Meanwhile, escalating food prices are becoming more and more of a worry. Everywhere in the world that is a "hot spot" ... whether Pakistan or Africa, Afghanistan or Iraq, higher food prices result in more unrest. People get desperate when they can't buy food, and that's pretty understandable. Desperation ... hunger ... bad temper ... looking for someone to blame. Too often it is "only" us they blame -- "us" as in the United States of America, and "us" as in U.S. food producers.
There is a tendency for news analysts to hold only farmers responsible -- never mind that for decades the cost of production for almost every grain was lower than market prices. Never mind that if you took out the corn used for ethanol, i.e, a good start on energy independence for our nation, most analysts would agree it would only lower the price of corn about 26 cents. Never mind that all of us -- rural, urban, suburban -- have a responsibility to make sure that our family farms remind stable and that we citizens of a rich nation do need to share in feeding the world.
Clearly, more compromises are coming, but first see below for this weekend's news coverage -- serious perspectives on this growing problem:
- Food Politics -- The old ways no longer cut it. Washington Post editorial.
- They're Global Citizens. They're Hugely Rich. And They Pull the Strings. By David Rotherkopf, author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making.
- As Farm Bill Nears Vote, Bush Presses for Fewer Subsides. By Dan Morgan, Special to the Washington Post.
- World Hunger Map. United Nations.
- Where Every Meal Is a Sacrifice. Washington Post.
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