The food crises is getting worse, and it could even happen that Amartya Sen’s observation that there has never been a famine in a country that had both a free press and a functioning multi-party democracy will appear to break down.
This is because the world economy exists in many places outside of either a multi-party democracy or a functioning free press, and those islands of functioning democracies with a free press may be cast about by forces that are outside of their control. These food riots have, for example, received very little press coverage in the USA. So perhaps Sen’s observation is still correct, it’s just that due to globalization it operates at a different scale. The world needs a functioning free press.
**Well, the press does seem to be taking note of the deepening crises, and I’ve added link to a CNN article that is typical of the coverage. The points are being made that this is a world wide phenomena, and that ethanol production, if not a culprit in the present round of food riots, will make the future food outlook even more grim. It should be obvious that ethanol production, to the extent it raises prices for food is deeply immoral. Furthermore, it is extremely stupid, as it gives those who are suffering, seeing their children dieing each day for want of food, a focal point for their hatred of the first world. **
Two things to be done by those who care:
- Derail ethanol production, which has unnecessarily linked the food economy to the oil economy; and
- Eat much less meat, which requires massive amounts of grain to produce equivalent amount of food protein. Beef is by far the worst offender, requiring much more grain to produce a pound of beef than a pound of chicken.
These are so extremely easy to do, but with the press shirking its basic responsibility to inform the public, can they alone be blamed for the moral failure of the West to address this crises? The press is clearly not doing its job here.
Here are the gory details:
