Right To Food
Life forms exist on this earth, and they struggle to find a place for themselves, to advantage themselves so that they may survive. If they are fortunate they will survive because they have proven themselves fit to, through their manipulation of their abilities to find vital food sources. Nature endows none of her creatures with a specific "right to survive", they must in and of their own particular resources, ensure to the best of their abilities that they are capable of surviving.This speaks to the needs of all creatures upon this earth. As it is with the vast populations of insect life, by far the greater preponderance of life, pound for pound, species by species, in this world, as well as it does to the fish of the oceans, the crustaceans, the birds and reptiles, and humankind. Humans have proven themselves to be singularly adept at manipulating their very environments, of forging great technological advances, of claiming the majesty of the highest order of lifeform on earth.
Though that's debatable, when one considers the social order and co-operation in survival demonstrated by ants and bees. Since human animals, unlike these insect social counterparts, are unable, on a large scale, to act en masse for the greater good of the species, seeking instead to advantage themselves individually, to prolong and safeguard their specific genes into posterity.
We all of us are ordered by nature with our variable agendas. Compassionate human beings will share with others when they have sufficient for themselves, but not always. When we are confronted by the fact that there are starving people and those among us who have food to spare are willing to share it that is one thing.
When people are largely dependent on their leaders, their governments, to order society in such a way as to benefit the entire society, one of the basic rights under the covenant between the people and their leaders is to govern wisely, to assist in the provision of certain freedoms, including the right to access food.
When the world was brought face to face with the Asian plight of food shortages, in the 1960s, new technologies, new varieties of seeds, new farming techniques were imported through what was then labeled the "green revolution", and India and China became capable of feeding their populations through greater productivity leading to higher agricultural yields. Asia was able to feed its burgeoning populations.
Now it's Africa that is facing food shortages, due to a combination of circumstances, from climate change resulting in abnormal weather patterns, to vicious civil wars, the rising cost of fertilizers and transport, and traditional farming communities uprooted from their agricultural homes to become migrants, refugees, as a result of political, tribal and social unrest and government mismanagement.
In these instances, when famine becomes reality because of the lack of interest or care or knowledge on the part of governing bodies whose rule results in collapsed agriculture and ruined economies, it might seem more reasonable to anticipate that the premiere world body, the United Nations should demand of these governments that they reform and return to the business of adequate governance.
Instead, the burden is placed on developed countries through initiatives such as the recent UN Human Rights Council calling on the international community to "take all necessary measures to ensure the realization of food rights - a basic human right" be available to all populations throughout the world.
While it makes good sense for the council to urge its member states to review "any policy or measure which could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food", that subtlety should be abandoned by an outright call for civil order in failed states.
Critically aware of the delicacy of the feelings of human-rights-abusing states, the Human Rights Council avoids naming and shaming, will not call on African countries to restore a working semblance of democratic action and the installation of responsible civic infrastructures to ensure the well-being of their people. Instead the burden of provision is placed on the well-managed and governed developed countries.
While there is a well-defined collective responsibility for the international community to aid and assist those nations still struggling to emerge into modernity and economic self-sufficiency, there is also a responsibility for emerging economies and traditional struggling economies to order themselves in the best interests of their people.
The countries of Africa, so long insistent on self-governance after their colonialist past, have bred collapsing expectations through ineptness and corruption.
The developed world balks at the necessity to interact with corrupt totalitarian regimes defiant of criticism, yet it acknowledges that to leave the plight of the people who suffer under these regimes to their fate is also not to be countenanced. Africa so often seems such a lost cause that the international donor community appears to have lost interest in offering help in agricultural modernization.
The World Bank has cut its lending for agriculture substantially, European donors have cut back, there are fewer bilateral development assistance projects from North America. African countries shun genetically modified food seeds, with the exception of South Africa. But China, with its immense and growing population is looking to its agricultural future, its continued ability to feed its huge hungry maw.
And finding itself with insufficient agricultural lands China has looked elsewhere - to Africa, where it can rent huge tracts of land and farm them, sending back the results to China to ensure that country remains food-sufficient. Chinese farmers are being increasingly dispatched to African countries where such deals have been signed, to use their expertise to ensure bumper harvests to benefit China.
Spectacularly, it is often enough the very African countries whose populations are critically short of food, that have signed deals with China, deals that enhance the government's coffers while doing nothing positive for its hungry population. Wouldn't a responsible government insist that Chinese agricultural expertise be taught and shared with African farmers whose traditional subsistence farming techniques would be improved?
Shouldn't it be seen as a responsibility for a country like China to share knowledge and technology with a view to giving practical aid to African countries with which it signs land-lease deals that enables China to export much-needed food to its own population?
Labels: Realities, Science, Societal Failures, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, May 25, 2008
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