Supporting, Undermining Global Food Security
Published April 16, 2009 @ 09:16AM PT
It's the case in the world of federal legislation that many people have their hands in any given legislative pie. A large bill has numerous parents, and the process is difficult and time-consuming enough that in general, if you get a thing or two that you want in the final product, you take your win and go home.
I get that. It's the way business is done.
Indeed, when you can get a strong Senate coalition to approve a measure that will ease global hunger, an aim that's strongly supported by the president, hey, celebrate.
Though somebody, somewhere, needs to keep an eye on the bigger picture.
The Global Food Security Act of 2009, S. 384, will mandate the acceptance of genetically modified crops as part of US foreign assistance. Which unfortunately means that what it gives to Africa and S. Asia with one hand, it likely takes away with the other.
That part of the bill needs to come out.
Now it must be admitted that traditional farming, while it's had notable achievements and fed all the people we descended from for many generations, had the occasional total collapse. Old school crossbreeding gave us many wonderful foods, but mobility and information sharing weren't what they are now and they were far more at the mercy of the weather.
Though the Green Revolution, where high-yield hybrids were added to new well-drilling, irrigation and synthetic fertilizer technology has in many cases tossed the baby out with the bath water.
Consider that India's current elections in Punjab, where the Green Revolution was embraced wholeheartedly, have as a major campaign issue the ongoing farmer suicides in the region. It's being reported that 4 kill themselves every day, with the toll having reached 1,600 in 2007.
They can't get proper loans for capital intensive farming, for the new seeds, new chemicals, and new wells that need to be dug as the water table drops ever lower, so they have to go to loan sharks. Green Revolution crops are good producers, though only if they're pampered. Then if anything goes wrong, like the rains aren't great or prices collapse, they end up deep in debt with no way out.
Farmers who don't commit suicide may lose their land to developers or government fiat. They move to some slum in a city where there's little hope of work for them and have to buy what they might once have grown. One way or another, small farmers stop farming and their expertise is lost along with any unique crop breeds they once cared for.
Every indication is that genetically modified seeds are an advantage over Green Revolution hybrids only in that they make a lot more money for their producers.
Now countries that have tried to keep genetically modified organisms out of their borders may be blackmailed into giving up. Even if you approve of genetically engineered crops, is it really the US' business to make that decision for other countries? I don't think so.
Which is why I'd appreciate it if you'd read up on this bill and contact your representatives to ask them to remove the biotechnology section from S. 384, even if you've already written them in support of it. There's no good argument for forcing this on the unwilling.
(Photo credit: visualpanic on Flickr.)
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Author
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Natasha is an amateur eater with severe snarkolepsy and a c. 2002 blogging habit. She had a fabulous time studying ecological agriculture and policy at The Evergreen State College, and even did her homework while writing at various times for pacificviews.org, boomantribune.com, and mydd.com.
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Natasha:
Here's a letter I sent yesterday
david
President Barack Obama April 15, 2009
President Of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Enclosed please find eight grains of rice and a check for Two Hundred Twenty Trillion Dollars ($220,000,000,000,000). Please plant one rice seed and educate seven others to do the same. With the check, please pay off the U.S. National debt (~$12 trillion) by buying up all the Federal Reserve Notes. And never, ever, let the United States Treasury borrow from them again. Okay? And keep the change! You may need it for lottery tickets.
But seriously this could work. There may be some logistical problems but as Americans we have shown we can work them out.
By planting one of the enclosed seeds in the White House Garden with Michelle and the children you will have created an awareness of ecological sustainability for the people of the world…and something very economical. When you let that one seed mature and plant the harvested seeds every year you will have the collateral for the debt in eight years. (see math on page 2.)
The enclosed signature is my promise to help start the rice or grain growing project. We would create The Bank of the Greater United States, print the NEW U.S. NOTE, interest and debt free and pay off the debt in 2017.
Can we work together to do this? It would be fun!
Sincerely and Healthfully,
(The signature below is a promise to help create the United States as the “rice bowl” of the World!)
David Snieckus
99 Crescent Street
Newton, MA 02466
617-964-2951
The math:
Plant 1 seed in the garden in the first year you will harvest 214 grains
Plant 214 grains in the second year you will harvest 45,796 grains.
Plant 45, 796 seeds in the third year and you will harvest 9,800,344 grains
Plant 9,800,344 in the fourth year and you will harvest 2,097,273,618 grains
Plant 2,097,273,618 in the fifth year and harvest 448,816,553,824 grains
Plant 448,816,553,824 in the sixth year & harvest 96,046,742,518,33 grains
Plant 96,046,742,518,336 in the 7th year = 20,554,002,898,923,904 grains
Plant 20,554,002,898,923,904 in year 8 = 4,398,556,620,369,714,700 grains
So at the end of your eighth year in office you will have:
· 4 quintillion,
· 398 quadrillion,
· 556 trillion,
· 620 billion,
· 369 million, 714 thousand and 700 hundred grains.
Now divide that by 20,000 (number of grains per pound) and you have:
The math is 4,398,556,620,369,714,700 divided by 20,000 equals 219,927,831,018,485.
So at about a $1.00 per pound (in 2017) will give you 219 trillion, 927 billion, 831 million, 18 thousand, 485 dollars. I rounded it off to 220 trillion.
(My Calculations show that in the eight year you would only need 3 million acres planted)…Hell there are 171, 904, 640 acres in Texas!
· Isn’t $220 TRILLION enough to pay off the debt today with a bit of pocket change for implementation AND give the incoming President in 2018 a debt free country?
All you have to do is plant one seed today.
Call me at 617-964-2951 and we will work out the details.
Hope you see this clearly…
Posted by david snieckus on 04/16/2009 @ 02:27PM PT
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