"UN warns of food shortages; Economic crisis adds to worry, says secretary general" by Victoria Burnett, International Herald Tribune | January 28, 2009
MADRID - Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, said yesterday that the global economic crisis would raise already "intolerable" levels of world hunger, even though the high food prices that prompted riots in developing countries last year had eased....
If anyone would know their plans, he would.
For all the urgent warnings, some delegates from nongovernmental groups and donor nations said they were nonplussed by the two-day meeting, which produced no new aid pledges except Spain's and few concrete initiatives. The meeting was attended by ministers, officials and nongovernmental representatives from 126 countries....
What was the CARBON FOOTPRINT on that?
--more--"
How about getting them a seat in the U.N. dining room?
"Every table was set with a single fresh rose (from the rose gardens outside, I was told) and a full complement of three forks, two knives, and two spoons in silver plate..... The buffet tables could have graced a high-end ocean liner. I watched a gentleman in colorful African garb pile his plate with slices of roast sirloin and potatoes mashed with feta cheese. A post-retirement-age couple from the East Side scarfed up most of the egg rolls, though more came out quickly....
I made for the roast leg of lamb with rosemary sauce after I filled my salad plate with chilled asparagus and slices of a duck and pork terrine.... fresh tomato soup and bowls of pasta primavera.... The dessert buffet table practically groaned under a spread of apple and pumpkin pies, cheesecakes, tarts, half a dozen cheeses, sliced fruits, bowls of berries, and, off to one side, three urns of ice cream."
Also see: The MSM and the Meal
But the U.N. is trying to FEED the WORLD, uh-huh!!
And get ready for the NORTH AMERICAN UNION, Americans!!
The first of Mexico City's planned 300 soup kitchens opened this month in the working-class Pedregal de Santa Ursula neighborhood, and it has been busy. (Deborah Bonello/los angeles times)
There is PLENTY of FOOD in this world to go around!
NO ONE SHOULD STARVE!!!
MEXICO CITY - .... As Mexico slips into the profound economic crisis circling the globe, unemployment is rising along with food prices. Inflation is running about 8 percent annually, but some basic "family basket" items such as cooking oil and rice are going up about 200 percent a year, said Cesar Cravioto, head of the city's Institute of Social Assistance....
***************
The first soup kitchen, at a community center called Casa de la Luna (House of the Moon), opened this month in the working-class Pedregal de Santa Ursula neighborhood in southern Mexico City. It was packed, despite cold weather and rain. Workers filled plastic plates with chicken, rice and beans, and handed out cups of sweet watermelon-flavored water.
That's down near the equator, folks; so much for global warming, huh? Hey, what's one more MSM lie?
Most of the beneficiaries were elderly people or single mothers with children in tow. While not homeless, they are unemployed or live on small incomes that are being stretched to the limit.... Given Mexico's high level of endemic poverty, it is perhaps most surprising that the city government had not set up a feeding program before now.
No; they simply didn't give a shit. I imagine the PRESSURE on the government from the PEOPLE (like economic concerns and protests across the world) are having an effect on the rulers. Can't let this get to out of hand or they will lose their heads!
Traditionally, in the capital at least, most Mexicans, no matter how poor, manage to eat, though the meal might consist of little more than tortillas and a gruel-like soup. That may be changing....
Changing for better or worse?
--more--"
"Corporate and Government Policies Spark Food Crisis in America
Americans are losing the ability to feed themselves. Nothing signifies this loss of the golden age in America more than our growing reliance on foreign countries for our food. Yet American’s happily buy their produce from Mexico and their fish from China without giving it a thought. These are the same Americans who bemoan the loss of our manufacturing base saying that we should have done something about it before it was too late. Why can’t they see the similarity to us losing our agricultural base? Buying food from the Chinese is no different than buying a Toyota from the Japanese. Both actions portray an American turning his back on his country.
When you buy food from a foreign country, you enrich the same corporations that have dumped their long time, faithful employees here in America. These are the food conglomerates that have shut down factories in the U.S. and created ghost towns where there were once thriving communities. They are the same corporations that show their contempt for Americans by using toxic chemicals and pesticides in their food production that are not allowed in the U.S. Maybe you say, “I only buy organic so I don’t have to worry.” What does ‘organic’ mean in Mexico or China? Who enforces those standards?
If this scenario isn’t enough, add in government policy to ignore the fuel inefficiency of vehicles in the U.S. and instead to turn its attention and rhetoric to the encouragement of using our food for fuel. You would almost think there was a plot against the American people.
You don’t have to be a dedicated fanatic to see what is going on. Just pick up some newspapers and you will find stories that paint a glaring picture of our fall from grace. Like the one in the New York Times about the death of the catfish industry in the U.S.
Last year, Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year they will raise none, and 55 more Americans will be unemployed while the rest of us will be getting our catfish from Asia....
--MORE--"
And think it's not part of a plan?
"On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, "National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests." The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture...."
NSSM 200 similarly concluded that the United States was threatened by population growth in the former colonial sector. It paid special attention to 13 "key countries" in which the United States had a "special political and strategic interest": India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia....
"It is questionable," Kissinger gloated, "whether aid donor countries will be prepared to provide the sort of massive food aid called for by the import projections on a long-term continuing basis." Consequently, "large-scale famine of a kind not experienced for several decades—a kind the world thought had been permanently banished," was foreseeable—famine, which has indeed come to pass."
I guess we will just have to EAT the RICH, huh?
