Archives for the 'Food Politics' Category
Gardening at Fight
War? Food shortages? Turning regular Joes into farmers?
If it sounds like an odd mix of yesterday and today, that’s because it is. I came across several WWII-era U.S. government propaganda posters about conserving resources–including cooking grease, to be used for bombmaking–after toiling away (actually, just walking into, really) my own victory garden in DC earlier today. More rah-rah images here.
I’ll have some photos of my victory garden up once things I intend to grow have replaced all that deeply rooted stuff that grows on its own.
Venezuelan Food Policy is to Whine About Shortages it Creates
It’s difficult being a food blogger these days without becoming a food crisis blogger, frankly. I’m doing my best to avoid that. Still, the burgeoning food problems here and abroad are worth pointing out from time to time. And I think this comparative note illustrates how free societies handle rising food prices compared with how the same problems have such greater impact less free and unfree societies:
“This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model,” Chavez told Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage during a summit in Caracas.
[…]
Venezuela has struggled with sporadic shortages that often make it difficult to find staples such as milk, sugar and beef. Chavez has blamed local businesses, saying they hoard products. But critics blame government-imposed price controls, which they say make it difficult for some businesses to turn a profit.
Venezuela continues to import most of the food it consumes despite a nationwide agrarian reform initiative launched by Chavez more than six years ago.
Communist Cuba also imports most of its food — much of it coming from the United States.
So much for the “historic failure of the capitalist model,” eh?
And so while I can mock a place like California–which claims to be the Land of Wine and Food at precisely the time when various levels of government in the state seem to be doing their best to outlaw both food and alcohol–I’m also damn happy I live in a country that generally recognizes my right to grow, buy, and sell all sorts of good food. Not that things here don’t need fixing.
