I don’t want to well-ackshually people starving, buuuut as much as this sucks (and it does suck), USAID wasn’t providing cheap, heavily subsidized cereal crops produced in the US out of a benevolent commitment to charity, it was doing so to continue to prop up overproduction among US farmers and support the post-colonial, export-oriented agricultural economies in Africa. It’s a slim hope, but maybe something better can fill the vacuum.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
The negative effects of this are the axe constantly held over those countries via US “aid”. All it takes is the stroke of a pen to starve large populations. Better not step out of line.
If there is any silver lining I hope that countries can become morr food sovereign from this. I hope that they will receive multipolar aid to bridge them to food sovereignty.
Is there a tariff on famines or are we not exporting this one?
Seems to be a reference to USAID getting defunded
great.
