Hungry.

There's a lovely little article in The Guardian today about the world's shrinking food supplies.
No, no...no.
...In actuality, it's about the world's violent crises surrounding growing food costs.
The above are
Two Very Different Things.

Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, is pleading for $500M from wealthy countries for the World Food Programme. In the World Bank's assessment, "Rocketing global food prices are causing acute problems of hunger and malnutrition in poor countries and have put back the fight against poverty by seven years." The International Monetary Fund is right in line with this, stating that, "more than 20 African countries will see their trade balance worsen by more than 1% of GDP through having to pay more for food." And while it seems like Africa and their (Western-)imposed poverty are a long way off, look at post-Katrina New Orleans, muthafucka, and tell me starvation can't happen here. Look at any major US city, look at any poor US hill country, look anywhere in this country outside the golf courses and resorts and tell me that It Can't Happen Here.*

In lieu of physical food, here's some food for thought: if the IMF and World Bank are the agencies acting as canaries in our global coal-mine, something is seriously fucked up. How morally bereft are we Western peoples if we've gotta have two of the most notoriously money-grubbing organizations in the world tell us to quit being so goddamned greedy? I mean, really.

On a very relevant side note, why the hell aren't more people growing gardens? From personal experience, I know how easy it is to grow enough food for yourself, your family, and a few of your neighbors in just a smidgen of space. I mean, tending anything to fruition is a bit of a commitment, but...what a worthy commitment it is! Get seeds from Sand Hill Preservation, from Heirloom Seeds, or from the Seed Savers' Exchange, all companies committed to real food, unadultered by genetic modification or insecticides. Sand Hill Preservation also sells all manner of fowl for eggs and meat, including many breeds of geese, chickens, ducks, and etcetera that have gone out of fashion or are in risk of becoming endangered. Many cities now allow, if not outright encourage, keeping a couple of chickens (yardbirds, according to Grandad) around the house, both for their obvious culinary benefits and for the less obvious benefits of natural pest control and soil enrichment.

While I am overwhelmed by current global food trends and my inability to just fix everything, my inability to make sure no one goes to bed hungry, I/we can at least take care of ourselves and our neighbors. We can at least make a start, a dent, an honorable effort at reversing our downward spiral into starvation.

It looks like we gonna be poor and poorer for a long while yet, but poverty need not be a death sentence.

We are all we have.
Take care of each other.
Grow your food and feed as much Family as you can.

*"It Can't Happen Here," written by Sinclair Lewis in 1935, is available in full text through this link to Project Gutenberg. Read it, damn it.