How Rich Countries Hurt the Poor and Persecute Their Own Citizens

Keep in mind as you read this that it is ALL ABOUT GOVERNMENT CONTROL.

I was just reading an article by Martin Kohr about Rio 20 and international food policies that damage poor farmers in the developing world. It made me realize how little the average man in the street (Hey, that includes me!) knows about our food policies and their impact. This is what made my ears prick:

Several panellists identified the way food has become part of the global financial system as a new crisis-laden problem. Petrini said food used to be sacred and the main thing in life, but it had become a mere product in the commodity and financial market, causing large swings in prices....

A new paradigm is needed to address the big food crisis, including reducing food waste, stopping land grabs in Africa, combatting rich country subsidies that undercut poor farmers’ markets, fighting food speculation as well as the profit-centred push for genetically modified organisms that damages small communities.

My own focus was on how the global trading system was still allowing massive distortions in which rich countries subsidised agriculture by almost US$400 billion a year and sold subsidised foods to poor countries at artificially low prices, thus damaging the livelihoods of small farmers.

The IMF and World Bank imposed a policy package on African countries that got them to remove subsidies and support for farmers while cutting their tariffs to 10-20 per cent, thus opening the road to surges of food imports and converting poor countries from being net exporters to net importers of food....

Meanwhile, speculation has increased tremendously in commodity markets, and greatly magnifies the volatility in food prices, which has added to the food access problem.

In 1974 Henry Kissinger sent a report to the White House titled  IMPLICATIONS OF WORLDWIDE POPULATION GROWTH FOR U.S. SECURITY AND OVERSEAS INTERESTS. This document included statements about using food (as well as birth control) to reduce world population especially in the third world.  Among the "questions" asked in the report were these:

On what basis should such food resources then be provided [to developing countries]? Would food be considered an instrument of national power? Will we be forced to make choices as to whom we can reasonably assist, and if so, should population efforts be a criterion for such assistance?

Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can't/won't control their population growth?

Should the U.S. seek to change its own food consumption patterns toward more efficient uses of protein?

Are mandatory population control measures appropriate for the U.S. and/or for others?...

While definitive answers to those questions are not possible in this study given its time limitations and its implications for domestic policy, nevertheless they are needed if one accepts the drastic and persistent character of the population growth problem. Should the choice be made that the recommendations and the options given below are not adequate to meet this problem, consideration should be given to a further study and additional action in this field as outlined above.

This report gives a clear view of how rich governments plan to use the power of the purse to coerce and blackmail poorer countries through their aid programs. You want food assistance, you get the programs in place to force contraception and sterilization on your people. A quote attributed to Kissinger which I haven't been able to source is this: "If you control oil, you control the country; if you control food, you control the population." Perhaps that explains HR 2751 and SB 510. Food control isn't just for foreign countries. Control of people starts at home.



To read the texts of HR 2751 and SB 510 side by side go here and see "compare this bill to another" on the right hand index. Then click on 2751 which was signed by President Obama on January 4, 2011. One of the reasons small farmers are up in arms over these bills is that they leave implementation under the discretion of the government. For example, here's what 2751 says about who makes the rules:

‘(A) RULEMAKING- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, the Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture (including with regard to the national organic program established under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990), and in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall publish a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of those types of fruits and vegetables, including specific mixes or categories of fruits and vegetables, that are raw agricultural commodities for which the Secretary has determined that such standards minimize the risk of serious adverse health consequences or death.

And for those who claim this will have NO impact on small family farmers or the home gardener who may want to have a little vegetable stand, there are no guarantees that's true: 

‘(B) DETERMINATION BY SECRETARY- With respect to small businesses and very small businesses (as such terms are defined in the regulation promulgated under subparagraph (A)) that produce and harvest those types of fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities that the Secretary has determined are low risk and do not present a risk of serious adverse health consequences or death, the Secretary may determine not to include production and harvesting of such fruits and vegetables in such rulemaking, or may modify the applicable requirements of regulations promulgated pursuant to this section.

Notice the word "may." This bill authorizes the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Homeland Security (!) to exempt small businesses and local farmers, but it's up to them to decide. If anyone is comforted by that little word "may" they need to see the persecution of small farmers and co-ops already going on around the country. A documentary released last year called Farmageddon documents the assault on family farmers. Watch the trailer.



Anyone with eyes to see knows that we are losing our liberties. The only rights the government seems to "protect" these days are those linked to population control (murder of the unborn, encouragement of sterile sex, promotion of homosexuality, legalization of assisted suicide, and the deliberate murder by neglect of the helpless.). But don't expect the right to drink unpasteurized milk or to by your food at a local food co-op. They'll send in the armed police to pour out your milk and shoot your animals. Pray for the farmers! This is getting uglier all the time.