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Fighting With Forks: The Food Crisis Battle

Written by athada : May 12, 2008

food crisis posterJust a few generations ago, the United States carried out one of the most massive industrial production shifts in human history in order to defeat the Axis powers. Women filled the factories as men fled to the front lines. Victory gardens were planted in every backyard. Sunday drives became illegal, every last metal can got recycled, and luxuries were curtailed to near nothing.

Some crises today are arguably just as urgent and pressing as Hitler’s forces, with less ethical/religious fog obscuring the view. Even with massive increases in global economic output over the last century, millions of people still can’t obtain enough of the simplest human need - food. Every 5 seconds that I ponder how to spend my economic stimulus check, another child will perish to some hunger-related cause. And although humanity has made huge strides in reducing hunger, poverty seems to be pushing back with a vengeance.

Just over the last couple years, prices of the world’s major grains have increased dramatically, touching off protests around the world. This might push American groceries up a notch quicker than inflation, but for a Bangladeshi shelling out 40% of his daily income for his daily rice, it’s catastrophic. With gas prices pushing Americans to cut their daily vehicle trips, food prices are pushing the global poor to cut their daily meals. Some say this crisis alone could wipe out a decade or more of economic gains in materially poor countries.

When I say that “prices” are pushing the global poor, I’m taking about the prices that I, a ravenous North American, help boost. While the dynamic, unpredictable machine of global supply and demand cannot be so easily simplified, there are a variety of ways in which I consume plenty of grain and demand more and more land for my lifestyle.

If only the invisible hand of the market weren’t such a fist.

If we’ve been making gains in the war on hunger, then this crisis is the Battle of the Bulge, and it’s time to fight back. I know the boom-bust cycles of the global economy are matched by the boom-bust roller coasters of the social justice overdrive. I know this is not the first time we’ve freaked out about food supply. But I don’t think real human suffering should be dismissed by cynicism or privileged, academic optimism.

The first step is knowing where the grain goes. In the U.S. and especially the Midwest, corn is king. Here are a few pathways:

*5% of our corn harvest sweetens teeth with no nutritional benefit - high fructose corn syrup, found in just about every sweet bite and slurp.

*10% (and rapidly soaring) goes to corn-based ethanol, which has recently nabbed the title of “worst biofuel pathway on the planet,” based on what most scientists, energy analysts, economist, and environmentalists have been saying. A 25-gallon corn ethanol fill up consumes as much grain as a person could eat in a year.

*A full one-half of our corn goes to feed livestock, taking a circuitous and energy-wasting trip to our bellies. One pound of grain can make one pound of bread, but it takes some 5-15 pounds of grain to make a pound of meat, depending on the animal. This is, in addition to the extra water and energy resources used in maintaining, slaughtering, and shipping these herds. While industrial meat has certainly proven cheap, there are some undeniable health and environmental concerns with this food production. In this way, an American uses twice as much grain as an Italian and four times as much as the average Indian. Interestingly, the Mediterranean diet seems to produce great health, instead of the starving and swelling extremes on each side.

And so…

…to share in the earth’s provision of food,

…to feel just a bit the suffering of millions,

…and to claim some semblance of solidarity with the world’s poor,

… I encourage you to leave a comment below, committing yourself to a time of change - a week, a month, a year - of making some different choices: chicken instead of beef, a 4 oz. instead of 12, beans and rice instead of hamburgers, local slow food instead of prefabricated fast food, water instead of corn syrup, and a few less car trips.

If societies can unite for so long, so severely to bend economies towards war, surely bending it towards satisfying the most modest of humans needs is possible. So let’s bomb with bread, let’s beat plowshares into forks, and instead of fighting Nazism, fight hunger.

Author Bio:: Adam & his wife Becky live year-to-year in Marion, IN. He works at a community center somewhere between the church and the 501(c)3 code. He babbles on about community development, poverty, and environmental issues at All the Small Things (www.athada.blogspot.com).

Adam & his wife Becky live year-to-year in Marion, IN. He works at a community center somewhere between the church and the 501(c)3 code. He babbles on about community development, poverty, and environmental issues at All the Small Things (www.athada.blogspot.com).


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Viewing 12 Comments

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    When my grandmother passed away a year or so ago, one of the things she left me was her ration stamps (because she knew I really liked "old stuff"...). The thing that touched me the most was that there were stamps left over... they didn't use up all of their stamps just because they could... they bought what they needed. I wished I had more opportunity to learn her survival skills - the woman could sew, quilt, can, grow, create and make-do in amazing ways.

    Perhaps what makes our current war-time so inconceivable, is not just that the war feels so contrived, but that we are being asked as a Nation to keep living life as if nothing is going on...
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    Great links and an amazingly well written article! I've tried to go vegetarian but didn't last long. Maybe a smaller goal, like eating "slow food" for a month would be a good place to start. Yup, that's what I'm going to commit to. Thanks for the suggestions.

    Anyone else?
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    I'm going to run this past my wife. We've had a few abortive attempts at doing exactly that. It's very difficult to do because it takes time (planning, preparation) that we have not budgeted before.

    At some point you have to count the cost and say what are your priorities.
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    My husband was a meat/potatoes/vegetable guy when I married him. Twenty-two years later he decided to become vegetarian. It wasn't a cold-turkey kind of transition. We have been slowly eating less meat and more beans. First it was tacos with meat and beans. Eventually, it was just beans. Instead of meat being a stand alone serving, it was incorporated into a dish of other vegetables and cereals. Eating healthily makes for a healthier body. The healthier you are, the better you are able to serve others. Investing now, pays off for many, many years, particularly when it extends your life-time.
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    This was strangely timely. Yesterday I ran into an woman and her elderly mother who was wearing nylons. Normally it was no big deal but it was hot and it looked really uncomfortable. And something struck me at that moment. I wondered if the mother had grown accustomed to wearing them because at one time she couldn't, almost like it was her privilege. I know I'm inventing a story for her but I wondered.
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    Kimberly -
    I didn't think to apply that to Iraq - a mind-bogglingly expensive war paid for by debt, not widespread sacrifice. Not that you would expect an elected official to stand up against the cult of consumerism...
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    My wife and I committed to a diet similar to this last summer when we grew our own 'victory garden' and we have loved it. We probably only eat meat 2 or 3 times a week now and we have no regrets. I'd encourage any one to do this! Its easier than you think.
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    I went vegetarian two years ago for the very reasons you listed above- not for animal ethics but for justice issues with food/grain distribution and land use. I also bike or ride the bus, so my ethanol use isn't an issue. I try to eat "real foods" as much as possible, especially after reading books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and realizing how much of what we eat is corn in disguise.
    'The more I listen to the news of the global food crisis, the more it saddens me that our gluttonous ways with fuel and food are taking away from the least of these. And the more I hear about people complaining because of high gas prices the more I grieve for those who will go without food today because prices skyrocketed.
    Yet I know I am not doing enough, and I wonder how to get my resources to those who need it most. We can sacrifice in small ways, but we are still ignoring our neighbor who desperately needs a cup of grain. Yes, money can be given to emergency food funds, and it has been, but what else can be done?
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    It seems to me, much like the radical life Christ calls us to, that fighting hunger, among other things, slices right down to the core of the notion of my "American rights." "I want it, and I want it now...I don't care where it came from," bears no resemblance to the totally transformed, absolutely counter-cultural way of Christ. So, it seems that my ego must die. I live a life of sacrifice. I rejoice in suffering because it invites me into a whole new way of living, one where "I" am not central... I must come to the realization that every single decision I make, including where I eat for lunch, has lasting impact of the Kingdom of God.
    • ^
    • v
    I saw in the headlines the other week that President Bush recently proposed $770 million in additional food aid in light of the food crisis. I think they are also considering to give a certain portion as money, buying local grains, instead of the longstanding US aid policy of sending American-grown food. It pleases the farm lobby, but does little to invest in African farmers in the long term - the obvious sustainable choice. In some cases, dumping tons of food as aid can actually cripple long term food security, as local grain prices plummet and local farmers don't get even cash to buy supplies for the next year.

    It's so obvious that Europe & Japan have long since went to a cash-only aid system, & Canada recently followed suit (http://allafrica.com/stories/200805051911.html). Sadly, aid done wrong can be worse than no aid at all. I imagine Oxfam of Bread for the World has already picked up on this. Hopefully they will start a campaign & mobilize the citizens. They already do a great job on bringing attention to the Farm Bill. (www.bread.org)
    • ^
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    I've been considering applying myself to the spiritual discipline of fasting twice a week. With Wednesdays and Fridays being the traditional fast-days in the Christian tradition, and having read once that John Wesley would not even ordain a person who didn't fast regularly, "A man who cannot discipline his belly cannot discipline the flock." (or something to that extent) I think maybe an additional incentive might be that if I were to dedicate myself to such a discipline--even just fasting once a day--I could spend that day purchasing food for others, rather than to fill my own stomach. Add to that even a radical diet change, as you mention, by cutting out luxury foods to a great extent, try and contribute my energies some how.
    • ^
    • v
    There is an Orthodox tradition of vegan eating on Wednesdays and Fridays called the Daniel Fast. After learning about it from a Christianity Today article (http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2006/december/25.36...), my wife and I followed it for a few months. It was really good for us - it automatically (vs. daily "meal-time" decisions) cut back our animal-based consumption, so we didn't feel bad about chowing down the other 5 days. Even so, it made us more conscious the rest of the week. The article above touches on this better than I describe here, but it also reminds us that as human creatures on this side of the fall, our very lives are sustained by death and destruction of other created beings. Temporarily breaking free of this death dependency, I think, is practicing the already-here-but-not-quite-yet of the Kingdom of God.
 

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  • Cutlery Combat (or, Fighting With Forks) « Curious Georgioff

    May 12, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    [...] (or, Fighting With Forks) May 13, 2008, 3:44 am Filed under: Uncategorized I just read this post on ...

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