Starvation: Is Massive Starvation Coming Our Way?

Scientists recently attending a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), predict massive world food shortages by 2050. Jason Clay, former Yale and Harvard professor and former USDA advisor believes we are on a collision course with global starvation. "By 2050, we will not have a planet left that is recognisable," ( if current food production levels continue.) Clay recently said in an interview. " Its almost enough to make one seek out a remote cave and stock it full of freeze-dried food and survivalist supplies."

AAAS' proposed solution is to lower the human population of the planet, “We want to minimize population growth and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning," said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University. 

While it sounds innocent enough, people wonder, what exactly does that mean? Looking between the lines we see developing countries within Africa and South Asia (India) are nations most at risk of over-population.

Suprisingly, Kenya has the highest birth rate of anywhere in the world, followed closely by Togo, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Zaire and Morocco.

The people of these nations are breeding like rabbits. AAAS would like to see such areas have more readily-available options for birth control. However, such suggestions are moot, one would expect more from a professor with such prestigious educational lineage, because birth control is not the root of the problem. It's not like African's are finding themselves in the middle of a hot petting session and suddenly saying, "Hey we have no birth control options... oh well let's do it anyway."

Yes, that is correct, the Pope, Catholicism and Islam, ie., people of faith, play a major role here. Faith, being a formidable influence in Africa, the Catholic belief against any form of birth control has helped lead to a population explosion. Islamic families often have several children as well. Further compounding the problem is African culture.

Many children are considered a divine blessing and having none is considered a divine curse. A man's virility is measured by the number of children he sires. Likewise the mother's self-worth is measured by the number of babies she pops out; many kids are also a sign of wealth, large families are part of the African culture and diversity.

The bottom line is Africa's cultural diversity is standing in the way, which presents a huge ideological and political blockade for the AAAS. The AAAS, is made up of a predominate coalition of liberal-minded folks who typically support population control. They are also huge supporters of cultural diversity and civil rights. The delimna for the liberal here is, how can they promote population control AND a cultural diversity that is all about big families? Everyone knows cultural diversity is not to be questioned or challenged, it is only to be celebrated.

Unfortunately, time for respecting such diversity is running out. AAAS believes people are going to starve by the millions if something is not done now. Global inhabitants are predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050. The world will need as much food for the next 40 years as it has needed over the last 8,000 years. ( I wonder who is crunching these numbers? Does he/she wear bi-focals? Where is he/she getting these stats to runs these numbers?)

According to University of California Professor Cristina Tirado, "environmental refugees," migrating to more developed countries will threaten food supplies in those nations.

African refugees are already having a painful impact on European countries, Spain and Germany are most notable. "In less than 10 years, by 2020, that number could reach 50 million," she told the AAAS delegates.

“We’re going to see many, many more people trying to go north when food stress comes in,” says Ewen Todd, a professor at Michigan State University. The riots and protests in Tunisia, sparked by political unrest, food shortages and other issues are “going to be the pattern.”

Food production alone is not the problem. American Farmers alone could produce enough food to feed these nations.

Distribution of that food and the ability of poorer nations to buy and supply the food to their people is not possible.

In other words, African's will starve to death because trying to feed them will be an enormous task at too high of a monetary cost.

Humanitarian efforts will help, but it will not be enough. There is an old saying,“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to farm, feed him for life.” Nice saying, but, African's are not that ignorant, they know how to farm. Their farmers could grow much of the food locally and feed their own nations, however, due to local political/tribal wars, many of the farmers have left their farms to escape certain death. Opposing tribes are killing each other by the thousands.

While respecting one's diveristy largely works in America and other peaceful societies, African's simply hate diversity and want to kill the "different people" down the road.

The fact that you grow food to feed your assailant seems to matter little when they come to chop off your head. There are few farmers left to produce the food necessary to feed the nation. Those who remain are often at extreme risk.

(Author's Note" I think these population scientists have overlooked the tribal wars currently taking place in Kenya and other areas, where thousands of people, men, women and children are being hacked to death in the night with machetes by rival tribes. The problem is so bad it is a literal genocide. I mention this because none of my research on the AAAS meeting mentions anything about the tribal ethnic cleansing currently taking place in Africa.)

India and various Arabic nations face similar population problems. "Officials estimate that in order to keep pace with population growth, India will have to do the following every year: build 127,000 new schools, hire nearly 400,000 new teachers, construct 2.5 million new homes, create 4 million new jobs, and produce an additional 6 million tons of food." In a nation where the majority of the population cannot read, this is not going to turn around soon enough. (2).

The US Government once maintained a three year survival /food storage for every citizen of the country. This was to provide for the people in the time of a national emergency - food would still be available. Grain elevators across the nation were filled with grain for this purpose.

In the early 1970's we had a global food crisis. American politicians began to bargain away the grain stores of America to foreign nations. The humanitarian efforts were done to build "friendships" with other nations and buy favors on the international political scene.

The American tax payer had funded for enough food to feed the nation for three years during an emergency. Today those reserves are all but gone. Instead, we donate food to a local food bank for the poor and the hungry. If a national emergency occurred that caused everyone to be without food, a local foodbank would last maybe half a day.

Recently, the USDA reported that America had 15.7 pounds of reserved food in the food-chain for every person in America. 11.0 pounds consists of unprocessed wheat. 

The rest of the 15.7 pounds of survival foods in storage consists of the following foods:

1. Non-fat dry milk

2. Cheese

3. Corn by the bushel

4. Peanuts by the pound

5. Lentils by the pound. (2).

That's it. This is what our politicians have set aside. This is not a daily supply, this is all you get, period.

September 12, 2005, Alan Guebert of the Farm & Food Reports indicated that another disaster like hurricane Katrina could create a national food panic.

It was once common in America to have a food cellar. Therein was stored a year's supply of canned food and seeds for next years crop. They did not rely on the government to care for them.

I have considered storing foods time and again over the years. I have even collected several 5 gallon buckets of dry provisions such as peas, beans, rice etc. However, as a Christian, the bottom line is this: If something happens my food stores will only last a little while. I cannot stand by and watch my neighbors or their children starve and profess faith in Christ.

Once this settled in my mind, I realized gathering food would only create other threats. If they ask you, "Please feed me," will you turn them away and still call yourself a Christian? I suppose you can, but I'm not sure if Jesus will. Maybe you're not a Christian. Maybe you can watch your neighbors die and feel just fine about it. Besides, if people find out you have food, you'll be a target. Some people would kill you for your food. These are things everyone must consider for themselves.

It is likely the government has plenty of food storage set aside for it's officials and people more important than you. They may even have food set aside for you, if you surrender your freedom, your guns, and allow a mark to be put in your hand or forehead.

Nature has a way. When a species outgrows its environment, ie., say a wolf pack kills nearly all its food source, wolves are going to starve to death until a balance is reached. Its sad. As smart as we humans are, we are blinded by our own greed even unto our own demise.

Sources CIted:

1. The Human Population, http://apesnature.homestead.com/chapter6.html

2. The Coming Starvation In America, James P. Wickstrom