I'll admit it...I'm trying to go green. I replace burnt-out light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones, I bring my own grocery bags to the store, and I have had the thermostat turned off for over a week now. But the "greening" of the American culture has become another arena where we must enter with our minds critical, weighing the outcomes of our changes. Take the area of alternative biofuels. As one the major contributors to the world's bread basket, changes in agriculture have yet to truly change what is on our tables. But that's because we're rich. And as we see even in our own country, the rich are removed from the consequences that crush the poor. The third world has no margin for error. Here is part of an article in the NY Times:
"But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the Agriculture Department."
In America, we are considered lower class if we have to spend 30-40 percent on housing costs. In other parts of the world they spend up to 70 percent on food. And with the cost of grain doubling within the past year, the chore of feeding the family has become a crushing burden to bear in some parts of our world.
But this rise in prices has huge consequences...more than simply adding to the number of poor starving children dying across the ocean...it means political unrest. One of the first things I learned when I started working with the violent mentally ill, "It's hard to kick a nurse's a** when you're full" (direct quote). So if a patient is getting agitated, I usually make a piece offering of cheese and crackers. Hungry=Angry.
Well, we are seeing this play out on a global scale. Hunger equals unrest. Unrest equals violence and death. As we are seeing in Nigeria, poverty and unrest equals attacks on oil production and higher prices at our American pumps. Higher costs push American politicians to create goverment incentives for biofuel production.
So I have no easy answers. And no this blog will not become a political sounding board. I simply wanted to explore my own thoughts on this and encourage you to form your own opinion. There are two links to some good NY Times articles listed below. But mainly I wanted to add my voice to the collective conscience, encouraging you, the market, and the politicians to bear in mind the repurcussions beyond the gas pump. And to remember the lessons I learned while reading "Frankenstein" my freshman year of high school. Just because we can, does it mean we should?
"You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been." -Mary Shelley
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10thu1.html?ref=opinion
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/business/worldbusiness/21oil.html?th&emc=th
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