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Archive for April, 2008
What’s Causing the Food Crisis?
Many people are deeply concerned about the world’s deepening food crisis. Food prices are soaring and the poor in impoverished countries are having to cut back and in some cases are starving. The situation in Haiti is so desperate riots have destablized the government and many have resorted to eating “mudcakes” or patties made of dirt.
This is a moral outrage, and estimates suggest 10 million people will die due to the crisis
If you haven’t already, please, take action alongside the 113,305 members of ONE demanding a response to the crisis.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad information going around about this issue. A lot of people are blaming U.S. farm subsidies which lower world prices and steal potential income from poor farmers. ONE has worked to eliminate this horrible practice–but the problem is that food prices too high. (Note: Biofuel subsidies are another story. They do contribute both to higher food prices and by some estimates to global warming.)
The real problems are both decreasing supply–because of droughts in Australia and other parts of the world and many rice-producing Asian economies closing off exports in a panic–and increasing demand, because the progress reducing poverty in Asia has added millions of new meat consumers and cows requires 8-13 lbs of grain for each pound of edible beef for example.
I found this interview with Research Fellow Peter Timmer enlightening.
This blog post from Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian details short-term and long term policy options. (Warning: It is filled with jargon. I was not a big fan of the presentation.)
And if you are done with finals and have plenty of spare time, you might want to check out this 2-page paper by Peter Timmer on who wins and who loses in the U.S. food aid system which needs desperate reform.
– Steve, ONE Tampa
P.S. One last reminder: Take Action. The initial surge in activism and media coverage led President Bush to allocate $200 million for emergency food aid. But he can be pressured to do more.
New On The Front Page
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You’ll notice a couple of changes to ONE.org/campus over the next couple of days, but I want to point out one in particular that you might find handy: the Rock the Vote widget.
Clicking on this little puppy (which you also see to the right here) should give you a screen with a pretty simple form on it. After you fill out this form it auto-completes a voter registration form for you, and you just print and mail. Couldn’t be much easier than that.
ONE Webster RPS Tournament
The competition was fierce last night at ONE Webster’s first Rock Paper Scissors Tournament. The true prize was honor, but our winner, Ben Simon, also walked away with a Product (RED) iPod Shuffle. No one left empty handed because we had ONE Campaign tee-shirts for the runner-ups.
Local rapper/producer Blake Symphony hosted and refereed the night while DJ Double B spun some competition music. Poverty can be a depressing subject, but last night proved that it doesn’t have to be. We didn’t talk about AIDS or debt relief, but every participant signed the ONE Declaration and a couple decided to start attending ONE Webster meetings. I think they’ll find that fighting poverty is not depressing. It is an adventure. After all, we decide what the history books will remember our generation for.
Migration and Poverty
One of the issues that most activists generally avoid in policy discussions is immigration. We talk often about development aid, free trade, and debt relief, and on occasion about transparency, emergency humanitarian aid, and in very rare instances funding peace-keepers.
But immigration is one of the oldest and move proven means of fighting poverty–especially in the story of America. And considering the scale of extreme poverty we should at least consider every tool we have to fight it.
In this interview with reason magazine, Harvard economist Lant Pritchett talks about why migration can do so much to lift people out of poverty and why its such a touchy subject.
It opened my eyes a lot, yet the story it tells is all too familiar My great-great-great grandparents (or something like that) immigrated here from Ireland to escape their poverty and start a better life. Now, of course, today’s world is far more complex, but the principle of moving on to start a better life remains the dream of most people in the world.
Message From The Better World Campaign
Building off all the amazing advocacy work you’ve been doing on college campuses for the past several months, we though you ONE Campus Challenge-rs might be interested in On Day One
How can the next administration best tackle global poverty? How can it stop the spread of the global AIDS pandemic? What steps can it take to ensure the rights and safety of women and girls around the world? “Y In The World” is a contest all about ideas—and you telling the candidates YOUR ideas of how the U.S. can work with the international community to help solve these—and many other—pressing global challenges. In addition to contributing to an important policy conversation, the winners of the contest will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the July Youth Leadership Summit
Tell your friends, get out your video camera, and start pondering what YOU think
- Nicole Sawran, Better World Campaign
Apostolic Journey
As you may have heard, Pope Benedict XVI is in the U.S. to visit Washington D.C. and New York City as part of his first apostolic journey to the U.S.
ONE has always had strong support from the faith community–the Jubilee debt relief campaign, which was ONE’s forerunner in many respects, had the endorsement of Pope John Paul II–and it continues to reach out with ONE Sabbath.
The last time I checked the Catholic Church ran about 25% of the AIDS clinics in the world. The percentage probably isn’t quite so high anymore due to the expansion of PEPFAR, but the point is clear: the Church has great concern about poverty and development. Many people have high hopes that the Pope will address these issues in his homilies (sermons during mass) and with President Bush.
But his influence is already making an impact. Earlier today Hillary Clinton released a press release saying:
“I hope that his message about economic justice and global development will get an appropriate hearing both in our country and in the government.”
The full statement is available here. Here’s to hoping the other candidates join in the call for global development and make stronger commitments to taking action as president.
Wasting Biofuels
There has been a lot of news recently about rising food prices, starting with a big speech by the President of the World Bank, then a few stories in the BBC, a New York Times editorial, and all the sudden it seems hunger is important in the mainstream media’s eyes. There’s a first time for everything. Of course, the casualities are mounting–unrest in Haiti drove the Prime Minister out and surely tens of thousands have died from malnutrition in the past week.
Kim Elliott wrote an excellent blog explaining one of the root causes of increasing food prices, biofuels, although it is uncertain exactly how much it is to blame. She also helps explains one of the key trade issues that ONE lobbies on but most people find maddeningly complex.
The big idea is that biofuels are popular in Congress because they can help win farm state votes like in Iowa, which is particularly important in presidential election years, and because many people are advocating for a reduction in oil imports and using more “environmentally friendly” fuels. Corn ethanol sounds like it can kill two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately it causes roughly as much global warming pollution (maybe more, maybe less, most like more) as the oil its being substituted for. Meanwhile it drives up the cost of food for the poor and steals tax dollars from hardworking Americans–net farm subsidies are on the order of $15 billion and a significant share goes to rich farmers making over $250,000 a year or about 5x the average American household.
Check it out: http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2008/04/biofuels_worsening_hunger_and.php
Food Emergency
Hey guys, I found this article on BBC today and thought you guys would want to read it to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7344892.stm
Playing the Prize
Of course we’ll be putting all kinds of good info about the Grand Prize here on the OCC Blog, but thought we would lead off with a bit of information about the three awesome bands who will be playing as part of the prize.
Army of Me
Army of Me is one band you can’t miss this year. They’ve toured with Dave Matthews Band, The Used, Silverchair, Paramore and played festivals alongside The Killers, The Shins and Panic At The Disco. Last year they scored the number three video on MTV with “Going Through Changes.” Their album Citizen was released last year and is in constant rotation at the ONE Campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C.!
Georgie James
Georgie James’ recent appearance on the Conan O’Brien show introduced them to some new fans, but music lovers around the country have been enjoying the bewitching pop tunes of their first album, Places, for months now. Harp Magazine says Georgie James is “as close to power-pop perfection as it gets. One of the best year’s best American pop duets.” And Time Out New York says they “make an appealingly eclectic pop-rock racket full of pretty piano plinks, glittery glam guitar and sweetly melodic boy-girl harmonies.”
Martin Royle
Martin Royle’s “manic live show” (The Onion) makes him one of the best young performers in American rock ‘n roll. Royle’s danceable rock songs and aggressively inventive lyrics have been featured widely on television including recent episodes of Gossip Girl, Entourage and Eli Stone. Spin Magazine says, “Royle delivers deftly crafted songs and commands an intoxicating grace.”
About
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a friendly competition to determine which university's student body has the most effective global poverty-fighting campaign. The site is operated by ONE staff, Campus Outreach Ambassadors (COAs), and Campus Leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
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