The Most Important Story You have Heard Nothing About

Right now people across the world are rioting. They have pushed the Haitian Prime Minister out of office, caused violence in India, and have threatened the lives of millions in Africa. Because of our policies, we have created a world hunger epidemic. Because of refined methods of food production 10 years ago we were on our way to food security, (to being able to produce enough food for every human on this earth to NOT go hungry). But as we searched for an alternative to fossil fuels, as we corporatized food production so that short term unsustainable farming is the norm, and as Monsanto makes their seeds only available once, food has become scarce. Ethanol is a major cause. We were all excited that our food waste could become gas. But ethanol uses nearly as much fossil fuels as it replaces. And to keep up with demand not only are farmers producing less food, swaths of the Amazon Rain Forest are being cut, and clear cutting of other carbon buffers. Ethanol has been a disaster and one of the main results has been a dramatic cut in food production as corn and the land needed for it goes to Ethanol. That isn't the only problem. Corporate farming has taken over the world food production. They are using less seed diversity, less farmers, doing it in unsustainable ways and the result is that farming is more susceptible to bad weather. Which because of Global Climate Change is becoming more and more common. So Monsanto's Genetically Modified Seeds which don't allow for reproduction, and are relatively weak, mean less and less food is actually being produced. This has been coming for years, Agricultural experts have been screaming on the top of their lungs for someone to do something about it. Because the media has cut back to only cover vicious murders, missing white girls, and starlets pantie epidemic. This Passover we Jews are force to remember the importance of food and the lack there of it. As we were leaving Egypt hastily we didn't have the 7 days for our bread to rise. So we took the flat bread (Matzah) and booked it. Ever year we connect ourselves to our ancestors and reinvigorate our dedication to social justice in ending slavery and hunger. This Passover more than many in recent memory that imperative is being highlighted by the hunger crisis ravaging the world. Hunger Threatening World Stability via NY Times: Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.” That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments. In Cairo, the military is being put to work baking bread as rising food prices threaten to become the spark that ignites wider anger at a repressive government. In Burkina Faso and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, food riots are breaking out as never before. In reasonably prosperous Malaysia, the ruling coalition was nearly ousted by voters who cited food and fuel price increases as their main concerns. “It’s the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and special adviser to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. “It’s a big deal and it’s obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there’s more political fallout to come.” ...Even in Thailand, which produces 10 million more tons of rice than it consumes and is the world’s largest rice exporter, supermarkets have placed signs limiting the amount of rice shoppers are allowed to purchase. ...“This is a perfect storm,” President Elías Antonio Saca of El Salvador said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Cancún, Mexico. “How long can we withstand the situation? We have to feed our people, and commodities are becoming scarce. This scandalous storm might become a hurricane that could upset not only our economies but also the stability of our countries.” This Passover we all pray G-d give us the strength and wisdom to finally end the world hunger epidemic. RSS Feed