A glimpse of starvation’s realities (Jan. 20)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
When I was a lad, Mom used to say, “Clean your plate, or you can’t get up from the table.” As a result of that sage but firm advice, I have about 10 too many pounds around my middle, and still feel guilty when anything is left after I am through eating.
I was thinking of that while reading about the people in Haiti starving in the wake of the earthquake that struck there a week ago. They are finding themselves without food, and in many cases without water. Their plight has turned from a frightening inconvenience to seven days later being in real danger of dying of hunger and thirst.
Death from starvation is relatively rare in the world nowadays, although demographers tell us that of the world’s 7 billion people, more than 1 billion suffer from hunger some of the time, and some suffer from it all of the time.
Sixty years ago, we were being told Planet Earth would experience great famines if the population ever got as big as it is now, but that didn’t happen.
Because along came Norman Borlaug, the Iowa scientist who died last year at 95. He was the principal researcher who helped bring on the Green Revolution, which more than doubled the world’s food supply, even as the population more than doubled.
In Port-au-Prince, those who are hungry are swinging machetes at those who have food. I think that tragic circumstance is a microcosm for what would have happened in much of the world if Borlaug and his fellow scientists had not taught the world’s farmers how to grow more food.
The world’s population is continuing to increase, and the time won’t be far off before we will need another Green Revolution.
We in Madera County are very lucky to live where almost any food can be grown, but most are not so fortunate. Hunger hasn’t disappeared, it merely lies in wait.
