Food shortage, campaign money and nuclear energy

[question everything]

On ABC News this evening, there was a heart wrenching story about the shortage of food worldwide

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4628103&page=1


The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has seen some of the worst food-related riots in recent months, with protestors taking to the streets, burning tires and looting shops. As the vast majority of Haiti's population struggles to get by on less than $2 a day, the rising prices of staple food items like rice and beans have left many Haitians angry with the government for not reducing taxes on foodstuffs... Rising fuel costs have also made transportation of foodstuffs increasingly expensive, making the current global crisis especially painful for this nation, which already suffers from extreme poverty.

(snip)

For the more than 600 million people who work in agriculture (in India), for the more than 600 million farmers and their families who live on less than $2 a day, it is the difference between cooking with oil and barely eating anything. Wholesale inflation hit its highest level here in three years, and for 1.1 billion Indians, that means that fruits and vegetable prices have risen 20 percent in just the last month -- mostly because of lack of irrigation and unseasonably early rainfall. To try and tame inflation, the government relaxed import duties on oils and banned exports on all but the most expensive rice... (India) is the second-largest rice producer in the world and is now exporting a fraction of what it used to, helping driving rice prices up in Asia and around the world.

(snip)

But food prices are rising across all of Africa - due to the cost of oil and demand for bio-fuels. This is causing social unrest throughout northern and western African countries and sometimes deadly violence, such as in Cameroon.

(snip)

Rice, a staple food in (Indonsesia), has risen 25 percent, cooking oil 40 percent and soybeans 50 percent. With nearly half of Indonesia's population, more than 100 million people, living on $1 to $2 a day, the high prices mean many people are going hungry.

The report ended with interviewing someone from the World Food Program about how they have only 1/2 a cup per person.

And I could not help but thinking that our presidential campaigns, so far, raised close to half a billion dollars. And I could not help but thinking of how many starving people, here and abroad, all this money could sustain.

Last, as we have seen in this country, part of the reason for rising food prices is that many farmers now dedicate more acreage to corn, to bio-fuel. And I wonder: why can't we develop nuclear energy?

[karab]

1. embargo

And the terrible embargo of Cuba keeps President Castro from helping his neighbors in Haiti.

[kestrel91316]

2. You ask this:

".......Last, as we have seen in this country, part of the reason for rising food prices is that many farmers now dedicate more acreage to corn, to bio-fuel. And I wonder: why can't we develop nuclear energy?"

I assume DUer "question everything" is willing to accept nuclear waste for disposal in his/her own back yard...........you aren't????? Well color me totally shocked.

[Deja Q]

3. Waste can be contained, or surely renewed and re-used?

Biofuels are stupid, for any number of reasons, unless it's algae or used corn oil from fryers.

Please forgive my ignorance if I'm wrong. :(

[question everything]

4. Thank you. I think that we need a serious discussion about nuclear

energy instead knee jerk reaction based on flaming headlines.