Sriram Savarkar getting a few facts right

I dont know who Sriram Savarkar is.. but I have been getting many forwarded emails and I have found them to be balanced and appropriate. Today I wanted to post this in reply to a comment on my blog. I believe Bush and Rice have not been fair in their judgements.

With thanks to Sriram Savarkar..

George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are not exactly renowned for their understanding and knowledge of economics.

They do not also have a reputation of being overly sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the world's two most populous countries that together account for 40 per cent of the planet's population.

In terms of sheer crassness, however, the recent pronouncements of the two most powerful individuals in the economically most powerful nation on why food prices are rising all over the world, are difficult to beat. Bush has achieved what would seem impossible to many — he has united India's fractious political class that has, with one voice, condemned what he and his deputy have claimed.

Irrefutable facts from a wide range of sources convincingly contradict the argument that high demand for food in China and India is responsible for the recent surge in international prices of wheat, rice, corn and a range of other foods.

Data released by the Food and Agricultural Organization indicate that consumption of cereals in India and China has grown by an average of between 1.8 per cent and 2.2 per cent each year over the last two years whereas the corresponding proportion for the US is nearly 12 per cent.

There is no dearth of information to indicate that huge swathes of cultivable land in America that grows cereals — eaten by animals if not by human beings — have been diverted to produce bio-fuels.

The rise in demand for biofuels is a direct result of the rise in world prices of crude oil that are (at least, in part) a consequence of the US intervention in Iraq and before that, in Afghanistan.
Who remembers that the world price of crude oil was less than $ 25 a barrel in March 2003 when US troops entered Baghdad, against $ 115 a barrel today?

Never before in the history of mankind has the planet's energy security been so closely linked with its food security.

Inequalities in consumption levels are stark.

Pets in America receive more nutrition than a sixth of humankind.
Each cow in Europe receives more government subsidy than what at least a billion people each live on.
The difference between the US and India is that while in India one out of four people don't get enough to eat, in America, two out of three are overweight.

Bush's views could have been not just dismissed contemptuously but ignored altogether — if only he was not the President of the US.

Insolence or Indolence? but lessons to be learned.....

The comments of Bush or Rice on the increased food consumption of developing world deserves no further comments. It is not worth it. America still remains locked within its four walls but a little shocked though. It is only slowly emerging from its insolence.

When a country is progressing it is only natural that the food consumption increases and there is no way we can ask its citizens to stop or curb their craving for food so that developed nations can continue to indulge and find new means to tackle obesity. But if developed nations are using their precious grains to create fuel to maintain their SUV’s then it needs to be checked immediately. There is no use turning a blind eye to obvious facts. It is time the world leaders told their citizens in plain language to take care. Yet the fact is that developed nations still stand to gain from exports of their food grains.

As for India, it is time we took our bread more seriously. We are lacking in basic infrastructure, food being the main one. The farmers need to be treated more kindly.
Even India needs bio-fuels to meet the ever increasing price of oil but the government needs to bring strict measures so that no cultivable land meant for food grains are converted for bio-fuel needs.



In India we have the best candidate, the Jatropha tree. Goldman Sachs recently cited Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. I believe the best way would be to continue using the vast stretch of land by the side of our railway lines and also our national highways. I am sure this would be enough to meet a part of our energy demands. But the cultivation of such bio-fuel sources should be under the strict government supervision that will ensure that no agricultural land is converted.