Food Aid...

You know, I've been reading quite a bit about the world around me these last few days, and in so doing I have come to realise something- we are a nation of fat, greedy, stupid and ignorant people. Ignorant as in vulgar and ignorant as in unaware of the world around us.

At some point, we as a nation need to stand up and be counted. We need to intercede for those who cannot speak for themselves and we need to be heard where they are not. For example, the Famine in Sudan (see below for a rant). Here we are, in a totally utopian society by their standard of living and yet, we still see fit not to send them technology, or money, but rather food aid. Keeping the poor poor and allowing us to live with a clear(ish) conscience. Well, yet again folks, America is to blame.

Little known to the rest of the world is this- America has a clause in its food Aid Laws, that 80% of it MUST, by LAW, be sourced INSIDE the US's borders. That means that only 20% or less is grown by the poor of the world themselves. Now tell me I'm crazy if you want, but surely there must be a way we can help people climb out of poverty and still support our own farmers etc?

Britain, once again, and the EU indirectly, have taken the lead on this, and now 50% or more of EU food aid is grown in the countries it is destined for. Look at it this way- it is easier, cheaper and more effective as a poverty remedy if grain grown two miles away is sold cheaply to rural communities, rather than grain grown 2000miles away being sent and taken by gangs, dictatorships and villains, making the poorest of the poor miss out yet again.

Sadly, due to America's COLOSSAL grains and corns industries, the EU give only 24% of international food aid. America give 71% or so, so we have a grand total of only 28% of food aid overall being grown in the countries so desperate to be growing their own food. I read in TIME magazine the other day that a "typical" american family will spend $370 on food per week, for a family of five. In Chad, where many sudanese refugees are now being settled, the average spend of a five person family for a week is $1.23cents, and that is with free water from Oxfam, and barely enough food to keep them alive. Naturally, American over-indulgence meant the american family spend most money on drinks- beer, coke, fruit juice etc, coming to nearly $122 alone. The tap water in America is safe, clean and free (perhaps unlike here for long) but they spent a third of their average weekly spend on drinks. Says a lot I reckon.

Again, german and french families where more conservative, spending closer to $200 apiece, but rememver that is equivalent to about £105 these days, so although they didn't feature a British Family, the french and german equivelent was close to where I would say the average family of 5 has their spending on groceries, perhaps a little less in the UK as our food is disproportionately cheap anyway (see Tesco for examples- beans at 8p, lemonade at 7p).

Back to the point though- if we were to give the poor of the world methods, farming equipment and advice on irrigation and dams, then we would be able to halve our food aid in no time, and although food aid is fantastic in times of famine (see Joseph when he was put in charge of grain in Egypt some 4000 years ago, find it at the end of Genesis, chapter 41 or thereabouts) it is not something which will somehow rescue the countries in need of it from the quagmire of poverty induced fatigue and loss of productivity.