Word: feeding
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...poor world that aroused public sentiment in the rich one, like the famines in Biafra in the 1960s, and Bangladesh in the 1970s. When Bob Geldof and his friends formed Band Aid/Live Aid in response to the 1984-85 Ethiopian famine, in which a million people died, "Feed the world" became the chorus of not just a pop record but the donor world...
...arguments against long-term handouts of food - dependency, corruption, the disincentive effect, a tendency for outside shocks to be exaggerated in a country with little capacity to plan for them - are well known. Africa provides arresting proof of their validity. Today the continent can no longer feed itself, and its share of world agricultural trade is much less than it was two generations ago. Globalization of agriculture - a process as old as sailing ships - means products that originated in Africa are now grown elsewhere. Coffee came from Ethiopia; Vietnam now grows more than all Africa. Palm oil was originally exported...
...needs investment in human capital, in women's health and education, in infrastructure (the imperial powers were not wrong about that), in trading regimes that enable African nations to export their produce without protectionist barriers. Get those fundamentals right and there is no reason why Africa should not feed itself again...
...receiving their charity, long-term food aid can become addictive. Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying. Over time, there's a loss of key skills, and a country that doesn't have to feed itself soon becomes a country that can't. All too often, its rulers use resources elsewhere - Ethiopia has one of Africa's largest armies...
...UNFAO's Chipeta said he thought the world food crisis might help Ethiopia in the long-run. Shortages and higher prices would cut food aid. The immediate effect would be harsh, and thousands would die. But if Ethiopia were ever to feed itself, he argued, "you have to make sacrifices at some point." In the villages, they were already making sacrifices. Children were being left to die so a family might live. That's a calculation that can strike outsiders as cruel. Some conclude life in Ethiopia is cheap. That's would be a mistake, as anyone who has heard...