“How many men ever went to a barbecue and would let one man take off the table what’s intended for 9/10ths of the people to eat. The only way you’ll ever be able to feed the balance of the people is to make that man come back and bring back some of that grub he ain’t got no business with.” – Huey Long
It’s 90 degrees in Finland. It’s 105 in Tokyo. It’s 110 in Dallas. Greece is on fire. Sweden is on fire. Iran is running out of water. The planet is burning, and at the same time we demand ever higher agriculture yields.
This week on the leftorium, we’ll briefly explore the future of food and water. While global hunger has decreased the past generation, there are troubling signs that the current global agricultural model cannot be sustained, and food and water – the most basic elements of life – will be concentrated in the hands of an elite few.
In Mexico, we see a glimpse of this future. The town of San Cristóbal de las Casas simply does not have enough water to sustain its population, so Coca-Cola from the local bottling plant is the cheaper, and safer, alternative. The results are devastating. Morality rates from diabetes skyrocketed 30 percent in just 3 years, killing 3,000 people annually.
In America, SNAP benefits can no longer be used for farmers markets, guaranteeing that money flows into the hands of massive corporations, not to family farms. This also eliminates access to fresh healthy foods, and increases food deserts. In other words, access to food is more restricted, and more concentrated in the hands of a few.
In India, water scarcity has impacted rice production. A staple of the human diet the world over threatened for lack of water. A local farmer is not optimistic, “It will be more difficult for rice farmers in the future. There is no water. Farmlands are turning barren. In the old days, there was a lot of water in the Rispana river, but for the last few years, the river water has been taken over by the Jal Nigam. As a result, we farmers are purely dependent on rainwater. If God is kind and there is a lot of rain, we are safe,” says Ramola.
All across the world, we see signs that the incredible abundance we’ve known the past generation is in danger. It won’t be the rich and well connected who go hungry. It will be all of us.
Elsewhere in the world of left-wing politics, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders campaigned in Wichita, Kansas. It went very well.
What’s going on in your world?