Mehmed, this is part of my response to your Wall-2-Wall note on my consideration to plant cassava for a number of purposes, one of which is biofeul: "Cassava eh! … if you can also get bio-ethanol out of it that seems to bring more promise for a sustainable environment, although I am not a big fan of using potential food for fuel! it takes more energy to produce a gallon of biofuel then what you can get out of it, and raises the price of food when there is a huge potential for famine in the 3rd world countries at the moment."
Me been very sick since the initial plantation. This is what's been rambling in my head.
You covered a range of arguments, the strongest that's bursting in my feverish mind is the one about "potential famine". The thing that I truly appreciate about your thoughtfulness is the way it just so easily breaks all the blocks in my writing. So what was it that made you think that there's a potential famine?
1. There is food and the Lord has stated this fact in all His Books: That the earth has been created to serve and support the presence of man. No matter how big the population is, food is available. In abundance. As the Lord has promised. With every irreligiousness that I am, some promises I still believe and take for granted.
2. In 3rd world countries, people are hungry not out of lack of resources, but the severity of imbalance in distribution.
3. This is how that imbalance is created: With television in farmer's houses, and consumerism attacking the agricultural mind, young folks want to buy Nokia N70 and do hair bonding instead of feeding their severely malnourished children. (something I saw on TV, both dying child and mother-with-the-made-hair. The thing with Media, they'd offer you shock and disgust, but no solution as long that advertisement slots are filled).
4. So everybody moves to the big cities, thinking that everything they see in television is gonna instantly move into their living rooms once they move to Jeddah, or Jakarta or Beijing. And because nobody is left to plant or herd or water the fields, farming becomes expensive and out of date, the ground is stretched beyond its seasonal capacity that it no longer produces normal and healthy food and, well, "real/organic" food becomes out of common man's range of purchase.
5. With so much labor stress in both urban and rural areas: too many people want to work in cities, too little people want to breed goats and grow rice. Hence the stress on the food balance.
6. Sometime back, someone suggested to me that a vegetarian diet is one way to solve the imbalance (since once of the causes of the shift in tastes made people feed rice to their cows and goats). I have nothing against vegan diet. But I can't see the sacrifice I make for passing on a plate of tenderloin or 5 sticks of young goat Sate is worth saving the world or world economy. I see that avoiding McDonald and IKEA and STARBUCKS and Carrefour is worthwhile, because that's how the evil jaws of gigantic enterprises squeeze on small industries. Hence – again – the stress on the food balance.
7. Now I'm gonna go off-track and give you a personal insight on why it is just so goddamn difficult for me to move back to Jeddah, and why risking 8 months of waiting for that cassava to grow seems to make more sense in the selection of my life's course. I live in one of the most corrupt and malnourished 3rd world countries in the world. Yet, for all the time I've spent most of the last 6 months here, I haven't missed a single meal, and I eat 6 meals a day (breakfast, brunch, lunch, teatime, dinner and supper), and I'm probably bigger than a common water buffalo.
8. I wouldn't have believed that not having a conventional job or income could support such a living, but the land is lush with food for those who seek its wealth. I'm probably sick from overeating. Which is a wonderfully coinciding with Ramadhan. And since Big Daddy's forbids sleeping beyond 6 am, I look forward to presenting you with a supporting hypothesis to your argument about restraining from making fuel out of food, once I'm a little bit more hungry.
Feverish and sincerely yours,
H
PS: I don't know if you have seen the argument I've stated above anywhere else; been too disconnected to google. It's just common sense. IF I am making any sense. Can't shake off that fever!! Link me if you do, ya?
2 afterthinkers:
First of all I hope you are feeling better :) May Allah grant all of us good health, and grant you a good harvest from your efforts. I would like to make it very clear that I did not mean to undermine your efforts in any way and I guess I am glad in a way that I had a hand in breaking that writers-block. I am not going to lie if I could get out of this rent contract and had enough money saved for a place ticket I would be there putting together a mean chicken noodle soup for ya, and helping with the efforts. (you prob think I am being an ass, but I am being dead serious). So let me explain where I was coming from, when I stated potential famine!
Although I totally agree with the abundance of food and the imbalance of distribution, there are huge economical reasons behind it all. The Bengal famine of 1770 and 1943 made total economic sense, over 2 million people starved to death while there was enough food for everyone. The failed crops raised the price of rice, the poor who hardly could afford food to begin with due to high land taxes starved to death while stockpiles of good crops sat in storage. I think it was my Natural Resource Economics teacher, who said “I never saw a tree I did not want to cut down”, was the reason I did not get my Economics degree 2 general art classes short. These people sold their souls to numbers and logic without any concern for the human factor.
The migration to the urban lifestyle probably has an impact on the price of food, but usually incentives through government encourage enough people to stay in farming, since the migration issue has been there for years. This whole bio-ethanol bio-fuel thing got out of hand due to rising fuel costs and now every politician and country wants to participate in this because it is a great answer to give when people are protesting about high cost of fuel and they demand answers on resolutions. Read this article by David Pimentel professor of entomology from Cornell. (http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/08/philpott/) And also Vandana Shiva, who has been fighting to get communities to be self reliable by breaking away from the major corporations and growing locally, has been given the “Bullshit Award” by large western genetics corporations whom by the way patent crops, which puts extra burden on farmers. (http://www.navdanya.org/biofuelreport1.htm). This one about farmers suicide rates in India is extra interesting (http://www.democracynow.org/2006/12/13/vandana_shiva_on_farmer_suicides_the). Love this one by Noam Chomsky (http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20070515.htm).
I am dragging this. . . I bet we could both go-on on this subject for a while. Let me sum it up, with all the 3rd world countries right now that spend all their disposable income for food and have to pull their kids from school will soon start to suffer from malnutrition, and the ones suffering from it will pass as long as we all industriously produce bio-fuels thinking it will be a long term solution. Here the price of food has risen like crazy, but as a nation we have high standard of living so we can get away with it, same can be said about Europe. There are policies in nearly all the countries to increase bio-fuel production, which will do nothing more than increase the price of food. There are other factors as well but they have all been there before, other than the gas prices. I hate to say this but from the way it is going I can guarantee over the next five years a lot more people are going to die from starvation. But again my problem is with the large corporations that exploit the situation (but hey it makes total economic sense!), not people trying to make a difference by sustainability in their communities. So if ever that Dbag from Cargill shows up, spit in his fukin face! (and change your name and move out of the country! ) Unfortunately those big boys are here to stay :(
Get some rest and get better *big hug* :). We can chew on this topic for a while when you get better ;)
First of all intersting thoght provking post...but that not the reason Iam commenting here...my reason for being on ur blog page...I would love to know whatever happen to ur friends wasterchix..are they okay...are they in jail...were they ever real charchters in the first place...???
just wanted to know..thanx
And oh ya..I hope u r feeling better...
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