China is one of the world’s largest food producers. Recently an acute power shortage there reduced food output. This sent markets into panic. Severe global food shortages and increased prices could follow.What caused China’s power shortage? Over-reliance on renewable energy. It led to insufficient and unreliable electricity generation. That harmed domestic food production and global food security.Many people condemn coal. They espouse “green” policies. But these lead to power blackouts. And … [Read more...]
The Gates of Hell (or Heaven) in Africa?
Agribusiness, Small Family Farms, or Both?According to many critics, Western billionaires do not make the best farmers. Perhaps it is their inability (or unwillingness) to downsize grandiose plans from a Western-style agribusiness model to merely helping millions of subsistence farmers that dot the African landscape succeed in providing nutritious diets for their families and communities.That’s the conclusion of a major report from Germany entitled False Promises: The Alliance for a Green … [Read more...]
Food Security in a Post-Covid World
European Conservatives and Reformists Party hosts another ‘Europe Debates’ webinarUS-EU trade talks are already stalled over agriculture issues. And yet the European Union’s new “Farm to Fork” strategy doesn’t just double down on the EU’s contentious agricultural regulations. It promises to use access to European markets to compel the United States and other countries to adopt EU-style organic farming, precautionary and other regulations if they want to remain trading partners with Europe. … [Read more...]
UNPREPARED: Covid-19, Locusts, Refugees, Floods, and Climate Change
by G. Cornelis "Kees" van KootenI live on a Pacific Island off the coast of British Columbia (BC), Canada. Vancouver Island is about the same size as the Netherlands, but only has a population of about ¾ million (about 60% of whom live in the Victoria area) compared to 17 million in the Netherlands. As of April 8, 2020, BC had 1,291 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 43 deaths (mainly at long-term care homes), while the Island had 81 confirmed cases. The Netherlands had 20,682 confirmed cases and … [Read more...]
Does Fighting Global Warming Help or Hurt the Poor?
Want to "bring nothing but misery to poor people, especially in the developing world"? Simple: Just follow the advice of the international cabal of UN leaders and their organizations calling for drastic action to fight global warming. The harangue is familiar everywhere by now: Global warming will harm everybody, but it'll harm the poor most of all. Curbing it will help everybody, but it'll help the poor most of all. Is that true? Not according to Dr. Mikko Paunio, an expert on public health … [Read more...]
Quick Q&A about Genetically Modified Foods
A friend of Cornwall Alliance in Africa wrote, I am not yet certain what the real truth is about Genetically Modified Organisms (God's). Are they dangerous, or are they harmless? In a recent article on your blog, the writer totally asserts there's no danger in GMO'S, and provides links for further reading on actual findings about these products. I wonder, why is there such an aggressive crusade against them? Even well meaning, mature Christian leaders speak against their use. I would like to … [Read more...]
Veganism, Eastern Mysticism, and Mob Lynching
Globalization has changed our lives. With a changing culture, the food on our plate has become diverse. Sometimes that comes with a change in the philosophy of eating, too! Among the many ‘isms’ popular in the 21st century, veganism enjoys a special status. Food is an essential part of our lives. Supporters portray veganism as beneficial to both health and the environment. Veganism’s benefit to health is questionable. It can be difficult to obtain adequate protein on a vegan diet. Its … [Read more...]
Time to End Ethanol Mandate and Subsidies
Seven years ago Indur Goklany, an economist formerly with the U.S. Department of the Interior and associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since its inception in 1988 as an author, expert reviewer, and U.S. delegate to the organization, concluded a thorough analysis of the effect of American biofuels policy on the world's poor with these words: ... the production of biofuels [in the U.S.] may have led to at least 192,000 additional deaths and 6.7 million additional lost … [Read more...]
The Food Morality Movement & Health
It is truly a strange occurrence to see how a vocal portion of our culture is more concerned about “what you eat than who you have sex with.” I forgot where I saw that statement, but it isn’t too much of an overstatement. How often have you reached for this or that food and been told that item is killing you; a statement often accompanied with a smug self-righteous look? In fact, being obsessed with “healthy eating” is a disease called “orthexia nervosa.” While plenty of dietary habits can … [Read more...]
Where the Buffalo Roamed—and Roam Again
As a child in a good elementary school in the small town of Owego, New York, in the early 1960s, I learned dozens of old folk songs. Among them was “Home on the Range,” which I, like many of my fellow students, loved to sing, feeling all romantic about life on the range—ridin’ your faithful horse, sleepin’ under the stars, shootin’ rattlesnakes, tamin’ wild horses, herdin’ cattle, and singin’ ’round the campfire. Of course, none of us had ever seen the range, other than in cowboy Westerns, but … [Read more...]
