I always like to connect the dots and sometimes that is not easy.
From Lavender2s article. This is a good article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/with-cheap-food-imports-h_n_507228.html
Quote:
The best-seller comes from Riceland Foods in Stuttgart, Arkansas, which sold six pounds for $3.80 last month, according to Haiti's National Food Security Coordination Unit. The same amount of Haitian rice cost $5.12.
"National rice isn't the same, it's better quality. It tastes better. But it's too expensive for people to buy," said Leonne Fedelone, a 50-year-old vendor
This is what I have been trying to explain in another post. I cannot find homegrown apple juice in my markets. It seems that my juice choices come from China of South America. I know we grow apples here. Of course I have NOT tried the high-end boutiques yet.
Better to give my money to the locals and farmers markets.
Next subject in the article:
Cheap foreign products drove farmers off their land and into overcrowded cities. Rice, a grain with limited nutrition once reserved for special occasions in the Haitian diet, is now a staple.
Now substitute the word corn for rice and Mexico for Haiti. Here is the history of a major cause of poverty and the need to immigrate to other countries where in my opinion, once more people are abused for their foreignness.
Last but not least:
"Haiti doesn't have the land nor the climate ... to produce enough rice," said Bill Reed, Riceland's vice president of communications. "The productivity of U.S. farmers helps feed countries which cannot feed themselves."
First of all this dufuss is making a buck and is trying to be obtuse of the ways diversity works. People all over the world grow locally what they have learned over the millennia what does best for them. When war or colonization takes over.the conquer takes and usually leaves the people with nothing. The earth is scoured and if the colonizer stayshe brings his own food choices with him. HELLO! These crops do not do well in a different climate /area and are usually adverse to what people have evolved to. This is the true cause of poverty and of want.
We are becoming them. By degrees, we are being turned into a third world country. Farmers are unable to sell to their domestic markets. Farmers now have to sell to mega corporations who send it overseas for the cheap production and labor. They then turn the product around, and sell it back to the USA at a cheaper price. Tell me again how that is good for us. The unseen side effects of all these practices are the depression of our own wages. If we brought back manufacturing to this country and grew more of our own food, we could afford our food and it would bring food security back to this county.
Sorry for the long rant.
