[NYTr] America's Contribution to Hunger

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) - Aug 8, 2007
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


America's Contribution to Hunger

By Nestor Nunez
AIN Special Service

The existence of 900 million people in the world suffering from hunger 
does not seem a strong enough reason to deter Washington from pursuing 
the fantastic idea of producing bio-fuels.

As a recent report revealed, within the US, certain political circles 
and average people have been tricked into believing that turning food 
into gasoline is ecologically friendly, will end the nation's 
dependency on imported oil and offer large benefits and prosperity for 
the country's farmers. It is precisely those stories that George W. 
Bush has implemented in his crazy campaign to use ethanol as an energy 
source. Of course, for the American people, the belief that half of 
humanity is the mortal enemy of their "democratic society" and that 
"extremist" owners of the world's oil can paralyze their cars at any 
moment, make such official campaign results credible and attractive. 
What the White House has not said is that this idea has already 
provoked an increase of the prices of the family food basket within and 
outside the United States. This is due to the scarcity of the basic 
grains like corn, whose prices have doubled in the last 12 months. 
Nonetheless, George W. Bush's stories have crossed the US border and 
have reached precisely those areas where hunger is most tangible and 
real. For experts on the issue, in Latin America and Asia there are 
governments and statesmen who are very enthusiastic about ethanol.  
Large nations that are producers of sugar cane, soybeans or palm oil, 
among other agricultural raw materials, talk about reconverting their 
industries and extending their countrysides, thinking of great profits 
promised by bio-fuels.

In fact, since 2005 to now, the prices of many of these crops have 
increased by more than 20 times, complicating the survival of tens of 
millions of people living in precarious conditions. A high-ranking 
representative of the World Food Program said, "Humanity is in such a 
delicate issue, we are once again facing an absolute challenge, 
tittering between reason and foolishness."