Quote:
Originally Posted by Duffman
Have you looked at the subsidies going to agriculture?
The root of all of this is that Europe and North America had a policy for decades of overproducing grains and this was accomplished through massive subsidies. This excess food was dumped on the world markets below cost of production. This excess of food has allowed areas of the world to grow populations that have outpaced their local ability to supply food to themselves. Now that the 1rst world is faced with a quick rise in energy costs and concerns of GHGs it is no longer in our interests to subsidize cheap food for the rest.
I don’t mind providing aid to poor parts of the world when they are in need. But I am not prepared to reduce my standard of living or my future children’s just so the people of the 3rd world can continue to have 10 children and outpace the capacity of their local environment to sustain themselves as well.
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Agreed.
The real solution is the education and development of countries where population is booming so they have a more sustainable birthrate. World population growth is already slowing down though. First world countries are mostly imploding population wise and are slowly working on replacing themselves with Mexican or Arab immigrants.
Past subsidies for agriculture don't make subsidies for ethanol a good idea though. Just having done something before doesn't mean we should do it again, but there might be other compelling reasons. (I'm not saying you were arguing this, just making a point rather).