Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Denver Mods 7/26/84) 6/24/83; site drutx.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!drutx!dlo From: dlo@drutx.UUCP (OlsonDL) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: The role of America in world hunger & red spread Message-ID: <188@drutx.UUCP> Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 14:54:41 EDT Article-I.D.: drutx.188 Posted: Fri Aug 16 14:54:41 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 04:19:48 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver Lines: 77 From: todd@SCIRTP.UUCP (Todd Jones) >> >> OK, great, now we the bread basket are removing over half the food crop from >> already impoverished nations. What are we doing with this food? >> Storing it with our already over abundant crop? >We are providing Americans with foodstuffs we cannot grow as cheaply >in America. E.G. bananas, sugar, coconuts. >> Our farmers must appreciate that. >They don't care they can't grow the aforementioned. Do I detect a contradiction here? There is a big difference between "cannot grow as cheaply as" and "can't grow". Besides, the US does grow sugar; Hawaii and Louisana grow sugar cane and Colorado grows sugar beets. >> If you are talking about a particular crop, sugar or coconuts for example, >> you might be right, but items such as these can hardly >> be considered as staples. >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. This is not completly true. S. E. Asia grows its own rice. The vast majority of the crops grown in Mexico are staples (corn, beans, wheat, soybeans, livestock, seafood). About 10% of its cotton 7% of its sugar, and less than 5% of anything else it produces is exported. Argentina grows huge amounts of corn and wheat. About 36% of its fruits and vegetables, 15% meats, 13% wine, beer, and tobacco, and less than 10% of anything else it produces is exported. Brazil grows wheat, corn, rice in about the same amounts as tropical fruits. About 29% of its coffee, 11% of its minerals, and less than 10% of anything else it produces is exported. Nicaragua produces about as much corn as it does bananas. About 36% of its coffee, 12% of its cotton, 6% meats, and less than 5% of anything else it produces is exported. For El Salvador, 44% of its coffee, 10% of its cotton, and less than 4% of anything else it produces is exported. In fact, staples of many kinds (mostly grains) are grown throughout Latin America; most of which stays inside that particular country. >...I stated the primary reason for poverty is the >resource drain from these countries to America and Europe. >I'm all for modernization that focuses on the long-term >interests of the country adopting it. Modernization in >South America for American consumables doesn't do South >America a whole lot of good, does it? >Modernization has allowed American multinational corporations >to profitably exploit the resources of third world countries, In Brazil, the average farm size is 160 acres (hardly corporate size); only 10% of the farms are greater than 250 acres. >while American foreign policy ignores the problems created >by resource drain. For fruits and nuts in $million: Year US Imports US Exports 1980 859 2930 1981 995 3314 1982 1094 2716 Total imports/exports in $million from/to "20 Latin American Republics": Year US Imports US Exports 1980 29851 36030 1981 32023 38950 1982 32513 30806 Hardly what I would call a "resource drain" into the US. If you don't like the information, send your flames to the people at the _Encyclopedia_Britanica_, the _Encyclopedia_Americana_, and the _1984_World_Almanac_ --- the sources of this information. David Olson ..!ihnp4!drutx!dlo "To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools". -- Jean de la Bruyere