A Beginner's Guide to Solving the (Global) Food Crisis

Photo by MarS. (License:Creative Commons Attribution)

Betty lives in a small town, has 2 kids and is married to her husband Jeffery. One day she was walking through her local supermarket looking for her children's favorite fruity cereal. Once she had found it, she was zapped with a case of sticker shock. She placed the box back upon the shelf and searched for the generic brand.

Tapiwa lives in Africa. She has a daughter who lately has grown much but has eaten little. Times were never really good for Tapiwa, but lately food has become even more scarce than before, especially the staple food for her, her daughter and formally her husband who died of AIDS - rice. The charity organization that once delivered rice to her town at least once a week or so now only comes maybe one time a month and if she and her daughter are lucky twice. Sometimes Tapiwa wonders if they will survive.

The above paragraphs may have been fabricated, but there is no doubt the plot of each story has happened somewhere in the world. People all over the world are suffering because of several mistakes made in the world by world leaders who used little to foresight in their decisions. These mistakes firstly include the creation of several kinds of biofuels and the government subsidies for them. Secondly, the farmers in remote countries lack decent seeds, soils and fertilizers to produce crops for the world. And thirdly, recent droughts in big food producing areas of the world such as Australia and Europe only add to the food crisis.

To address these problems, several steps need to be taken. The time has come to stop subsidizing farmers who grow corn for ethanol purposes. Ethanol is not a logical source of energy and if we continue to produce it, the current crisis is doomed to become worse. Starving the people of America for a cheaper way to get to work is not rational, and it probably never will be.

The farmers in the remote, poor and odd named countries of the world need to be supplied with acceptable quality seeds, fertilizers and soils to help ween foreign countries off of American goods. These premier quality seeds in poor countries could easily double a nations food output. Which would ease the cost of food on American pocketbooks and wallets alike. Such an undertaking would likely be best left for the United Nations to carry out but not a requirement since anything sentimental by US can only improve her image.

Also in this arena, one can make the case for so-called weather-immunization of the world's crops. A supply of water in a drought susceptible region would do wonders to protect the investments of the quality seeds and soils we have placed in poor, remote countries.

Once we have solved the problem of a growing food crisis the challenge of energy will begin to fall into place. It is time we mark many biofuels off our list as a bold undertaking that ultimately failed and move on with it as a lesson learned. Renewable energy such as solar, wind and thermal need to be applied and used. Yet, perhaps that belongs in another Beginners Guide.

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