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The Forum > Article Comments > Hungry world: a silent crisis calls for urgent action > Comments

Hungry world: a silent crisis calls for urgent action : Comments

By Marshall Bouton, published 21/7/2009

Developed nations should reform aid and launch a new Green Revolution.

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If you really want to help the poor in these poorest areas, perhaps
its time to provide these folks with decent family planning, for
its exactly in these areas where they are forced to pop em out
like rabbits. It doesn't matter how much food they grow, even
more hungry babies will follow. It is precisely in these areas,
where we are adding 80 million a year to our global population.

Fact is that alot of these countries are now leasing out large
chunks of rural land to other countries such as China and various
Middle Eastern interests, to grow food not for the poor, but
for their own populations.
Posted by Yabby, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 11:56:28 AM
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This article is basically a call to arms on aid that really says nothing. A piece of propoganda, albeit about a worthy subject. One of the main problems of international aid at the moment is to figure out how to make it work. As has long been recognised direct aid in food and money seems to make things worse, rather than better. The western countries should do something, of course, but what? The article says agriculture first but hasn't this been tried before? Effective aid programs are very hard to get right and this article does not help. Less propaganda. More thought.
Posted by Curmudgeon, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 12:11:50 PM
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Yabby, population growth is a major issue in Africa, but offering family planning alone is unlikely to be the answer. Throughout the world (China perhaps excepted) reductions in the fertility rate (births per woman) has come as a result of increased standard of living. Providing education and economic opportunities, particularly to women, reduces family size and delays birth of the first child. Achieving that will be a challenge in Africa in its current state of corrupt governance, lack of infrastructure and instability. Increasing prosperity by increasing the stability of agricultural production could go a long way to helping.

There is absolutely a crisis looming for much of Africa. The population is increasing and agricultural production is not. World food prices are going to continue to increase because currently production just about equals consumption. There only needs to be a crop disaster in a major exporting nation to squeeze food supply. Africa, being poor, will not be able to compete for product.

As the author correctly says current US food aid policy fills the gap, but doesn’t assist long term production increases. Current European agricultural policy actively works against transformation of African agriculture. What is needed is investment in the crops grown in Africa in dryland situations, investment in the management of pests issues peculiar to Africa, reform in agriculture, better access to markets, more stability, better governance and increased economic opportunity so that those who want to leave the land can, rather than dividing the land into ever smaller parcels.

Where should we start?
Posted by Agronomist, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 12:33:48 PM
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I am completely shocked but I actually agree with Curmudgeon! (??!) The article sounds like a fairly good description of limits to growth to me but the solutions it gives are just vague hand waving.

The problem is not just Africa. Look at India's population trends versus agricultural production trends - or China's. Look at Australia's population versus agriculture trends. Put declining oil and phosphate into the equation and then look a second time.

Soon the hand waving saying "we have to do something" will be replaced with hand waving accompanied by "isn't it terrible, just terrible" as the famines and associated chaos begin.
Posted by michael_in_adelaide, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 12:53:20 PM
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Not the worst article I've seen. Probably could have included more on upside of food production in Asia, especially India and China.

Large populations = lots of food. They've defied simplistic limits to growth understandings of the systems theorists by harnessing not only technology but man power. Actually, that's just economics in action.

Africa is a problem. They will need aid for many years. Family planning is good, but not in the hands of feral anti-populationists who would rather dive in to a river to save a cedar tree than a drowning baby.
Posted by Cheryl, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 1:29:11 PM
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Yabbys right. There are just too many mouths to feed. The longer the problem of birth control is put off the worse the situation will get.

Religions seem to be the main culptrit in stopping birth control.

They would rather millions die than compromise on their ideology on birth control.
Posted by Banjo, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 4:11:39 PM
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Elite "Green" Westerners, who have clamourously opposed many recent developments in food technology - usually from a knee-jerk, pseudo-leftist platform, with its concomitant, rather childish good-guys-bad-guys mindset - haven't helped, either.

Witness Greenpeace and Friend of the Earth's despicable campaign in Zambia.

"some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things" - Norman Borlaug
Posted by Clownfish, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 4:37:01 PM
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* reductions in the fertility rate (births per woman) has come as a result of increased standard of living. Providing education and economic opportunities, particularly to women, reduces family size and delays birth of the first child*

Agronomist, just think about this rationally for a minute. If we
stuck you and your partner out in the sticks, with no money, no tv
and no family planning of any kind, chances are pretty high that
you would land up with a tribe of kids as well.

Fact is that women in the third world are screaming for just the
very basics, but we have major interference here, above all from
the religious lobby.

Many medical services in places like Africa are run by the Catholics.
When women want their tubes tied, or an implant, or even condoms,
they are turned away, being told its all evil. They finally need
a REAL choice.

Of course raising their standard of living helps, because finally
they might have some money to do something about their situation
of depending on charity for these things, as they do right now.

All I am saying is give all women a choice. You would be amazed
when they have that choice, how they decide to change their lives.

If you want to produce more food in Africa, so give people written
land titles and microfinance, so that they can buy fertilisers,
small equipment etc.
Posted by Yabby, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 5:59:26 PM
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The IMF and World Bank have to take responsibility for a lot of hunger in Africa. Take Rwanda, for example, incredibly fertile and a place where a family could at least grow enough food for itself, no matter how poor - but the international money bullies insisted that produce had to be exported not eaten. Result - very hungry Rwandans in a land of plenty while overfed Americans and Europeans eat their food.
Posted by Candide, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 7:34:14 PM
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Yabby, there have been family planning initiatives in Africa for nearly 40 years now. Family planning alone does not appear to be sufficient to reduce fertility rates. There is however a very good relationship between per capita GDP and fertility rates, regardless of religion. Israel and Saudi Arabia seem to be exceptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fertility_rate.jpg

In Italy, where about 90% of the population profess Catholicism and 30% are active, they just ignore the Church's teaching about contraception.
Posted by Agronomist, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 8:47:50 PM
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The Green movement have us now using land for bio-fuels.This will accelerate the crisis.There only needs to be a small change in climate for a major catastrophe to happen.Global cooling will be far more disasterous.

A finite planet cannot support human expodential growth for much longer.Help to developing countries must have strings attached or we are just making the problem worse.
Posted by Arjay, Tuesday, 21 July 2009 10:46:28 PM
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I love the comment from Agronomist: Italians have religion sorted. Catholic teaching cannot harm you if you ignore it!
Like all Christians they have worked out that it is one thing to belong, it is quite another to actually believe and follow the rantings of the priesthood, especially when provably wrong. There is ample evidence that the "conservative" approach of abstinance education, no condoms, et utterly fails to stop teen sex and disease. This evidence is of course ignored by the faithful (except, it seems the Italians!)
Birth rates will decline when education is universal, women are free to pursue a free life without dependancy on men, and the basics of shelter, security food and water are provided. This requires non-corrupt governance and the end of exploitation by the west. I doubt this will actually happen.
Breeding like rabbits and encouraging ignorance will lead to nature's solution: starvation and disease. Ironically it seems that the biggest Social Darwinists are the church!
Posted by Ozandy, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 11:08:11 AM
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*In Italy, where about 90% of the population profess Catholicism and 30% are active, they just ignore the Church's teaching about contraception.*

Agronomist, yes indeed the Italians ignore the teachings of their
church, because they can afford to and have options. Not so
for many parts of Africa, where they depend on charity.

There is still a huge unmet need in the third world for family
planning, not just in Africa, but also places like the Phillipines
and many others.

You are of course free to educate yourself about these things,
the Guttmacher Institute is not a bad place to start.

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/newsrelease260200.html

mentions Sub Saharan Africa

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2009/04/15/IB_MWCNP.pdf

is about the Phillipines, where half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Next thing they will
try backyard abortions, which kills huge numbers of third world
women.

Not everyone has the many cushy choices that you have Agronomist,
when it comes to family planning. My point is, give them that
choice.

The West has alot to answer for. First we send boatloads of food,
then planeloads of vaccines, then are amazed when the population
skyrockets with no good family planning in place. Duh.
Posted by Yabby, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 2:59:23 PM
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Let me just write about Africa,as it is a country that is well known to me,and this I Will state without any fear of contridiction,that I say,that Africa before colonisation,did not have all the problems that it has to face in this century,so the greedy capitilistic invaders raped and plundered Africa,and did sweet .......?,to help and improve or supply the knowhow for the people whose land they raped and plundered,but left with all that they could take,so do not blame the African people,who now have to be put up with their own Dictators and war lords who are ruling and wrecking Africa
Posted by Baas, Monday, 27 July 2009 11:07:42 AM
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