Friday, February 01, 2013

Socialism - the solution to the food crisis

Seventy-four days is all that stands between mankind and starvation — the length of time the world’s food reserves would feed humanity before disappearing. From 1986 to 2001, the world held an average of 107 days’ worth of grain in storage. But from 2002 to 2011, the average dropped to just 74 days. Like millions of workers living paycheck to paycheck, humanity is living harvest to harvest.  Water sources are drying up. Arable land is dwindling. Only 1/32 of Earth’s surface contains arable topsoil. That is just 3 percent. Nor is all this arable land are not being used to produce food, but ecological biofuel replacements. While some nations starve, other countries are literally burning their food. Last year, 120 million tons of corn was turned into gasoline.

Oxfam revealed demand for land has soared as investors look for places to grow food for export, grow crops for biofuels, or simply buy-up land for profit. Shockingly, the amount of land sold off by investors and companies in the last decade is so high that it could have fed one billion people. With at least 80 million hectares of land deals taking place since 2001, land is a hot commodity. Food is the new oil and land is the new gold. Resources—land, food and water—have long been at the heart of nearly all conflicts throughout man’s history.

Some believe they have a solution to the food crisis maybe changing our menu.

It is forecasted that mankind will be trading beef burgers, steaks and sausages for versions made from insects such as caterpillars, grasshoppers and beetles. Morgaine Gaye, a food futurologist proposed changing the term “insects” to “mini-livestock” to make it sound more palatable. In Asia such protein is readily available in the food markets.

Developing genetically modified crops and animals for consumption is also advocated.Then  there is the still-experimental process of growing meat in laboratories vats either to turn plant tissue into fake meat or grow real meat by using stem cells to create pieces of muscle tissue.

Lastly, a the traditional and often argued proposal that the world should switch to a vegetarian diet. This would dramatically decrease the amount of crops grown for animals raised for human consumption. Algae and seaweed (the fastest growing plant on Earth and again already popular in many regions of Asia) are promoted to provide extra nutrition to sustain future generations. If we cut meat consumption by 50 per cent, that would release an area of farmland bigger than the United States for extra food production. We would by all accounts also be healthier for it.

So in future your plate of  meat and two veg may lab-grown meat, modified fish, and portions of seaweed and fried creepy-crawlies.

 Is this the “bright future” humanity can look forward to—or is there another solution? The way the world grows its food will have to change radically. Scientists, agriculturists, and politicians are all failing to find tangible solutions to the food crisis. No significant progress is being made, and the future looks bleak. How people will feed themselves has been pushed aside in favor of other pressing issues, such as climate change, disease, war and terrorism. Even the United Nations is failing to deliver real solutions. World leaders recognize the urgency of addressing the food crisis, but are running out of options that they have not already tried.

The solution has been in plain sight for decades.

While reports warning about food supplies continue, population growth is not the problem that it is suggested to be. The natural resources of the earth and the knowledge and machines of its people are sufficient to provide an abundance of foodstuffs is a well-established fact. The world is inadequately fed despite the existence of these resources to provide the food they need, not because of overpopulation nor because of Nature but because of the capitalist system of production for profit on the basis of the class ownership of the means of production. Common ownership would give all communities immediate access to land.

In the short term, people in the areas of greatest need could concentrate their local efforts using the best means available. At the same time the regions most able to do so could assist with increased supplies. There can be no doubt that throughout the world, within a season, the plight of the seriously undernourished would be greatly improved.

In the longer term, communities in socialism would be able to look beyond the immediate priorities of desperate need and begin to sort out the appalling state of world agriculture that is a consequence of the exploitation and destructive methods of capitalist agribusiness. It not only exploits farm workers of all lands, it exploits anything in nature it can get its hands on.

The work of providing for the needs of all people begins with the work of organising for world socialism.

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