Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site unc.unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!mcnc!unc!fsks From: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics Subject: Re: The role of America in world hunger & red spread Message-ID: <143@unc.unc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 15:09:58 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.143 Posted: Tue Aug 13 15:09:58 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 06:16:04 EDT References: <295@SCIRTP.UUCP> <10996@rochester.UUCP> Reply-To: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Distribution: net Organization: CS Dept, U. of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill Lines: 36 Xref: linus net.flame:10655 net.politics:9790 >> We are providing Americans with foodstuffs we cannot grow as cheaply >> in America. E.G. bananas, sugar, coconuts. >> >> Of course they're not staples. They are being farmed from land >> *capable* of growing staples for the persons of that country. >> But as long as "agribusiness" controls land use, staples for >> the locals will not be grown. The locals cannot afford to >> buy food at prices Americans buy food for. In article <10996@rochester.UUCP> ray@rochester.UUCP (Ray Frank) writes: >If we can grow food stuffs cheaper in other countries, why are we >growing corn, wheat, etc. in this country? My suggestion to you >is to start a campaign against banana and coconut consump- >tion in this country and if is is successful, see if hunger >and poverty is re-duced in other countries. Chances are the result >will be to add banana and coconut farmers to the impoverished list. Not necessarily so. Suppose the 3rd-world plantations grow corn and wheat. They won't be able to sell it, since the U.S. can grow it cheaper. The landowners will not be able to eat it all themselves, so there will be nothing left to do with the excess but share it with the peasants. When the 3rd-world plantations grow bananas, sugar, and coconuts, the plantation owners can sell the crop for money, which they then keep for themselves, spending it on luxuries, or depositing it in Swiss banks. The peasants get none of it and thus starve. Communist revolutions solve this problem by mass death and destuction. This opens up many jobs (rebuilding), and the surviving workers are in short supply. Not to mention the benefits of slave-labor (Oops! I mean the labor of political criminals in re-education camps). Frank Silbermann