who here is a vegan/ vegetarian?

Az usual "day" have it azz backward, Writin 2 Websterz 2 switch duh definition 4
Vegan 2 Vegetatian, Pleeeezzzzzzzzzzzz cunfine duh pig shit (Liez) to politicz.

 

That makes sense.

I mean, if we grow more food, there'll be more food and less people will be hungry right?

Don't get me wrong, like I said, I'm thinking about becoming a vegetarian, and I support your descision.

But I don't like hearing myths like that perpetuated, because it ignore the basic realities of hunger, and how it affects people. In that sense, myths like that about world hunger can be dangerous.

Why is it a myth? I mean, you're right, we could grow more many grains per acre then it takes to grow lifestock right? Why don't we just give that food away.

As an example, I'm going to discuss Africa. This is appropriate in discussing world hunger, as Africa has the most severe problem of famine in the world.

If we had more food, we could just give it to Africans right? Well the problem in Africa is not that they don't have enough food given to them,
it's that they don't have the infrastructure to deliver this food. It's not that Africans can't grow food, but much of Sub-Saharan Africa has been decimated by war. This leads to a tremendous problem in infrastructure.

By infrastrucutre I mean roads, refrigeration, and markets. They have dirt sun and water in Africa, but they don't have the roads to transport their food, they don't have refrigeration to keep their food better longer, and they don't have markets to sell their food properly. The last one is key to understanding the causes of hunger, the effects of markets on food prices.

This leads to a situation in which while one community in Nigeria might be starving due to a drought, Chad right next door may have plenty of food , which will rot in warehouses.

(continues next post)

 

Alright, this next part is kind of hard to understand, but it's by far the most important aspect to understanding hunger.

Africa, has a larger percentage of their population farming then anywhere else in the world. In fact, Africa produces tons of crops. Africa produces much more food then the people of Africa need.

So why are people hungry? Why is a cotton farmer unable to sell his crops to buy food, and why does a Corn farmer not have anything else to eat besides corn and end up malnurished?

The reason is, Africans can't sell their crops. In fact, the prices of food in Africa are so low in much of Africa that while a family may have been farming for thousands of years, they will lose money if they sell their crops.

World hunger, is an social and more importantly, economic problem.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wto/2005/1021removal.htm

The root of this problem is an Export Subsidy.

What a subsidy is is essentially a government paying a person for something which the government finds nessecary. In exports a government will pay for more of the crop so it will sell better overseas.

In Japan, a cow is paid two dollars a day by the government. Most farmers in Africa make about a dollar a day.

This may be a little hard to understand, but imagine you're an African selling rice. Then the government of Spain comes along and sells all this rice they have artificially deflated the price of, and their rice is much cheaper then your rice.

Sure, more people might be able to afford rice, but what happens when this happens to every crop Africans grow? When everyone is a farmer, that essentially destroys the entire agriculture economy of a continent which has more famers then anywhere else.

Agriculture subsidies are the principle cause of not only African hunger, but also African poverty.

Donating food to Africa, in many situations, is a bad thing to do. This is because free food will do even more to destroy the African Agriculture markets. This doesn't include humanitarian relief, in situations like Darfur, but in most situations, donating food to Africans will actually cause more African hunger.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/subsidies/2002/10stopdumping.pdf

There is a little hope. The WTO, in the best thing it's ever promised to due, has voted to end export subsidies by 2013. This would do more to allviate hunger than anything else we could do. Unfortunatly they have yet to come up with an actual timeline for such. But it's great that they've begun to aproach it and set a timetable. Now all we have to do is to hold them through it.

Like I said, I'm definatly not trying to talk you out of the Vegetarian thing. I'm considering it too because I think as we evolve we shouldn't need to kill things to meet our dietary needs. I defiantly understand not wanting to hurt animals.

I'm just very intrested in hunger and I don't like hearing people say that vegitarianism will cure hunger thing, because I feel it detracts attention from the real causes of hunger.

 

good for you lodui...i've always read your posts and always hated how an intelligent person like you, would always joke about vegetarianism. but it's definatley something many many intelligent people get into and even become passionate about, for good reason too i hope you do learn more about it, as you seem to enjoy learning too, and stick with it..its a wonderful and very important thing to open your mind to i think.

and it is a whoooole lot healthier too

 

I do enjoy vegetarianism, but there's a moderation to it all.

 

wadda you mean?

veganism though, to me, is a very enjoyable thing. i mean, not as much as at first, but theres a great sense of moral satisfaction it for me. plus its so godamn easy, it just makes me feel like i know a secret in life, and im blessed to know how to be so healthy so easily.

 

I'm a super-strict vegan. For the Earth.

 

haha i haven't really lost that much weight from being a vegetarian.pretty much the same as i was in the begining

 

I met this wonderful girl alittle awhile ago, a vegan. I have to admit it, I never quite got it until she made a few meals for me. Soy and tofu, never thought you could produce those kinds of flavours from things so flavourless. We'd eat these massive amounts of food, feel incredibily satisfied but not bogged down. Also, I never realized just how much B.S. vegans have to put up with sometimes based on the choice they make. I totally have a new found respect for them!

 

I have been a Vegetarian for about 3 years now and am almost a Vegan except for a few products. I have no desire at all to eat meat and strongly recoment this lifestyle!

 

Vegetarian.

On a *break* of sorts from veganism.