Dragonfall Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 So, basically, despite having plenty of spare land and no shortage of resources ... Are you serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Are you serious? You need to get out more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Do we do that? Yes............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Yes............ Any links to some details? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Any links to some details? 1.3 million starving people in drought hit Ethiopia yet they are still growing and exporting coffee to the UK. Obviously it’s not just our fault for buying it, it’s their fault for growing it instead of food for their own people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 1.3 million starving people in drought hit Ethiopia yet they are still growing and exporting coffee to the UK. Obviously it’s not just our fault for buying it, it’s their fault for growing it instead of food for their own people. Coffee... Are you suggesting that they could have eaten the coffee beans in order to avoid a famine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Coffee... Are you suggesting that they could have eaten the coffee beans in order to avoid a famine... No I'm saying they could have grown food instead of coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaFoot Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Any links to some details? When you buy your fruit and veg, take a moment to look at the labels. While parts of a country are exporting food (and other goods) to us, another part may be starving. Some of those exports are as essential as 'fresh' flowers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Any links to some details? The link between poverty, hunger, and vulnerability to exploitation seems self evident. The global demand for ever cheaper food has ironically led to greater food privation among the poorest of the developing world. Twenty-five years ago, while a million Ethiopians died of starvation, they exported beans to the United Kingdom. When famine threatened Sudan in 1989, they exported almost half a million tons of sorghum to the European Community for animal feed! Recently, in 2009, people in Burma, Haiti, Ethiopia and the Sudan starved while food they grew was exported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 When you buy your fruit and veg, take a moment to look at the labels. While parts of a country are exporting food (and other goods) to us, another part may be starving. Some of those exports are as essential as 'fresh' flowers. I looked at the coffee issue. It's not as simple as was being suggested, it's their primary economic export and primary industry, which works fine when there is no massive drought. It's not like in the case where there is a drought they can rip up thousands of acres of coffee plantation and plant corn (it probably couldn't even grow there). The problem is the viscously low price they are paid for the coffee which means they can't then import food because they can't afford it. Not importing coffee because they were starving would actually make it worse, they'd have no income at all, and the same argument applies to any cash crop that couldn't actually be eaten to alleviate the local starvation. If there is a (partial) solution to any of this, it's to pay a fair price for the things we import. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.