by growing biofuel production and rising incomes in the developing world.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2830780520080328

[Vincardog]

1. Dim Son would not release oil from the Strategic reserve why would he care about food?

[MikeNearMcChord]

2. According to the Heritage Foundation

Americans are already overweight so let them starve is their mantra. I'd link it but I think Google should handles this.

[fasttense]

3. Let them eat cake. n/t

[ohio2007]

4. We have people starving in the US. Stop sending food aid

to places that have surpassed the earths peak population thresh hold. It just prolongs the suffering of future children.


Some prefer to call it "global warming" but the trade of human overpopulation is the real name killing all of us.

jmo

[AteAlien]

6. While human overpopulation is a very real problem

I also think a major cause of this, as in most crises across the globe, is greed. Pure, corporate greed. Profit is God, and most of the people on this planet are just walking, talking consumers. For those too poor to consume, well, to hell with them is the Corporate Creed.

I have read that there is still plenty of arable farmland. Enough to feed many more than are currently on this planet, but it's not worth their trouble (expense) to transport it or assist with creating self-sustaining cultures.

The bottom line is that most people don't matter.

[Hannah Bell]

8. The US was a net food importer in 2004.

Wheat acreage has been cut.

1/3 of vegetables imported.

Cut flowers as well.

It's "cheaper" to buy from the 3rd world, & put our land to "higher uses". Like big-box malls, of which we have double the supply of any other country.

[Hannah Bell]

7. to places that have surpassed the earths peak population thresh hold. It just prolongs the suffering

If you live in the First World, YOU'RE the 'over-population'.

The US alone consumes ~half the world's resources.



Places where the population has outstripped the resource base? Most of the first world has as high or higher pop density than the third.


Hong Kong: 6407/km2

Singapore: 6369/km2

Bangladesh: 1047/km2

South Korea: 480/km2

Netherlands: 392/km2

rwanda: 343/km2

Belgium: 341/km2

Japan: 339/km2

India: 336/km2

Israel: 325/km2

Vietnam: 254/km2 (#2 rice exporter)

UK: 246/km2

Germany: 232/km2

Pakistan: 198/km2 (major rice exporter)

Italy: 193/km2

Switzerland: 176/km2

China: 137/km2

Gambia: 134/km2

Thailand: 125/km2 (#1 rice exporter)

Uganda: 120/km2

Indonesia: 117/km2

Guatemala: 110/km2
EU: 112/km2

France: 110/km2

Cuba: 102/km2

Malaysia: 77/km2

Benin: 75/km2

Ethiopia: 70/km2

Timor: 64/km2

Burkina faso: 48/km2

afghanistan: 48/km2

s. africa: 39/km2

zimbabwe: 37/km2

us: 31/km2 (#4 rice exporter)

liberia: 29/km2

venezuela: 29/km2

mozambique: 25/km2

congo: 25/km2

brazil: 25/km2

zambia: 15.5/km2

sudan: 14.5/km2

somalia: 12.9/km2

namibia: 12.5/km2

angola: 12.8/km2

republic of congo: 11.7 km2

niger: 11/km2

russia: 8.4/km2

chad: 7.6/km2

canada: 3.2/km2

botswana: 3.0/km2

namibia: 2.5/km2

greenland: .026/km2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

Source: United Nations World Population Prospects (2004 revision). Data is for 2005.

[ohio2007]

9. One in 6 West Virginians is on food stamps

http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/200803260077

one in ten Ohioans are on FOOD stamps.
I wonder how many who post here receive or have received some form of govt handout.

Food is becomming so expensive in the first world that articles about US standard of living slipping towards third world status due to drought conditions and burned out soil will balance out
when the "corporation farms" go bankrupt.

[Hannah Bell]

10. they won't be going bankrupt for a very long time.

the corps control most of global agriculture.

[Zhade]

11. Yeah, just let 'em starve to death slowly and painfully.

How the FUCK do you sleep at night?

[entanglement]

12. Nationalists can be worse than racists, ya know

You won't believe this - but when the Tsunami struck South-east Asia in 2004, some white supremacists at Stormfront said they'd sent donations because they felt sorry for the victims! I mean frickin' Stormfront! And these guys (admittedly a minority) weren't newbies, they were regulars and had made their racialist views clear in many, many posts. Contrast that with this guy's 'compassionate' views!
:hi:

[ohio2007]

5. How ironic they call it a "rainy day" stash when drought is hitting the farmers in the US today

MAny are wanting to tap the great lakes the way the Soviets tappedthe Aral Sea.
How Ironic that turned out to be. They turned the Aral Sea into an ]Arid place


Oh but I'm sure our "experts in the US and Canada can say with confidence the Great Lakes would be better managed..

....history repeating morons.