Quote:
Originally Posted by King of Snake
Obviously I'm not suggesting that countries experiencing food shortages export whatever food they have left. But developing and third world countries have an enormous potential for agricultural production. The problem is that because EU and US protectionism the third world farmers are simply unable to compete with subsidised (not to mention mechanised) farmers from the EU and US. In fact we are dumping our own subsidized overstocks of food for cheap into foreign markets, depriving farmers there from making a decent living.
I'm sure you can find a lot of info online about the problems that our market protectionism is causing for the third world.
like here http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3226
hey, $700 billion, that number just keeps popping up doesn't it? 
this is also why i think that the whole foreign aid system is a big sham designed to keep our conscience clear so we won't have to deal with the real problems. |
i know you weren't suggesting that, it's just that the whole system is geared against the third world and it makes me unhappy. I'll check out the link later as i'm at work now
.
It also bothers me when you rightly talk about the agricultural potential of the third world as i read an article the other day about using prime agricultural land in south asia for growing palm oil to produce petrol
Sorry to go on about this but i think the whole system is broken and needs replacing with something fairer - not bailing out. With that i'll say no more as i don't want to alienate anyone more than i have done already
