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Hungering for a True Thanksgiving
"In the next 60 seconds, 10 children will die of hunger," says a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) online video. It continues, "For the first time in humanity, over 1 billion people are chronically hungry."
The WFP launched the Billion for a Billion campaign this week, urging the 1 billion people who use the Internet to help the billion who are hungry. But if you think that hunger is far from our shores, here is some food for thought ... and action: The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report Monday stating that in 2008 one in six households in the U.S. was "food insecure," the highest number since the figures were first gathered in 1995.
Economist Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System," told me he was "gobsmacked" by the U.S. hunger numbers, which he finds appalling: "The reason that we have this huge increase in hunger in the United States, as around the world, isn't because there isn't enough food around. Actually, we produced a pretty reliable solid crop last year. ... The reason people go hungry is because of poverty."
In addition to the online campaign, the United Nations is hosting the World Summit on Food Security in Rome this week, hoping to unite world leaders on the cause of eliminating hunger. Patel remarked on the U.N. summit, "They're making all the right sounds about hunger around the world, but as some of the activists outside that summit are saying, poor people can't eat promises."
Almost 700 people from 93 countries, many of whom are small-scale food producers, have gathered outside the U.N. summit. They are there in behalf of the People's Food Sovereignty Forum, and they are pushing for small-scale, organic, sustainable food-sovereignty and food-security programs, as opposed to large-scale agribusiness with its dependence on genetically modified organisms and chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Michelle Obama said last March when planting the White House's organic kitchen garden, "It is so important for them [children] to get regular fruits and vegetables in their diets, because it does have nutrients, it does make you strong, it is all brain food." The first lady of the U.S. made the point that a homegrown, organic garden is a sustainable and affordable way to strengthen family food security.
This has led some to wonder, then, why her husband has appointed Islam Siddiqui to be the U.S. chief agricultural negotiator. Siddiqui is currently vice president for science and regulatory affairs for CropLife America, the main pesticide industry trade association. According to the Pesticide Action Network of North America, "This position will enable him to keep pushing chemical pesticides, inappropriate biotechnologies, and unfair trade arrangements on nations that do not want and can least afford them." It was CropLife's mid-America division that circulated an e-mail to industry members after Michelle Obama's garden announcement, saying, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator, and I shudder."
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, engaged in a 24-hour hunger strike over the weekend, before the food security summit kicked off. He said in a statement, "We have the technical means and the resources to eradicate hunger from the world so it is now a matter of political will, and political will is influenced by public opinion." Diouf has estimated that it would take $44 billion per year to end hunger globally, compared with the less than $8 billion pledged recently to that goal. Juxtapose those numbers with the amount being spent by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the U.S. has spent on average about $265 million per day in Afghanistan since the invasion of that country in 2001 (which is a much lower estimate than that provided by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others). Even at that rate, five months of military spending by the U.S. would meet Diouf's goal, and that would be if the U.S. were the sole contributor.
Consider pausing this Thanksgiving, which for many in the U.S. is a major feast, to reflect on the 10 children who die of hunger every minute, and how your elected officials are spending hundreds of billions in public funds on war.Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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Show AllNow that Obama's missed a "chance" for Armastice, this year, as well!
"According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the U.S. has spent on average about $265 million per day in Afghanistan since the invasion of that country in 2001 (which is a much lower estimate than that provided by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others). Even at that rate, five months of military spending by the U.S. would meet Diouf's goal, and that would be if the U.S. were the sole contributor."
You read something that is completely unsurprising yet your jaw drops anyway. From an avowed atheist; "God Bless Amy Goodman". She and her whole team should be producing segments for 60 minutes or hosting Meet the Press.
This is a very powerful article which displays the symptoms of public ignorance. Business goes on with Big Agri raking in the profits while people poison themselves with "cheap" crap and we're supposed to be thankful for that? If Big Agri could be reined in, more small farms and more labor would be the norm and then people would actually express their true understanding of Thanksgiving with gratitude straight from the heart.
I have some things to be thankful for such as keeping slim over the years and staying as far away from processed junk, overcoming depression and emotional stress, and most of all having the heart to vote for Nader who would not have allowed for the persecution of Afghan sweethearts. Sometimes, I get confronted by ignorant remarks such as "Oh Jenny, you be grateful that Bush and Obama are keeping America safe from the terrorists, blah-blah-blah !". All I can say is that if this cornfed electorate would have voted with their hearts and minds as most folks here on CD did, we would actually have a real deal to be grateful for rather than being told to shut up and accept a fake deal.
Dear lord, please bless this food which we are about to stuff down our throats and help[ fuc^] those not as fortunate [we are entitled] as we. Protect our troops[ trained killers] and bring them home safely. Amen.
now, lets eat to the point of puking, drink some beer and watch young men in plastic armor beat the shit out of each other for a few hours.
God bless america and nowhere else.
Sorry, would you prefer some overly complex incite associated with this day? don't worry there will be plenty of that, with leftovers. enjoy.
You're so right!
I think I'll fast this year.
An excellent idea! If you want to add some zing to your commitment, figure what you might have spent on a day's food (divide your weekly shopping budget by 7 for instance)and donate that amount to a homeless shelter, or food bank, or meals on wheels. That way your noble gesture serves not only you but also those in need.
Poet
I won't be fasting, but I don't participate in Thanksgiving any more. It was different when the economy was good, and everyone had a good time with the bloody marys and appetizers, even arguing politics, even arguing religion, with the idea that after Thanksgiving we'd all go back to work on Monday and life as usual. Now there's no certainty that the job will still be there on Monday, and everything I ever argued with my family has come to pass, though they're oblivious. It's depressing to think of spending the day with relatives who will bore through my ears with Republican so-called free market crapology, grill me about whether or not I've been saved by Jesus yet, discuss Palin's new book and how much they love it (whether or not they've read it), while eating the results of that annual mass movement to buy the non-local non-nutritious ingredients for gloppy green bean casserole, canned cranberry sauce, manhandled turkeys born of artificial insemination, and corn syrup pecan pie. Now that my parents are gone, I just tell my brothers I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving. I stock up on vegetarian food supplies and stay in that day.
Food health should be a RIGHT, just as much as clean air or water, or education or adequate health care. Should the market (aka profitability) decide who lives or who dies?
You're so right!
"Consider pausing this Thanksgiving, which for many in the U.S. is a major feast, to reflect on the 10 children who die of hunger every minute, and how your elected officials are spending hundreds of billions in public funds on war."
I "reflect" every single day on those bastards in D.C.
And then there's the mass slaughter of turkeys -- bred to be so large that they require artificial insemination to procreate.
Thanksgiving can still be a good time for families to get together, at least the 5 out of 6 "food secure" ones, but the glut is sure hard to stomach.
Sadly, even if the war was stopped today, the money saved probably wouldn't go to help the hungry.
Economist Raj Patel says, "the reason people go hungry is because of poverty." Duh. The real reason people go hungry is because of the greed of capitalism.
Raj has it half correct. The other half he fails to mention is the apathy of those more fortunate to the suffering of not so fortunate. It is infuriating to contemplate how much of our money is wasted on death and destruction which could be otherwise be put to much better use.
It is also infuriating to see how many throw up their hands as if to say that if the stinkin' governments don't do anything to help than neither can they. If you are able to feed your self three square meals a day, know that there are many others who cannot do so.
If you can donate some food or money to a food bank, homeless shelter, or meals on wheels (to name just three examples of philanthropies who make an effort to actually do something about hunger) then by all means do so. If you can't do that can you donate some time and energy to help such organizations? If you can't do that can you pray or meditate for the success of such efforts? It all counts.
Poet
Great suggestions all. I donate year-round, not just during the holidays. It's tragic though, and absolutely inadequate to expect charities to solve the problems of poverty and hunger, when we all know that the capitalist system perpetuates them.
"Let them die and decrease the world surplus population!" The fact is: 'they' don't exist as human beings. Just as the Europeans settled in this pristine land that was totally devoid of 'humans'. Those natives? What natives! Just animals to be tamed, if not destroyed. All this hype of: IF this! IF that! Yes Virginia- if pink elephants could fly, then... These IF's are the IF's of delusion, mixed with personal security. How often will you here such IF's from those sentenced to living hell? Never! It is now as it was in the beginning: Those in power have zero concern for those with none- expect when those with none might attempt to gain a little power. At that point they need to be 're-calibrated'- to be reminded that they are nothing. Thanksgiving and Christmas could be opportunities for those who have to give to those who have not. But as any good Capitalist knows, that is tantamount to socialism. Those who have not? They don't exist.
Okay djprof, I get your bitter sarcasm and I understand how easy it is to blame those in power and authority for everything that is wrong.
So why should we give a care about the less fortunate other than to be glad we aren't one of them? Amy and many other advocates for the less fortunate seek to appeal to our compassion for the common humanity we share with them and that's great as far as it goes, but after reading the statistic of 10 children dying of malnutrition every minute something else occurred to me.
How many of those deaths were of possible Bach's, Mozart's, or Beethoven's? How many Edison's, Tesla's, Marconi's, or Philo Farnsworth's never realized their potential? Were there any Shakespeare's, Goethe's, or Tolstoy's who died in the last month, week, or 24 hours?
The monumental destruction and waste of humanity robs us all of whatever the potential contribution they might have made to all of us who survived. This problem belongs to all of us and its solution should be the concern that motivates some sort of action from of all of us. We can all support food banks, homeless shelters, meals on wheels and similar efforts aimed at reducing or eliminating this scourge.
Poet
It does seem our country has been in more wars with another country at one time or other, so it appears our good Christians would rather kill people than feed them. Wars made the duPonts wealthy from the gun powder made.
It should be obvious,but- there's always a but- your
American empire that began with zealots, moved to indigenous genocide, then your "civil"war- an internecine genocide- that put your capitalists ( as in "Money for Nothing- Chicks for Free": the same that are rich at your expense
today) in the drivers seat until now.
Now your "precious America" ,which is in fact the basis of
your national and personal self esteem,is:
Bankrupt,
Intellectually and morally irrelevant.
You've seen your last July 4th.
This is your last "Turkey Day".
Sure you can drop the BIG one, but then your no better than "little izzie"
Skip the old shit, and start your "new" life.
"Thanksgiving is nothing more and nothing less than stuffing one's face with crappy chemical-laden food to celebrate murdering 20 million of my people and ripping off their land and resources."
That's bullshit and you know it. I guess all the other people throughout the world that celebrate Thanksgiving are worshipping genocide?
Besides, you're a rich white guy. Call it a hunch I've held for a long time.
I'd say Amy Goodman wins the annual Thanksgiving duel hands down. Sorry Bob.
What you think doesn't mean squat. Reality is reality.
I'll go tell the Mexican family down the street that they'll lose their Mexican status if thet don't take down the turkey decorations.
If you really live in Mexico, and you consistently vent you spleen on a website that is primarily (though certainly not exclusively) American in participation, authorship, and focus, I will guess from the level of anger you display that you probably feel equally strongly about issues closer to home. Which would imply that you spend time raging on more Mexican-focused political sites too. Which would mean this pastime takes up a fairly significant chunk of your time. Do you have any hobbies besides incoherent fumination?
"It is a GRINGO holiday to celebrate the extermination of MY people." To celebrate something, you have to think about it. Most celebrants I know don't think about Indians on Thanksgiving, exterminated or otherwise. Unfair, true, but hardly a genocidal celebration.
And as to "your people," greatrockyhill raises an interesting question. You have said in the past you were from (or at least previously lived) in the U.S., then returned to Mexico. If you are originally from Mexico, you have just over 10% chance of being pure indigenous. You show up on these boards whenever you detect a slight to "your people." Since pure Indigenes in Mexico and other places tend to be poorer than the European and European/Indian mixes around them (a legacy of European conquest and displacement), it would follow that the number of "pure" Indians in Mexico with regular if not constant internet access sufficient to patrol this website is lower, per capita, than those of other groups, making it even less likely you're pure Indian. (And if you're from the U.S. originally, the odds go down even further.) My guess is that, like most Mexicans, your're part Indian, part white. So when you fulminate about us "gringos", rember to point at least a percentage of a finger back at yourself.
Sorry to delve so deeply into racial ancestry, but you do call the ancestry of those who oppose you into question as if it was relevant to your argument, so I thought I'd specualate on your own level of racial guilt, as if there was such a thing as being responsible for people who are the same color as you. (In the interests of full disclosure, I'm 100%, as far as I can tell, European in ancestry.)
Tongue, you'd convey your point much more clearly if you'd cool off and REASON rather than yell. And arguments like "Period" are no such thing. It just means you can't be bothered to support your conclusion with facts, reason, or both. So start with basic syllogisms, and move on from there. If you want to convince people, support you conclusions. If gringos are not worth convincing... why are you here?
1. Fair enough. I thought I recalled you saying you had "returned" to Mexico years ago. If I misremembered, my apologies.
2. If you indicated you pedigree, I was not party to that discussion.
3. I never said you had no right to express opinions about the U.S. Hell, you've got a right to express an opinion about outer mongolia if you want to.
4. I haveheard you state this before.
5. I shudder for your students. This is the first reasoned post I have ever seen you make. I think I'll be alright without signing up for a remedial courses-I've already studied them. And I argue for a living. Very sucessfully, thank you very much. As to guesses as to your ethnicity- if you truly taught logic, you would know the difference between a sound and a valid argument. It's logic 101. As far as "beating it to death like a mangy burro"; if you were truly a philosophy prof, you'd know that if you're writing an argument, you cover all the bases you can think of. Short, snappy one or two sentence arguments are the province of a rhetorician. (if you want to bring up that I incorrectly assumed you were Mexican, I refer you to the difference between a sound and valid argument, above.)
6. So gringos are only u.s. whites. I suspected so. But don't mexican whites/europeans bear equal responsibility for the deaths of native Americans? Surely being born south of the Rio Grande doesn't absolve them. Are they also objects of your ire? I merely ask because, when a man wants me to leave my home because my ancestors fought his, I'd like to think he treats all his ancestors' enemies equally.
I'll never apologise for demanding you think logically. Your writing style is your own affair. I'll not be stuffing my turkey with anything- I prefer a little cochon for my thanksgiving, thanks.
Thank you for writinG this- your arguments in this post were much better than normal. You even managed to keep the ad hominem arguments to a minimum(compared to your normal level of discourse). I'll adress your last paragraph thus. I was no more spawned in
Europe than(I presume) you were. I was born in America- that makes me as much a "native" americanas you are. If you want to return to "your" land; if you truly have an American passport, you're welcome back anytime you choose, as you well know. If you don't WANT to- well... that's your issue.
Whew- I'll never type one of these on an iPhone again. Tiny little buttons...
Yes it began in 1492. Genocide with a smile is not my style.
a long time ago i learned 24.000 mostly kids die of hunger every day. I felt like i don't want to live in a world tjhat lets this happen. So ever since then i have stubbornly insisted on giving money ONLY to feed kids in the Global South. also i go to some trouble to make sure i'm giving to the right people. There are millions of worthy charities you can give to, and sometimes it's hard to refuse.Nevertheless this is what i do, and will continue to do until this stops.
Consider the impact of US-style Cannabis "drug" policy on global food security and nutrition:
1. The seed of the Cannabis hemp plant is potentially the world's best available source of uniquely complete and essential nutrition. Because of 'marijuana' prohibition, the world's most nutritious agricultural resource has been criminalized and forgotten since 1937 in the US. If hemp and humans were the only two species living on Earth, we would still have all of the nutritional resources we need to survive, yet the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization doesn't even recognize hemp seed nutrition as food for humans.
2. A direct result of hemp prohibition are depleted soil fertility & structure, increased erosion by wind and water, chemical desertification of farmlands, and the crippling of organic agriculture by elimination of a critically important rotational crop.
3. Seven US Presidents have identified Cannabis as a "strategic food resource" critical to national security, yet in the midst of intensifying global food crises, all strains of Cannabis are treated as a Schedule One drug in the US.
4. Radiative forcing, carbon sequestration, and other effective climate change mitigation measures are being suppressed, without regard for the Cannabis vs. climate change equation. See www.cannabisvsclimatechange.com for a greater understanding of why Cannanis isn't illegal -- it's essential.
The unconsciousness of our species is directly proportionate to the amount of time it takes to end Cannabis prohibition.
Thanksgiving for the harvest is a tradition that's been killed by chemical agriculture and the spiritual poverty of a chemically-addicted economic system.
Nanoo
1 in 6 households is food insecure in the US. Hmm. Kind of hard to believe. These people must not be taking advantage of food stamps and the WIC program. I was just having a conversation yesterday with my son who recently got his job hours cut almost in half. He is barely making ends meet. I suggested the food stamp program to him.
You don't consider living on food stamps "food insecure"?
"Michelle Obama said last March when planting the White House's organic kitchen garden, "It is so important for them [children] to get regular fruits and vegetables in their diets, because it does have nutrients, it does make you strong, it is all brain food." The first lady of the U.S. made the point that a homegrown, organic garden is a sustainable and affordable way to strengthen family food security."
The first lady also made the point that she apparently does not understand the rules of pronoun agreement. But of course this is just a trifle.
The real issue is that all corporate politicians participate in appropriate theater necessary to beguile their bases; then, they turn around and appoint those who will further policies that will benefit big business at the expense of people. The Obamas know the drill quite well--that's why Senator Barack Obama was given the corporate blessing to run for President in the first place.
Shame on Barack and Michelle Obama, the latest hope-killing corporate puppets. They have taught another entire generation that politicians are liars. It is inexcusable.
Surprise,
Since you dared rekindle what I found to be essentially the one and only aspect of W's time in office to be worthy of a laugh (errors in one's grammar and other mistreatment of the English language), I could not resist taking us on a trip down memory lane of my own:
"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004
Hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do. And regarding your alleged criticism of Mrs. Obama's erring in terms of subject-verb agreement, you may wish to note that broken down, the subject of her statement,"It..." indirectly, could be interpreted as a a reference back to the planting being done by the children.
But as you say, it is "just a trifle."
I love the scene in "What's Cooking" where they're going around the Thanksgiving table, each person saying what they're thankful for. The tattooed, pierced, vegetarian, renegade daughter says "I'm thankful to the native Americans who gave us this country in exchange for diseases, casinos and reservations". It causes a moment of total silence at the table.
But the wars must rage on...
But Israel must continue to get its billions of taxpayers dollars...
But the banksters must continue to get their bailouts...
But the health insurance companies must continue to loot...
But the Repugs must continue to deny reality and screw whatever hope there is for the future...
But life must go on...
::sigh::
Yet again, Ms. Goodman leaves me frustrated with her lack of substantive analysis.
Economist Raj Patel states: "The reason that we have this huge increase in hunger in the United States, as around the world, isn't because there isn't enough food around. Actually, we produced a pretty reliable solid crop last year. ... The reason people go hungry is because of poverty."
This is inaccurate and disingenuous. The reason people go hungry is because capitalism demands it. Capitalism doesn't work without disparity.
I encourage Ms. Goodman to consider Buckminster Fuller's World Game, which has repeatedly demonstrated that distribution problems are the issue, not some nebulous, unavoidable concept of "poverty".
"I have a great idea: Let's stuff YOU, mean-spirited gringo trollboy, and then serve you for dinner on the Pine Ridge reservation."
Wow! For a Native American, you certainly are self-hating! You're invoking stereotypes of cannibalistic "Injun" savages!
That being said, I think you're a white guy with money. I've suspected it for a long time.
"I will advise my brothers that your fat butt will be en route in a semi on Sunday."
I don't even drive a car. They're expensive and pollute the air. Not that I'm easy to kill. You're putting yourself in the same camp as all the other regressive lowlifes who hate me, which means you're the troll, not me.
"Practice your best redneck smile!"
Sorry. I'm a city boy. I prefer to practice my right hook. Not that I've ever had a quarrel with a Native American. I doubt most of them are as soulsick as you.
"(BTW, nobody posts from a Manhattan penthouse here--those folks are too busy making gobs of greenbacks exploiting working class crackers like you. I am posting this from under the gently swaying palm trees in the main plaza of Cuautla, Morelos, on the Day of the Mexican Revolution.)"
Uh yeah right. The fact that you'd call me a "working class cracker" indicates that you have a deep contempt for the rank and file, which makes it all the more likely that you're a rich white guy trying to expunge whatever guilt you have from being complicit in the class war.
No wait, I KNOW what happened! You lost your ass on the stock market! You're posting from the library. LOL.
Looks like they zapped his/her (I'm bettin' that we're dealing with a well-off "he" here) posts. Yay! Score one for the good guys/gals.