Whenever we hear of a lack of food in Africa, we hear about droughts and such. What folks don’t tell us is there is still plenty of places to grow things, but those places have been dedicated to providing luxury food items to far flung regions of the world.

Take Kenya for example …

Immediate, medium and long-term priority interventions, including controlling food prices, providing food aid and creating employment, are required to stop more Kenyans going hungry, an inter-agency assessment of the 2008/2009 short rains recommends.

The interventions in livestock, agriculture, fisheries, water, education, health and nutrition sectors would address Kenya’s food insecurity, which is becoming “increasingly entrenched”, states the report compiled by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, with several Kenyan ministries, UN agencies and NGOs.

(KENYA: Severe warning sounded on food security, UN news reporting agency IRIN, 03/2/09)

The proffered solutions are quite standard big corporation/government action to save the tiny child, woman and man

For agriculture, the report recommends providing drought-tolerant seeds and farm inputs to farmers in areas affected by months of post-election violence in early 2008.

For the water sector, the assessment recommends water-trucking; fuel subsidies, borehole rehabilitation; desilting water sources; rain harvesting; rehabilitation of shallow wells and the rehabilitation of irrigation canals.

In the food sector, the report says at least 123,000 metric tonnes of food commodities will be required from April to September and recommends the prioritising of food and association costs for 2.5 million drought-affected people; 850,000 school children and 150,000 internally displaced persons; and a supplementary feeding programme.

(ibid)

Now take a look at what Kenya is exporting (numbers from the UN)

   

Kenya has a huge agricultural base, but much of this base has been turned over to interests that aren’t serving the immediate and long term needs of Kenya itself. Imagine if Kenya grew an extra 123,000 metric tons of food for a hungry population instead of growing for export.

But then they couldn’t afford the latest genetically modified and tightly controlled seeds from Monsanto and others, could they? (For more see GM Crops Irrelevant for Africa, printed at the Institute of Science in Society.)

… really!

A review of bird populations in the United States was released March 19 by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Nearly a third of the United States’ 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, the new report shows.

Bird populations are critical indicators of the health of our environment – “like the canary in the coal mine,” Salazar said at a press conference.

(U.S. bird populations in decline, report says, Science News, 03/19/09)

(Using bird metaphors in a story about birds doesn’t really work … does it?)

The heartening side of things

But conservation projects have been successful in reversing declines in some bird populations. Populations of 39 different species of waterfowl have increased by more than 100 percent during the past 40 years, thanks to efforts to restore more than 30 million acres of wetlands, the report says.

When society works together in a cooperative and practical fashion, great things can happen. Obama is attempting to follow a fantastically successful model presented by FDR in the ’30s (whether Obama is successful remains to be seen, but early indicators portend good things). Here in Vermont we have Efficiency Vermont as a great example of working hand in hand with excellent results.

Yes … what we do does make a difference.

It seems Anthony Pollina doesn't want his list of supporters to forget about him in the early hubbub around the inevitable Democratic Party primary for Governor next year. The following went out to his email list Thursday: 

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:01:53 -0400
From: apollina@sover.net
Subject: Vermonters to Douglas – Get in Touch Sometime

Dear xxxxx,
Being on the Pollina for Governor email list I thought you might want to share perspectives that help separate political rhetoric from reality.  
    
This week Douglas co-hosted a Health Care Summit on behalf of the Obama Administration. For those who support real reform, a single-payer system, the irony was too great to ignore. A health care summit convened by Douglas had to be seen as a farce by those who know Douglas' record.

Vermonters fight to maintain health services, even in hard times, Douglas leads the charge to throw people off services and raise costs for lower income and middle class working families. Vermonters send their message of universal healthcare to Douglas. He ignores it. Vermonters believe health care is a right. Not Douglas. Obama gives hope. Douglas turns his back on Vermonters. Obama needs a Republican ally, which Douglas is eager to be. But, when it comes to health care, this charade goes too far.

At a rally before and inside the Summit, single-payer advocates, health providers, med students and others, were heard clearly. Even the media got the message. Not sure about the Governor.

Real reform is not a public insurance “option.” Catamount Health is such an option using taxpayer, public dollars to subsidize private insurance. It helps some folks. But is no guarantee of care.  In Massachusetts you buy insurance or pay a fine. Not real reform.

Real reform means removing the one thing we do not need in health care – greedy insurance companies standing between us and the care we need.

Douglas says we can't afford reform. But, even the Business Roundtable says U.S. health care costs are bad for business and puts workers at significant disadvantage.

Obama says if he could start from scratch he would have a single-payer system.
Douglas called Catamount annoying and would have killed it if he had a line item veto.

When Douglas returned from a trip to the White House in February, citizens met him at the airport protesting his budget cuts. Justifying his cuts Douglas said, “Vermonters are already the highest taxed people in America.” We've heard it before. This time, with Channel 5 filming, citizens proclaimed, “it's not true.” The Governor repeated; “It is true. It is true. It is true.” Childish, but more importantly, wrong. During our campaign I challenged his spin on taxes and Douglas backed down, flipping, flopping and admitting, it is not true. The people were right, to speak up and not back down.  

Our actions and voices make a difference. I'll stay in touch with occasional emails to remind us, of the challenges we face, the difference we make, and the importance of being sure we are heard.  

Anthony
Talk about difference. Look at the Burlington Free Press editorial March 18; “The Time Has Come For Marriage Equality.”  They completely reverse their position. In 1999, they opposed civil unions, justified discrimination and predicting violence if civil unions passed. Now they say; “Vermont boasts a long and proud heritage of civil rights and social tolerance – and we call for adding marriage equality to that heritage.” Think Douglas will get the message?

Oy. Just a reminder of why IRV would be a good thing; it essentially allows a left wing, cross-party primary election to coexist on the same ballot as a general election, even if it does so in a flawed manner, as Wes so ably pointed out.

Still, warts and all, IRV is the best answer we've got, as a traditional runoff election would clearly be unconstitutional in Vermont. With these stakes, its not a good idea to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

And if we don't have IRV next time (which is seeming like the likliest scenario at this point, in light of how the Burlington mayoral election went down and all the nervousness/questions that have arisen around it), we on the left are going to have to figure out a way to creatively force a primary. Whatever the hell that means.