Dear Editor,
Today the world is witnessing an unprecedented decline in the production of food to feed a starving human population; instead food is being produced to feed machines. The general consensus is that expensive oil is the culprit behind the shift in focus from production of food for humans to machines, such as the rush towards biofuel, which has taken away food from the hungry.
Producing foods that should be used to feed a starving world, instead of feeding them to machines is not just unethical but immoral. Biofuel diversion is threatening world food production, driving up food prices and is threatening the lives of billions of people. Thousands of people die “avoidably” each day from food deprivation.
As worldwide food reserves are at their lowest in 35 years, and prices are expected to stay high for the foreseeable future, this man-made famine, if not given the attention it deserves will cause unimaginable problems. The New York Times has recently reported that “rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world’s largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export. The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor around the world and raised fears of civil unrest” (New York Times, March 29, 2008).
Hunger should transcend partisan politics; our Parliament must speak with one voice on how this issue should be brought under control, in a sustainable manner. I implore the Government of Guyana to carefully consider any idea of converting prime agricultural lands for the growing of food to feed machines, but instead put those lands under production to feed the people of Guyana, and the region.
Although these are arguments for biofuel, I don’t think that the next generation of fuel has been given as much attention, especially when one considers the countervailing risks associated with biofuels, such as, the environmental impacts of monocultures, increased rainforest clearance in developing countries (such as Guyana) for growing biofuel stock, negative impacts on food prices, higher costs than other forms of carbon reductions, harsh agricultural labour conditions, and increased use of genetically engineered crops. The question then is; do the means justify the end?
There is a song by Morgan Heritage that asks “how can we see so much hungry people out on the streets and not speak”. Stop using food to feed machines in a starving world.
Yours faithfully,
Sharma Solomon
