Here is a modest proposal for a small step to help better utilize the world’s food supply: feed the pets more scraps and less pet food — then donate some of that money to the World Food Program.
I. “UN to set up task force to tackle global food crisis“, AP (29 April 2008) – Opening (bold emphasis added):
The United Nations will establish a top-level task force to tackle food shortages and escalating prices that threaten to touch off a “cascade of related crises” around the world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. Ban, who will lead the task force, said the group agreed on a series of measures for the medium and long term, with its first priority to meet the $755 million shortfall in funding for the World Food Program. …
II. “In 2005, dog and cat food sales in the US reached a new record high of over $14.3 billion.” — from The Pet Food Institute, citing “Pet Food & Pet Care Products in the US”, Euromonitor International (2005)
It is just a thought.
Hat tip to Peak Oil Debunked for the comparison. Credit for the title to Jonathan Swift. The second place contestent in the “name this post” contest was Joshua Foust, with “Let them eat kibble.”
Please share your comments by posting below, brief and relevant, please. Or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
For more information about this subject
- Important news about the global food crisis! (1 April 2008)
- A view from Indonesia of the food crisis (3 April 2008)
- Stratfor warns about the global food crisis (18 April 2008)
- What you probably do not know about China’s food crisis (21 April 2008)
- Higher food prices, riots, shortages – what is going on? (29 April 2008)
- Weekend reading about the Food Crisis (17 May 2008)
This archive shows all posts about the food crisis, plus reports from from major international agencies.
Actually maybe we should exhume Lord Boyd Orr, the architect of British scientific rationing in WW2 and the first head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN and Nobel Peace prize winner in 1949.
See this brief biography for a flavour, Google the rest. A quote:
“under the aegis of the FAO, he set up an International Emergency Food Council, with thirty-four member nations, to meet the postwar food crisis. He traveled extensively throughout the world trying to get support for a comprehensive food plan and was bitterly disappointed when his proposal for the establishment of a World Food Board failed in 1947 when neither Britain nor the United States would vote for it.”
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Fabius Maximus replies: But I see no signs of a shortage, for which rationing would be a rational response. Governments often try rationing to fight inflation. Not only does this not require admitting their role in the problem, rationing increases the government’s power. More employees for the AFCSE union, more opportunities for graft. More opportunities for economists — liberal arts majors in general — to take control from businesspeople and experts.
I believe this should be titled, “Let them eat kibble.”
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Fabius Maximus replies: Noted as such in the post!
World Food Program? Surely you are joking? The WFP is nothing but a band aid which will never solve anything other than short term food shortages. The problems are food productivity and cost, to which the best so far has been the CGIAR. The who? Exactly.