The Globalization of Hunger

By Yifat Susskind
Special Contribution

At first, the numbers don't seem to add up. The world produces more food than ever—enough to feed twice the global population. Yet, more people than ever suffer from hunger; and their numbers are rising. Today, 854 million people, most of them women and girls, are chronically hungry, up from 800 million in 1996. Another paradox: the majority of the world's hungry people live in rural areas, where nearly all food is grown.

World Food Day on October 16 is a good time to try and understand the conundrum of world hunger. The root of the problem is the inequitable distribution of the resources needed to either grow or buy food (also known as poverty). World Food Day is an equally good time to call out one of the main culprits of the crisis: industrial agriculture, the very type enshrined in the Farm Bill that's currently before the US Senate.

The Farm Bill has far-reaching implications for farmers and food systems the world over. It is set to perpetuate a process whereby heavily subsidized US factory farms overproduce grains that are dumped in poor countries, bankrupting local farmers, who can't compete with subsidized prices. We've begun to hear a bit about the plight of these farmers, but few people know that most of them are women. In fact, women produce most of the world's food. They do so on small plots of land, working hard to feed their families and generate enough income for things like school fees and children's shoes.

US Agribusiness: Swallowing Up Lands and Livelihoods

Visit the websites of corporations like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, who together control 65 percent of the global grain trade, and you will read that their mission is to "feed a growing world." The reality is starkly different. Big Farming is part of a larger corporate economic model that prioritizes profit-making over all else, even the basic right to food. Around the world, agribusiness bankrupts and displaces small farmers, and directs farmers to grow export crops instead of staple foods.

Not long ago, most farm inputs came from farmers themselves. Seeds were saved from the last harvest and fertilizer was recycled from animal and plant wastes. Farmers found innovative ways to control pests by harnessing local biodiversity, such as cultivating insect-repelling plants alongside food crops. While these techniques can produce enough food to feed the world and sustain its ecosystems, they don't turn a profit for agribusiness. That's why corporations developed genetically modified seeds, chemical fertilizers, and synthetic pesticides.

These inputs are both expensive for farmers and highly damaging to the natural systems on which sustainable farming and, ultimately, all life depends. As the cost of farming has gone up, farmers' incomes have gone down due to trade rules that favor large-scale agribusiness over small farmers. For example, the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Agriculture forbids governments in the Global South from providing farmers with low-cost seeds and other farm inputs, turning farmers into a "market" for international agribusiness.

Over the past 50 years, as much of the world's farmland has been consolidated in fewer and fewer hands, millions of people have been forced to abandon their rural homes. In fact, this year, for the first time ever, the number of people living in cities around the world exceeded the number living in rural areas. Most of this urban population boom is due to rural migration.

Cash Crops and Climate Change

The same practices that have devastated women farmers and their communities worldwide have contributed to environmental destruction that impacts us all.

Export agriculture is a major contributor to global warming because it requires huge inputs of petroleum: it takes 100 gallons of oil to grow just one acre of US corn. It also requires a massive global transportation infrastructure, including ports, railways, fuel pipelines, and superhighways, often built at the expense of local people and ecosystems. In many places, 40 percent of truck traffic is from hauling food over long distances. Today, food that could be grown locally is shipped, trucked, or flown half way around the planet.

Trade rules have so distorted agricultural markets that almost anywhere you go, food from the other side of the world costs less than food grown locally. So people in Kenya buy Dutch butter, while those in the Big Apple buy apples from Chile. In the US, the average bite of food travels 1,300 miles from farm to fork. The system is so wasteful that many countries import the very same foods that they export. For example, last year the US exported—and imported—900,000 tons of beef.

Asserting the Right to Food

The good news is that our global food systems may be on the verge of a great transition. Although agribusiness has unprecedented control over the world's farmers and food supply, the realities of climate change, resource depletion, and the human suffering caused by industrialized farming have led more people to start thinking about the links between food, the environment, and social justice. Around the world, demands for food sovereignty—peoples' right to control their own food systems—is at an all-time high. Even in the US, where much of the population thinks of farming as a quaint and remote activity, more and more people are realizing that if you eat, you're involved in agriculture.

The theme of this year's World Food Day is the right to food. Securing this basic human right for all people, including future generations, will require fundamental changes in the way we use the Earth's natural resources to grow and distribute food. As we face rising temperatures and declining supplies of cheap energy, change will come of necessity. It's up to us—working in partnership with small-scale farmers around the world—to demand a change for the better.

The author, Yifat Susskind, is the Communications Director, MADRE, an international women's human rights organization.

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5 Tips to Maximize Your Ability to Concentrate

The quality and quantity of work you can produce is dependent, not only on the effort you put in, but on your ability to concentrate. No matter how hard to you try, if your brain isn’t performing well, you won’t be as productive as you should be.

Although many of the factors affecting concentration are beyond your control, a large amount is determined by behavior. These 5 tips will help you get your mind functioning at peak performance so you can excel at highly creative activities like writing, brainstorming, and strategic thinking.

1. Get Your Rest. It might seem obvious, but the biggest factor affecting concentration is rest. If you aren’t well rested your mind will be scattered and lethargic. Avoid this by making sure you get the right amount of sleep at the right time. Set a regular bed time for yourself and use an evening routine to wind down so you don’t have trouble sleeping.

It’s also important not to sleep too much. Oversleeping disrupts your natural rhythm and leads to grogginess. Avoid this by having a set wake up time. If you have to choose, I’ve found that it’s better to get a little less sleep than too much. If you end up tired, your body will compensate by helping you get to sleep earlier the following night.

2. Make a Plan. When you sit down to work without a plan, it’s easy to get caught up in crutch activities like checking email and browsing the web. Without a purpose, your mind will be pulled in several different directions. Instead of devoting all your attention to one important task, you’ll find yourself distracted by a variety of nagging thoughts.

To avoid this, make a clear plan of action beforehand. If you need to check email, resolve to fire through it as quickly as possible, then close your inbox and move on to your most important task. I like to use a morning run or walk to form my action plan for the day, but another great time to do it is the night before. By making a plan, you decide where your mental energy is allocated instead of allowing to be dispersed randomly.

3. Eat Light and Healthy. Nothing slows down the mind and body like a big greasy meal. Overeating puts a huge load of digestion on the body, sapping strength from the mind. Maximize your ability to concentrate by eating light and healthy meals. As Thomas Jefferson said, we rarely regret eating too little. It’s likely you’ll find that you need less food to satisfy you than you think. If you run out of energy, keep some healthy snacks on hand to give yourself a quick boost.

4. Exercise. The body has pent up energy that needs to be used. If you don’t exercise regularly, this energy can manifest itself in the form of a distracted mind. The best way to improve your concentration all day long is by exercising first thing in the morning. This will clear your head, give you a chance to reflect on the day ahead, and allow your body to sweat out impurities. Afterwards you’ll feel rejuventated, cleansed, and ready to take on tough problems.

5. Take Breaks and Mix Up Your Environment. Stagnation and fatigue are other factors that can negatively affect concentration. When you’ve been working too long in the same place, you start to get stir crazy and lose focus. The best remedy for this is taking breaks and switching up your work environment. When you find yourself losing focus, get up and take a walk. This will get your heart rate up, increase your alertness, and give your mind a chance to work on the problem internally.

It can also be helpful to work in different places. Instead of being chained to your desk all day, make a point of moving around. In a typical day I might spend time working in my apartment, the local library, and at a nearby coffee shop. Each time I move to a new location the change in scenery refreshes me and increases my motivation to work.

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Employees Expose Fox News Distortions

American Medical Association Opposes the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937

American Medical Association
Bureau of Legal Medicine and Legislation
Chicago, July 10, 1937
Hon. Pat Harrison
Chairman, Committee on Finance, United States Senate
Washington D.C.

SIR: I have been instructed by the board of trustees of the American Medical Association to protest on behalf of the association against the enactment in its present form of so much of H.R. 6906 as relates to the medicinal use of cannabis and its preparations and derivatives. The act is entitled "An Act to impose an occupational excise tax upon certain dealers in marihuana, to impose a transfer tax upon certain dealings in marihuana, and to safeguard the revenue therefrom by registry and recording."

Cannabis and its preparations and derivatives are covered in the bill by the term "marihuana" as that term is defined in section 1, paragraph (b). There is no evidence, however, that the medicinal use of these drugs has caused or is causing cannabis addiction. As remedial agents, they are used to an inconsiderable extent, and the obvious purpose and effect of this bill is to impose so many restrictions on their use as to prevent such use altogether. Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is impossible to foresee.

The American Medical Association has no objection to any reasonable regulation of the medicinal use of cannabis and its preparations and derivatives. It does protest, however, against being called upon to pay a special tax, to use special order forms in order to procure the drug, to keep special records concerning its professional use and to make special returns to the Treasury Department officials, as a condition precedent to the use of cannabis in the practice of medicine. in the several States, all separate and apart from the taxes, order forms, records, and reports required under the Harrison Narcotics Act with reference to opium and coca leaves and their preparations and derivatives.

If the medicinal use of cannabis calls for Federal legal regulation further than the legal regulation that now exists, the drug can without difficulty be covered under the provisions of the Harrison Narcotics Act by a suitable amendment. By such a procedure the professional use of cannabis may readily be controlled as effectively as are the professional uses of opium and coca leaves, with less interference with professional practice and less cost and labor on the part of the Treasury Department.

It has been suggested that the inclusion of cannabis into the Harrison Narcotics Act would jeopardize the constitutionality of that act, but that suggestion has been supported by no specific statements of its legal basis or citations of legal authorities.

Wm. C. Woodward,

Legislative Counsel

[Whereupon at 11:37 AM Monday, July 12, 1937, the subcommittee adjourned.]

This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/AMA_opposes_1937.html

Yamaoka says, "Wii user isn't a hardcore user."

I better put my battle armor on because it's time for our weekly segment titled "Time to go ape over one quote from a major game developer employee!" This week's segment involves Akira Yamaoka, chief composer for Konami, taking a brief jab at the Nintendo Wii when talking about Silent Hill V on Game | Life.

The outrage stemmed from this quote, "No plans. The Wii user isn't a hardcore user." Trust me, if there's one battle you don't want to wade through, it's calling the entire Wii crowd a bunch of casual gamers. There are the hardcore gamers who own Wiis. Also there are "hardcore" games available for the Wii but I think these types of titles will be only sprinkled onto the gaming market every so often.

Nonetheless, what do you folks think? For you ones with a Wii, do you think it stinks to be labeled as a casual gamer? Also here's a good clip of Yamaoka talking about if Silent Hill V will head elsewhere, which sparked his comment about the Wii:

WN: What is the future of the Silent Hill series?

AY: We're making Silent Hill 5 for next-gen consoles. Are there any other platforms besides that? [laughter]

WN: There's the Wii.

AY: Ah, the Wii. Wiiiiiiiiii... Silent Hill Wii. Can we do it? Will players like it?

WN: Yeah! There's a lot of potential there, using the remote as a flashlight, or a knife...

AY: Yeah, there's potential.

WN: But no plans.

AY: No plans. The Wii user isn't a hardcore user.