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POPSSo much food. So much hunger. "David Beckmann, president of the antihunger group Bread for the World, boiled the causes down into one unifying theme " 'a lack of give a damn.'"
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POPSFood Is Power coupled with the rising cost of fossil fuels, have already blighted the environments of millions. The poor can often no longer afford a balanced diet. Global food prices increased an average of 43 percent since 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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POPSThe REAL "Inconvenient Truth": Cell Phones and Bee Colony Collapse
Honey bees are in effect saying, "Can you hear us now?" The consequences of inaction on this are real and enormous. But unlike oil, coal or "carbon emissions", not even Al Gore or Obama will advocate giving up or curbing cell phones or towers, even though the hard facts on this are much more threatening to agriculture, and by consequence human life, the economy of foods, and the entire eco-system than the mythical "global warming" doomsday scenerio. Cell phones are America's and the world's unnecessary CONVENIENCE that apparently are not even being debated by the Climate people, willing to sacrifice the pollination of food crops by honey bees for cell chat. The buzz is real, but governments are not moving to regulate, and are likely too afraid of consumers who do not care about consequences any more than those who throw fast food trash out the window of their cars. There is also hard evidence of radiation from cell phones directly damaging human health.
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POPS ObamaFood Speaker Pelosi would not call food stores, grocery stores, the shipping industry and farmers greedy. She would call them immoral! And to keep 'em all honest, to keep 'em all honest Obama then would create competition, real competition with a public option for you to buy food from. Food co-ops! Imagine if the government was in the business of distributing and getting to you food at an affordable price. And when the rational among us say, "It's impossible to do this. The idea we'll destroy the best food delivery system in the world," the people that say that then are criticized, mocked and vilified. There's nothing wrong with the American food delivery system. There's nothing wrong with the price. People get what they want. In fact, the food stamp program. Look at the obesity problem. And they would say, "The attacks on the ObamaFood program are racist," and so forth. So here we are. We have a totally flawed plan that's obviously a mess, still being treated as "reform."
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POPSMillions in Nepal facing hunger as climate changes Oxfam recommended in its report that the government and international organizations intervene to ease food shortages in hill and mountain districts and provide assistance during the upcoming planting season. The government should encourage farmers to try new crop varieties and improve water management, and it should integrate climate change strategies into government planning. Ang Dawa, a member of a parliamentary committee tackling climate change, said its effects were already prevalent in Nepal, especially in the mountainous north. She said her village in the foothills of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, was covered in several feet (dozens of centimeters) of snow during the winter when she was a child, but now there is hardly any snow.
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POPSPepsiCo Chooses to Continue Using GE Ingredients Despite Evidence of Harm
The list of evil corporations grows longer. What else would you label a corporation that continues to use ingredients proven to cause toxicity in the kidney and liver? They sure as hell cannot be considered beneficial or benevolent. US law does not require GE foods be tested for toxicity so PepsiCo will continue to use the material without conscience. To quote Pepsi's response to the proposal: "We believe that genetically-modified products can play a role in generating positive economic, social and environmental contributions to societies around the world; particularly in times of food shortages." PepsiCo’s belief system (making money no matter what) doesn’t fit in with lab test results therefore disregard the tests. Incredibly, Monsanto had this to say: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job." That’s my definition of an evil corporation.
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POPSClimate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security “We will pay for this one way or another,” Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine and the former head of the Central Command, wrote recently in a report he prepared as a member of a military advisory board on energy and climate at CNA, a private group that does research for the Navy. “We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. “Or we will pay the price later in military terms,” he warned. “And that will involve human lives.”
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POPSNo Coffee In Caracas?
expropriated land as part of his socialist revolution. For Venezuela to experience a shortage of coffee is like Obama experiencing a shortage of lies. Very difficult to imagine let alone arrange. Nationalization and shortages go together in the same way that Chicago and corruption go together. Find one, find the other. Naturally Chavez refuses to take the blame for his absurd policies. Neither does Obama. In typical socialist fashion, each blames others. Critics point the finger at price and foreign exchange controls that have slowed investments in expansion and maintenance and eroded productivity. The government blames shortages on speculation by the private sector. In a nutshell this is Obama’s health care plan. Conjure up a problem in the private sector, blame it on speculating capitalists, and use both as a reason to nationalize the entire system. This is not the first time Chavez ran afoul of Economics 101. Some years back he was already sticking his semi-illiterate
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POPSCaritas in Veritate, p. 27 ...What is missing, in other words, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs, and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility, nationally and internationally.
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POPSThe Food Crisis Will Be Back More than 1 billion people, or every one in six, are starving, according to a report issued by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on June 19. The number of the hungry increased worldwide by about 100 million in 2008 alone, a hike of 11 percent. "The silent hunger crisis...poses a serious risk for world peace and security," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/07/content_11668272.htm Global warming, top soil degradation, and water mis-appropriation can all be linked to the decreases in production that in turn lead to food inflation. One Stanford study stated that rice and corn harvest has decreased 20-40% as global temperatures continue to rise. Lester Brown states that for every degree C the earth warms above normal, production yields decrease by 10%. http://www.examiner.com/x-9508-Honolulu-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Environmental-factors-to-blame-for-rising-food-crisis
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POPS “The Great Satan is Fomenting Revolt” media is, as expected, already playing the “outside interference” card. While I understand (though disagree) with those who advocate a restrained verbal response from the administration, the argument that finger-wagging rhetoric will only serve to antagonize the regime misses the point. The “great Satan is fomenting revolt” nonsense is, quite simply, unavoidable (as it is to be expected from Chavistas, who pin inclement weather, food shortages, and poor baseball results on the golpistas up north). To crib from Jerry Rubin, if there isn’t Western involvement, if there isn’t American meddling, they’ll simply invent it. Michael J. Totten - 06.16.2009
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POPSGlobal warming causes 300,000 deaths a year Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability". If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states: • 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases • 20m more people will fall into poverty • 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change. Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . "Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. ".
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POPSGreenwash of the Week: Monsanto "Imagine" Right now, there is probably no other company that is doing more to endanger the health of this planet, and it's inhabitants, than Monsanto. With Nazi-like attitude, they are leading the world in shear destructive evil greed. First they were a drug company, and then they expanded to become a drugs and genetic engineering company, and now Monsanto is attempting to acquire water rights in countries with water shortages in a move to control the people's basic means of survival, and production of the global food supply. Giant transnational corporations like Monsanto, in collusion with the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, seek to commodify and privatize the world's water and put it on the open market for sale to the highest bidder. Millions of the world's citizens are being deprived of this fundamental human right, and vast ecological damage is being wrought as massive industry claims water once used to sustain communities and replenish nature.
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