Josette Sheeran: Hunger's Perfect Storm Is Back

[Louisiana1976]

The perfect storm for the world's most vulnerable is back -- and with a vengeance. Now bad weather and soaring food prices have been joined by a financial crisis sucking the economic life out of poor communities -- and urgent hunger is the result.

In Kenya, the cattle have already started dying. Their fly-covered carcasses litter the landscape. Soon it will be the children.

In Guatemala, children have already started dying. In rural areas, tens of thousands of families can no longer afford to eat. Malnutrition rates are rising among the very young, and poverty has become a killer. The president just made a plea for help, calling it a national calamity.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was created to be a safety net for the world. Completely voluntarily funded, we should be cyclical with needs. When times are good we shrink, but when times are hard -- such as during last year's food price crisis -- we grow to help nations feed their most vulnerable.



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josette-sheeran/hungers-perfect-storm-is_b_294705.html

[izquierdista]

1. Separating hunger from huckster

Almost as fast as the flies can land on the most vulnerable, so will the scam artists: preachers who spend 1 or 2% of donations on food and the other 98% on their "ministry", and food dumpers who see a way to make a dent in the warehouses of government subsidized crops grown in the EU and the US.

Long term solutions to inadequate food supply requires local people to grow locally adapted plants. The following video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4SYM8JsDg4 is part one of six which shows the difference between those who help and those who exploit.

[mimitabby]

2. birth control is useful too

when the land people live on can't sustain them, something must be done. We can't just continue to reproduce like there's no tomorrow.
feeding these children long enough to get them to puberty isn't such a hot idea either. then they'll have more starving children!

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. "feeding these children long enough to get them to puberty isn't such a hot idea either" OMG!

Please tell us you were being sarcastic! Otherwise...what an asshole statement.

[mimitabby]

4. I guess I'm an asshole then

we can't feed starving children and then walk away from them patting ourselves on the back. We can't continue to grow a larger and larger human population with less and less resources. How are they going to live? they have no food, no arable land, no water, no animals...
At some point (maybe when there are no more lions, gorillas, and tigers that don't live in zoos?) we're going to have to say ENOUGH HUMAN BEINGS!
it's brutal and ugly. but it's real.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Why don't you start us off? Stop eating and reduce the world's population

[vadawg]

7. lol my thought as well, how come the reduce population people never include themselves in the number

it would actually mean something if they all just offed themselves at the same time, what a political message that would be, then the rest of the world could get on with watching TV etc etc

[mimitabby]

9. you don't think I'm sick about this?

what do we do?
people that commit suicide seem saner and saner to me.
I don't hate humanity (well, maybe birthers) but i don't really know what can be done.

We all hissed and growled at China when they started the one child policy, but what other country has done a damn thing?

neither of my sons wants to have children. And I can't blame them. What are we facing here?

what is YOUR solution?

[anonymous171]

11. There is plenty of land. Do not worry. nt

[mimitabby]

12. yeah tell that to the 1000 living tigers

and the nearly extinct gorilla populations.

[anonymous171]

13. I would rather they go extinct than watch millions starve.

But maybe that's because I am not a misanthrope.

[mimitabby]

14. i would rather be dead than live in a world without

the beautiful wild creatures that god created to live on this planet with us.
that doesn't make me a misanthrope

[vadawg]

15. my solution is that people who worry about it like yourself should go first

mayby then there will be room for everyone else, personally i have no problem with you limiting your family though you do say you have sons, but when you start to want to limit others then i say you then have to go first in order to be able to force that view. I find a lot of the people who want to limit population in fact want to limit the populations of people who they think are beneath them or who they disagree with, my question is why are your sons more important than my kids, or kids that someone else might want to have..

[vadawg]

16. my solution is that people who worry about it like yourself should go first

mayby then there will be room for everyone else, personally i have no problem with you limiting your family though you do say you have sons, but when you start to want to limit others then i say you then have to go first in order to be able to force that view. I find a lot of the people who want to limit population in fact want to limit the populations of people who they think are beneath them or who they disagree with, my question is why are your sons more important than my kids, or kids that someone else might want to have..

[mimitabby]

17. this is a real nice conversation

between two people who are rich fat americans, you and I.
Nice to make comments like yours and mine, we have it so easy. we waste more money and food each day that some of the people whose lives we are discussing see and and eat each week.

I didn't say I wanted to limit anyone. All I said was that it is irresponsible to bring people back from the brink of starvation with our gifts of food to only leave them later to suffer and starve and bring forth more suffering, starving children.
It's just like the right to life people. Let's fight abortion, but what about those children who are now homeless and unloved? what about them? they're not as important, I guess.

What is the answer? I really don't know, and i have a feeling it won't be solved in my lifetime. I just know that people all over the world are digging 50 foot wells to drink a little dirty water while you and i have our "discussion" in our air conditioned homes on our fancy computers.

[vadawg]

18. i am an american by choice not birth, and nothing is worse than having some rich fat american

turning up and telling people that you cant have any more kids but i can because im in touch with the planet and your not, as i said unless your willing to sacrifice your kids dont ask someone else to sacrifice theirs..

[mimitabby]

19. I'm not asking anyone to sacrifice their children.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. Amen DU friend

[anonymous171]

6. Well,they might rise up and destroy the current global economic model

And we can't have that can we?

[SpiralHawk]

8. Here's a blog with lots of idea for American food security

Lots of articles and resources for building food security for your household and your community.

Pay attention folks. Hunger stalks the planet. Over 1 billion hungry right now, and many more soon to join the ranks...

http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[mimitabby]

10. good website, thanks

i am not the enemy. I just have a very sober outlook on this world of ours; where our fellow earthlings (you know, the plants and the animals) are being crowded out to make more room for us, and all our trash and filth (plastic, etc, etc). What's the answer besides birth control?