As I See It: Farm bill vital to world peace

The Daily News ^ | 9/8/23 | William Lambers

[cotton1706]

When we hear about the soon-to-expire farm bill we think of Congress negotiating in Washington, D.C., on this major legislation that impacts agriculture. But think of the farm bill in a different way.

Imagine a small child in war-torn Yemen suffering from malnutrition, wasting away because there is not enough food. The family does not have any hope except for the help of a humanitarian relief agency.

The starving child’s family is given a box with a nutritious peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut. This small child, near the brink of death, starts to eat this food and is saved. Slowly, the child begins to regain health. This lifesaving food aid is made possible by the farm bill.

Picture a family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been forced from their home because of conflict. They have lost everything. In a displaced persons camp, they receive rations from the U.N. World Food Program. This food sustains them in the hardest of times. This is more lifesaving food aid made possible by the farm bill.

Think of the child in Haiti, a land torn by violence and instability, being able to go to school and receive a free lunch from the World Food Program. That lunch is their only real meal of the day. This life-changing aid is made possible by the farm bill.

For those not paying close attention, the current farm bill is set to expire Sept. 30. The new farm bill must reauthorize key aid programs like Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole global school lunch initiative. The upcoming farm bill is critical legislation where Democrats and Republicans need to work together.

Not just an America issue, the farm bill supports global hunger relief. What happens on the farm bill impacts lives everywhere.

[cotton1706]

Good Lord!!

This is the thinking that we need to be totally rid of!

A piece of AMERICAN farm legislation SHOULD NOT be critical to world peace.

"the McGovern-Dole global school lunch initiative"

This is the type of liberal legislative feel-good crap that past congresses moved heaven and earth to pass, while AMERICANS were left behind.

I've been hearing this Farm Bill nonsense for at least 20 years. Let it expire and start from scratch.

[oldasrocks]

We need to think of ourselves first. How many poor people are hurting here with the increased food prices? Part of this is due to guberment regs which some are insane. Farmers going broke trying to afford fertilizer.
I feel sorry for other countries but unless we stay strong here there will come a time when we can’t ship anything out.

The billions wasted in the Ukraine could have went to increase production in other countries. The old adage of “Give a man a fish” comes in here.
We put people in camps to protect them and feed them. All they have left to do is breed more kids. So now we have 20 times more to feed than cannot fend for themselves.
Add to this a lot of grain shipments either rot in storage or are sold off thereby not helping the masses anyway.

[BitWielder1]

Every nation in the world should be able to grow their own food.
Or produce something that can be traded for food.
Assistance should be short term, in long term it undercuts local farmers and industry and becomes part of the problem.
Leftists *talk* about sustainable development but how about sustainable economies?
Too many nations are locked into eternal dependency and too many in the West want to keep it that way.

[ConservativeInPA]

How about a farm bill that eliminates the entire USDA? I guarantee that we will have an abundance of much less expensive food for America FIRST, and there will be excess quantities that our agricultural exports will increase to the world SECOND.

[Tell It Right]

The best way to feed the hungry (both here and abroad) is to get the government out of the way of farming. No more blocking natural gas fertilization. No more paying farmers to keep land fallow. No more sky high income taxes (on the years a farmer makes good crop). No more estate taxes (forcing heirs to sell farm land to pay the tax).

Any Dim who's for those things but says they want to feed the poor is lying.

[bert]

The question rises......... is the life of a destirute child in Yemen or the Congo worth saving

Yemen and the Congo are seen to be unfit and thus not survivable

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

I congratulate many who commented on their clarity.

Let's consider the op-ed through word substitution, as it tries to evoke an emotional response -- the original:

"Imagine a small child in war-torn Yemen suffering from malnutrition, wasting away because there is not enough food. The family does not have any hope except for the help of a humanitarian relief agency.

"The starving child's family is given a box with a nutritious peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut. This small child, near the brink of death, starts to eat this food and is saved. Slowly, the child begins to regain health. This lifesaving food aid is made possible by the farm bill."

Quite a bit of "imagine" prose. Now consider the alternative, which I think is more a reality, and using simple word substitution and some claerifications to highlight the "game" --

Imagine a small child family farmer in war-torn Yemen suffering from malnutrition "free food as aid", wasting away because there is not enough locally grown food . The family does not have any hope except for the help of to compete with a humanitarian relief agency.

The starving child's family is given for free a box with a nutritious peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut . This small child, near the brink of death, starts to eat this food and is saved. Slowly, the child begins to regain health, but the family farm goes bankrupt. This lifesaving market killing food aid is made possible by the farm bill. The local farms will never be able to compete with or undercut "free" which is paid for to farmers not in 'war-torn Yemen'."

"Life-saving" can also crush a local market, such that an entire nation become dependent on farmers being paid elsewhere to "give" for "free," though paid at first-world rates for third-world nations. This is not capitalism. It is socialism for the many while the few get paid. And who pays the American farmers? Taxpayers. Because it is an emotional issue....

And now, as to "Plumpy’Nut" one reads of its history, including litigation over patents, now expired, and major companies in France, Norway and in our own Rhode Island, at one time.

The marketing of this was broad as the Wiki history tells. Bottom line. Money.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut

How about supporting the local farmers, so that THEY can grow and produce feed their own? Just a thought....

[Pythion.net]

Help world peace by sending more money to regimes that steal food from their people.

Yep.

Uh Huh.

//rolleyes

[jdege]

Globalization existed because the USA thought it would be a good tool for carrying the USSR.

It was.

But that war is won. That the US is still guaranteeing free ocean passage to everyone for everything makes less sense than it used to.

So the US had been slowly stepping away from it since Bush 41.

The world is transitioning to more localized trade.

The problem is not just that there are many areas of the world that cannot feed themselves, there are far more areas of the world that can feed themselves only with imported fertilizer.

Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. The former needs cheap electricity, the other two are mined. The green revolution doesn’t work without plentiful access to all three.

[KarlInOhio]

Will the farmers be willing to give up their ethanol subsidies so they can grow food for starving Yemeni children. Did you hear me? Could someone turn up my microphone because I don’t think I can be heard over the laughter.