World Food Crisis - Urgent Petition

Regular readers of The Secret Of Life will know that I believe that the various problems facing the world are so complex that a wholesale upgrade in human consciousness is needed if we're going to sort them out. But that doesn't mean to say that we just have to sit back and twiddle our thumbs in the meantime. There are times when action is needed.

The current preoccupation with the world financial crisis has been drawing attention away from something which is far more critical: a world shortage of food. There have been food riots in Haiti (where people are having to eat mud cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening instead of the food they can't afford to buy) and unrest in a string of other countries including Egypt, Mozambique, Senegal and Indonesia. There are warnings that more than a hundred million people worldwide could be plunged into hunger.

The reasons for this are complex. They include the growing popularity of meat in some emerging nations and the effects of recent poor harvests due to climate change, but they also include the biofuels policy of western governments.

Biofuels seemed like a really good idea; reducing reliance on fossil fuels by growing plants and putting those in your car instead. This would be a source of renewable energy and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Biofuels have therefore become an important part of the strategy for cutting carbon emissions worldwide. The European Union's Biofuels Directive, for instance, states that biofuels should comprise 5.75% of traffic fuel by 2010 - and 10% of it by 2020. In the US, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires American fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022.

The only trouble is: the leaders haven't done joined up thinking. The farmers who are being encouraged to grow biofuels are no longer growing food, which is why the use of these new fuels is one of the most important factors which is pushing up global fuel prices. Put crudely and simply (and only a little over-simplistically) people are starving and literally having to eat mud because we're putting their food in our cars.

I don't think we should be too hard on our leaders here. The drive to biofuels has come from perfectly sensible intentions. But clearly things are going wrong. The situation is proving to be a lot more complex than they realized. Quite apart from the food problem, it turns out that the growing of biofuels is not always environmentally friendly after all: not when trees are being cleared away to produce them. Of course it is vital to address the problem of carbon emissions, but it seems like a lot more serious thinking is needed before we make some terrible mistakes.

Sometimes petitions have little chance of making a real difference. They serve little purpose except perhaps to make us feel a bit less bad about whatever is happening. But this is a different situation. It is vital that we the people make it plain that we will not stand for this, that we are not willing to let people in other parts of the world starve to death so that we can run our cars. It is vital that we let our leaders know that they have to think again about this one. Please consider signing this petition, which will be brought before the leaders at upcoming global summits.

You can read about biofuels on Wikipedia here. There are many articles on the net about the effect of biofuels on the food crisis. One of them is here. But they need to be higher up the agenda....

This seems like a good time to mention that there's a big 'free food' button on my sidebar - it should be easy to spot. Click on that and you can give food to the needy for free. And from that site you can follow links to other sites about breast cancer, child welfare, saving the rain forest etc. They all allow you to give to worthy causes for free. I try to click through them every day. It takes very little time and every little helps.

But don't forget to sign that petition...

Comments

[Grace]

Signed. THANK YOU, Simon, for this post!

[Grace]

Signed!

[Sue Ann Edwards]

The Earth Itself can maintain 10 Billion people at the rate of our energy usage right now. We will reach that figure in about ~25 years.

If consciousness has not accelerated its expansion by bringing in technology and wisdom to see to the problem of food, then 'things' will start happening in terms of disease and disaster, that will start culling our numbers down, to a level the earth can support.

[Sue Ann Edwards]

Since we live in "oneness", with "balance" maintained at all times, can you see the "oneness" and the "balance" between people starving to death and the shovel fulls of food consumed by the "obese" and "fat"?

[Harmony]

Thank you Simon for being who you are in the world. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
your fan,

[Liara Covert]

Whenever human beings focus on crisis, they will get more of the same. It makes more sense to be solutions-oriented, from the conception oof thought, to the spoken and written word. When I question my thoughts, I ask what someone like Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama would or wouldn't do. They are peace and love-oriented. To me, the solution lies in that kind of mindset. Anything else simply takes us further from what we want.

[Chase March]

I think that when there are starving people on the earth, we can't possibly think about using possible food products to fuel our cars. It is ridiculous. I hope people wake up and come up with a better solution than biofuels.

[Mark]

Thanks for creating more awareness to this global plight.

[Simon]

Grace – And thank you for signing!

Sue Ann – ‘Technology and wisdom’: yes! The two need to go hand in hand. In our recent history, we seem to have had a lot more of the former than we do of the latter.

Sue Ann again – I think it is more about ‘imbalance’ than ‘balance’ at the moment. And the more we experience oneness, the more we will be aware of that imbalance. Once upon a time, it was easy for us to put the starving people in the world into a little box in our heads that we didn’t need to think about very much. That is going to get increasingly harder for us – and thank goodness for that…

Harmony – Thank you – you say the nicest things! I’m kind of a fan of yours too! ((If you haven’t already done so, do take a look at Harmony’s blog…))

[Simon]

Liara – Thanks for your comment. I welcome your input on this. Something that came up on the Eckhart-Oprah webcasts the other week was the problem of working to change – and motivate others to change – the problems in the world, but also to come from a place of stillness, a place of connection to All That Is. It can be a difficult balancing act.

Looking back over my post in the light of your comments, I can see that it might have been better to replace the emotive word ‘crisis’ with the descriptive word ‘shortage’ in the title. Other than that, I still think I got it about right. I took care in the way I phrased it. I put in the bit about not blaming our leaders because I wanted to provoke action, not anger. All too often, when we read something like this, we are looking for someone to blame. And the post *is* solution-oriented. It is focussed on asking people to sign the petition to promote awareness and bring about further action.

I agree that approaching the situation with a loving mindset – and perhaps focussing on the concept of ‘plenty’ rather than ‘shortage’ - will also be beneficial. But as I said, there are times when action is needed too. It is all too easy for those of us who are spiritually aware to forget about that bit. This is a mistake which many people make when trying to apply the law of attraction. They think it is all about thinking the right thoughts and using our imagination. But it is also necessary to do what needs to be done.

When the change in human consciousness comes – when we all awaken to the way things really are – it will be so much easier to solve humanity’s problems, because we will be coming from a place where we have our collective welfare in mind instead of our individual self-interest. But it won’t be a case of just sitting down and thinking harmonious thoughts. We will need to take that harmonious mindset with us as we go out into the world - and use these bodies we have been given to do what has to be done to put things right.

[Simon]

Hi Chase! The problem is complex and I suspect there will still be a place for biofuels in our efforts to slow down climate change. Although I used the phrase ‘world shortage of food’, I’m not sure it is entirely accurate. It is more an economic problem, in that relative scarcity is forcing up prices beyond what many people can afford. In Haiti, where they are eating mud, there is plenty of food in the markets. It’s just that people can’t afford it. What our leaders need to do is to fully appreciate the complexities of the situation, rather than simply setting simplistic targets. Unfortunately, in our world of sound bite politics, complexities often get overlooked.

Thanks, Mark! Like I say, I think it’s important to do what we can to get this further up the news agenda. People need to be made aware of the situation.

Thanks for all your comments!

[AngelBaby]

Wow this is great, I signed the petition. I hope this helps.
As always your site has the most amazing and beautiful posts on it. Thank you for sharing this.
I have something for you on my site.

Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby

[liveforever]

Regarding the biofuel…

We know someone who has a double-decker red London bus and takes unwanted left-over cooking oil from McDonalds and makes bio-diesel from it and travels around Australia going to festivals - spreading knowledge about alternative fuels (he also has solar and wind power). It's great!

- Robin

[Liara Covert]

I agree people indeed get wrapped up in thinking about what they can do to persuade others to change. Such effort may also reinforce a sense of helplessness. Taking steps that enable you to feel good, that enable you to reinforce a collective conscience, can take into account the implications of your behavior. Whether or not other people follow your example doesn't make it any less meaningful for your self- reflection and ongoing journey to personal transformation. We can learn from everybody and everything.

[Simon]

Hi Angelbaby – Thanks for your lovely comments – and thanks for signing the petition!

[Simon]

Hi Robin/liveforever – As I mentioned above, I’m sure there’s a place for biofuels as long as we plan things properly – and your story illustrates this point wonderfully. If we could all run our cars on the food that goes to waste instead of taking it out of the mouths of other people, we’d be talking about a whole different ball game. I’m sure there’s scope for turning this sort of idea – and other similar logistical challenges - into reality. What we need is the will to tackle the necessary complexities: to do the work that’s needed to make it happen.

[Simon]

Hi again Liara – It’s like everything else. It’s best not to get attached to results. To do so can indeed make us feel helpless. The thing to do is to do what feels right – in this case, make information available – and then simply trust. It may later feel right to take further action – or it may not. It is a question of doing what feels right to us, rather than acting out of some imagined obligation.

[Liara Covert]

Some people might go to the extreme and begin to assume that all their perceived obligations are illusions. In some sense we all live a dream. Its ironic part of the human-created world is 'results-oriented.' Individuals may focus on an end rather than the means and journey that really count for what goes on inside and in the form of energy fields.

[Simon]

I think most of we humans spend most of our time focussed on the end result of what we are doing. I'm not sure it's a dream exactly - more like sleep! We can live our lives without paying attention to the present moment at all, our minds full of an intended outcome which seems all-important until we achieve it. Then it seems rather hollow, and we need to find something else to distract us from the experience of actually living our life.

And it is worth asking ourselves, perhaps, what our leaders are focussed on? Creating a favorable headline or solving the problems of the planet? The latter may require them to stay awake.