Friday 27 August 2010

Yet another scathing write-up on food security


"Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word ‘famine' from all laws of the State."
Food Security - by definition
"....Who will you export it to? Are there good global prices for rotting grain? Grain that even when in best condition was not of superior quality? What you will do is flog it at rock bottom prices to traders who know you won't consider any other option — like letting the hungry eat it — and can knock your prices through the floor. And then the traders can export it as cattle feed — like India has done before in this very decade. About the only thing Iran and Iraq could agree on in 30 years was that the grain exported to them from India was unfit for human consumption. Both rejected shipments early this decade. But there are always, never fear, European cattle. Talk of sacred cows — these will be subsidised by some of the hungriest humans on the planet....."

Why isn't P Sainath our Minister for Agriculture?