Word: grained
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...past six years, the 25 million farmers and nomads fatalistically accepted each dry season, expecting that rains would soon follow. They never did. Crops withered, grazing land turned barren, and lakes and wells dried up. Many Africans became so hungry that they ate their breeding cattle and seed grain, thus condemning themselves to total dependence on outside help. Unless they receive aid, they will be unable to plant new crops or raise new herds even if the rains do come. The Sahel's flat savannas, which once supported the blue-and black-robed Tuareg and Fulani warriors...
...from the lost, mythical world it shows. (Mythical worlds always seem to be lost ones, too.) At least what it does best is this: not say anything but show at least the outline of this world of surface and detail, of atmosphere and appearance. And it is against the grain of the attractiveness of the depiction that all the faults of the film run. Whatever strength lies in its depiction is not the result of digging down into social conditions or individual motives, but simply in piling up these lyric surfaces...
Idle Pumps. The most threatening effect of the power shortage is on agriculture. This year, the combination of drought and fertilizer shortages is likely to hold India's grain harvest low enough to cause near famine; the power scarcity worsens the situation by making electric irrigation pumps all but useless. In Punjab state, wealthy farmers had purchased diesel pumps to use when the electric pumps failed, but the oil troubles have made diesel fuel scarce too. Gas stations selling diesel fuel have to be protected by policemen from mobs of farmers who wait for days for tank trucks...
...Godfather. Defying P.T. Barnum and William Peter Blatty and evil conspirators of all kinds, The Godfather is still numero uno--it's still the most-seen movie ever made. It is also, strangely, one of the most worthy, which practically sets the amber waves of grain back swaying in that great and oft-frozen historical Sky-Movie of the American taste buds. A picture this good being this popular is about as probable as David Eisenhower chanting Maoist slogans from the bleachers, so be patriotic and see it again. A dollar twenty-five is also very patriotic. Not to mention...
...other hand, there are reasons for optimism. World grain production for the 1974-75 crop year is expected to total nearly a billion tons-31 million tons more than the year before. For the first time in two years there is enough wheat to come close to meeting demand in the months ahead. Australia alone has just harvested 440 million bushels, more than double last year's crop. Adequate supplies of livestock feed also seem likely. Brazil's record soybean harvest is now being sold round the world and, after a disappearance of a year and a half...