hizgeorgiapeach
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Oh now isn't This thread just a juicey lil pile of steaming controversy to thrust myself into the middle of! (The forum equivalant of Scat perhaps?)
First, for the person who asked early in the thread "what would jesus do?" Let me answer your question with a question. Why should I give a flying rat's arse what someone who's been dead 2000+ years (and who can't even be verified through historical record sources to have been a real person rather than simply myth) may or may not have done? The world has significantly Changed in that 2000+ years. Besides which, I'm by no means judeo-christian, so why would a christian icon's Possible actions in a situation that they were never even theoretically exposed to make any difference to me in how *I decide on personal action or lack thereof? (This isn't meant to turn this into a debate over the relative merits of any given religion - just to point out that religions differ across the globe and even within any given single country - so it has no real relevance being thrust into a debate of this nature by even Posing such a question.)
Second : to Hippy specifically : 90% of my grocery bill these days comes from a local Food Coop that has a sustainability requirement for producers. Everything sold through the coop - both edible and non-edible products - has to be grown/produced here in my state using sustainable methods that are far removed from typical mass production farming methods except for the coffee and tea which is required to be Fair Trade. While I pay a slight bit more than I would at a chain grocery, and I have to plan ahead to account for a single delivery each month, it's a higher price that I more than willingly pay. The quality is better, the food is tastier and healthier, and it helps the local (often rotten) local economy. The only coop producer that I buy from that does Not grow their own is the folks that provide my coffee - which is Fair Trade grown in various coffee producing areas around the world - and that's not so much because it's Fair Trade, but because the climate where I live is absolutely unconducive to growing coffee and I Need my coffee in the morning. (Nothing quite like waking up to a pot of Bolivian Fair Trade with real cream instead of mass produced "creamer" and locally produced raw organic honey, then chowing down on freerange eggs, locally produced sausage, and fresh whole grain bread spread with homemade pumpkin or apple butter - breakfast has become an almost religious experience for me LOL)
Third : I'm a firm believer that many of the world's food problems are due more to overgrazing our hunting grounds - ie, to many people on to little land - than anything else. If folks are going to consistantly reproduce like rabbits who lack either the space or the agricultural technology to produce sufficient food on limited or degraded soil - then some of those folks are naturally going to have to go without. Family farmers are put out of business by government subsidies to commercial farming in the US just as much as you seem to feel they are in the rest of the world - and yet we still manage to feed our own for the most part, and have surpluses to sell to the rest of the world.
When the rest of the world Wants something - whether that be medical and food aid during a natural disaster or technology to become more self sufficient or help with a local uprising or help holding back agressive neighbors - it's the US that gets called upon to take care of it. We drain our coffers and allow our youth to Fight, Bleed, and DIE for such causes. But as soon as it's taken care of, we go back to being Public Enemy Number One in whatever country we've just bailed out of a frigging crises. Personally, I'm all for letting the rest of the world stew in it's own juices and rely on someone Else for a change - like THEMSELVES. What would I personally tell anyone in the countries that are chronically short and expect us to constantly bail them out? Quit overbreeding - birth control is both cheap and effective; quit whining, and quit thinking we somehow "owe" you help ( it's Not the Big Bad US's fault that your farmers aren't growing enough for 10,000 people on land that can only easily sustain 1000). You want something from us - then have something other than reviling our country when you're Not in crises and enabling terrorism to offer in exchange!
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Rhi
Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
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RE: Her's a nice little dicey, controversial concept ab... - 
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