My Plan to Feed the World

I would like to thank anyone reading this ahead of time. Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress. If you wish to skip the meat, proceed to the ending to get the final statements. If you wish to understand it better, follow the entire document.

First off, let me say that I am in agriculture, as many of you may already know. I wish agriculture was in a better state, and I wish our product made a difference. The sad fact is that we have an abundance of product that we cannot sell, yet people need this product around the world.

It is time our governments did something.

With this short plan, they cannot deny it. This plan is factored into the government of Canada's budget. The grain statistics come from Stats Canada.

They cannot say we cannot afford it.

With this plan, not only do we benefit our farmers, but we benefit the hungry, while maintaining our aid budget.

The plan begins now. The first section is from the 2005 budget.

CANADA’S COMMITMENT TO AFRICA
ON THE WEB: WWW.FIN.GC.CA...

Africa continues to face critical challenges, especially in the areas of health and economic development. Canada will strengthen its support for Africa in its struggle to overcome the burden of poverty. Budget 2005 commits to doubling 2003–04 aid to Africa over the next five years. Over the coming months, Canada will contribute to solutions for Africa through the Minister of Finance’s role in the Commission for Africa, established by British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Many Africans suffer from treatable diseases because of chronic shortages of medical funding. Budget 2005 strengthens Canada’s leadership in combating global health issues by announcing $300 million in additional funding for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria ($140 million), and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) ($160 million). These initiatives address the world’s most serious communicable diseases—diseases that affect children most of all—and do so through innovative and effective public-private partnerships.




On January 17, the Government announced $42 million in funding to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Eighty-six per cent of the world’s polio cases are in Africa, and Canada’s timely funding put the eradication initiative back on track toward its goal of eliminating polio, worldwide, by the end of this year. In response to the Canadian announcement, Dr. Bruce Aylward, program director of the World Health Organization (WHO) polio eradication program, said: "The prospects [for eradicating polio] in Africa are much more positive given this contribution from Canada." On January 27, the United Nations Foundation presented an award to Canada in recognition of its long-established role in the fight against polio and Canadian donations that are among the highest from contributing countries.


Total = $1,821,000,000 Dollars to Africa for 2005 / 2006
$2,760,000,000 Dollars to Africa by 2008 / 2009


This part deals with Canada's crop production.

CANADA’S CROP PRODUCTION
ON THE WEB: www40.statcan.ca...



10,125,300 hectares of Wheat will be seeded for 2005

1 hectare = 2.47105381 acres

Thus 25,020,161.142393 acres of Wheat will be seeded for 2005

If average bushels per acre of wheat = 30

750,604,834 bushels of product will be produced.
If ¼ of the product is to be donated as aid, 187,651,208 bushels will be given.

If the price is 3.00 per bushel of wheat

$ 562,953,624 Dollars of product will be donated

Goal for Africa aid: $2,760,000,000 Dollars to Africa by 2008 / 2009
Crop production number estimates: $2,251,814,502 Dollars of Wheat produced at $3.00 bushel

Now this last bit is not my point. Although we could sell an entire years worth of grain for less than the budget set for African aid.

This next section is about the Canadian FoodGrains Bank.

CANADIAN FOODGRAINS BANK
ON THE WEB: www.foodgrainsbank.ca...





How Does Canadian Foodgrains Bank Work?

Farmers can make donations of grain, corn, oilseeds, pulse crops and other agricultural commodities at most grain elevators in Canada. Livestock producers are also active.
Many people make donations in cash, which is then used to buy additional food and to help pay shipping, bagging and transportation costs.

A recent area of growth has been community growing projects where a group of farmers, non-farmers and agri-businesses get together to farm a common plot of land and donate the crop to the Foodgrains Bank. Last year, such projects contributed over 15,000 tonnes of grain.

In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, Canadian farmers responded to the hunger of others by donating over 22,000 metric tonnes of grain to the Foodgrains Bank. The total value of this grain plus cash donations received reached $7 million last year.

The Canadian International Development Agency provides $16 million annually to match our shipments on a 4:1 basis. This greatly enhances the amount of food and assistance we can provide.

Who Does the Canadian Foodgrains Bank Work With?

Canadian Grain Industry -- one of the unique aspects of Canadian Foodgrains Bank is its collaboration with the Canadian Wheat Board, the Ontario Wheat Board and other grain industry organizations. These groups work with Canadian Foodgrains Bank to simplify the collection of grain and other agricultural commodities from farmers across Canada. Annual grain donations generally range between 15,000 and 20,000 metric tonnes.

International Partners -- member agencies of Canadian Foodgrains Bank carry out food programming in developing countries by working with partner organizations that are directly involved with local communities. All food assistance is provided solely on the basis of need without regard for creed, race, colour, or political affiliation. The amount of food provided by Canadian Foodgrains Bank members in any given year varies, but typically falls in the range of 40,000 to 60,000 metric tonnes annually.

Government -- the food assistance program of Canadian Foodgrains Bank is generously supported by the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). CIDA provides funding to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank at a ratio of 4:1 based on our food programming, to a maximum of $16 million, thus greatly enhancing our donors' assistance.

World Food Programme (WFP) -- on more than one occasion, Canadian Foodgrains Bank has collaborated with WFP, the food aid organization of the United Nations. In countries such as India, Angola, Kenya and Afghanistan, WFP has swapped or lent commodities to Canadian Foodgrains Bank to achieve program timing, location or commodity objectives. WFP is also contracted to facilitate transportation in some areas.

Canadian Universities & Schools --Canadian Foodgrains Bank collaborates with universities and schools to inform young people about the causes and possible solutions to world hunger. This is done through World Food Day events and other awareness-building activities.

This next section contains a few facts.


FACTS ABOUT WHEAT
ON THE WEB: www.idahowheat.org...

- A single bushel of wheat will make 73 loaves of bread, or 53 boxes of cereal, or 72 pounds of tortillas.

- One acre of wheat can produce enough wheat to furnish your family with bread for nearly 10 years.



Donating ¼ of the wheat crop of 2005 would produce roughly 13,698,538,184 loaves of bread.

263,433,426 people could be given one loaf of bread a week for one year.

$562,953,624 Dollars of product would be sold by farmers.
$2,197,046,376 Dollars would be left in the 08/09 budget for other sources of aid to Africa.

At 3.00 Dollars a bushel, the entire wheat crop of Canada could be given to Africa leaving $508,185,498 Dollars in the aid to Africa budget.

At an excellent price of 6.00 Dollars a bushel for wheat ¼ of the wheat production could be donated to Africa for $1,125,907,248 leaving $1,634,092,752 in the aid to Africa budget.

My Thoughts and Conclusion

Why isn't this being done?
-Politics. Rules. Lack of common sense?

This simple plan could help both farmers and the hungry. We recently sold wheat for $3.00 a bushel. It is not a great price, but you take what you can get. So why can't the government kill 2 birds with 1 stone and set aside grain programs in aid budgets? 500 million dollars to get rid of 1/4 of the wheat crop while hardly making a dent in the budget. It just makes sense.

Programs like this could get rid of the middle man programs such as CAIS that help farmers through tough situations and markets. Think of how much money could be saved by creating markets for these grains while not needing aid programs for our own farmers.

Why does world hunger exist? As I demonstrated, we could sell our entire wheat crop and still have 500 million + dollars left over in our African aid budget.

Are the governments truly blind?

What is holding us back?
Politics.


Thank you for your time.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
Why does world hunger exist? As I demonstrated, we could sell our entire wheat crop and still have 500 million + dollars left over in our African aid budget.

Are the governments truly blind?

What is holding us back?
Politics.

Excellent post.

I like the idea, but as you know something this sensible will never see the light of day. Never mind Canada, most medium to large sized countries in the world would have the capacity to do the same as you suggested. Even those you claim to be overwhelmingly "Christian", a religion in which people with 2 cloaks are instructed to give 1 to someone who has no cloak.

So why don't countries do it?

You say politics, and yes, I have to agree it plays a large part, but the cynic in me comes out and suggests a few other things.

Wheat can't be made into AK-47s.

Full bellies are contented bellies.

Take away the hunger and they move up a level in existence. Maybe next they will be able to get an education and who knows, within no time at all the poorer countries will realise how they are being shafted.

So no, money to corrupt regimes and multi-tiered bureaucratic aid organisations keeps the poor down and those in the golden circle wallowing in cash. As well as keeping those with a concience feeling good about themselves that their hard earned cash is supposedly going to help someone.

A nice status quo with no-one asking any questions and the wheels just turning, turning, turning.....

The problem is that the government does accept programs like these.

They will help out things such as the foodgrains bank. To an extent.

The way I see it, a plan like this helps a lot of people. Even if it is a one time thing.

Currently, our grain prices have flat lined. We are seeing prices that are comparable to the 20's and depression era. It is not acceptable.

We are seeing trouble in places like Africa and we are giving them money anyway.

We have money in these budgets to give away. This is already planned money.

Why can we not use the money to buy product from our own farmers, help them out while helping another nation with value we will be giving them anyways.

It makes NO sense to me why it isn't being done on a larger scale.

Sure my numbers are far from perfect, but so is the aid system itself. We could make a difference.

Imagine a plan, an exact opposite of the current Africa aid numbers.

We want to see declining numbers, not increasing.

Perhaps if we start with donated grain, they can build markets over time and actually have this grain being sold to these countries. Imagine us giving them 100 percent the first year, then 95, 80, 70, 50, 25 and maybe eventually they can purchase the grain themselves.

The question is, what do we have to lose?

It is already budgeted for.

We can fund programs for aids and other diseases while feeding the nation.

1/4 of our grain value would only be 500+ million dollars in a 2 billion dollar budget.

It would leave us with enough grain for ourselves and other markets.

Does it make sense for countries to pay its farmers NOT to grow crops when the abundance could actually be used where it is needed?

I know tons of farmers that would be happy to open up a huge market like this. 500 million dollars of product is not a small sale. And for the product to go to a needed source, who wouldn't want to?

According to the foodgrains bank stats, we have donated 3.16 million dollars of grain alone this year.

They cannot say the program would not be used by farmers. Hell, these farmers are donating the grain. My plan would give them money !

(for some reason my foodgrains bank image does not always show up, I may have to change it)

Speaking of farm income support programs such as CAIS, the issue was brought up again in the local agriculture newspaper.

I actually made a thread about it some time ago.

This CAIS program is a multi billion dollar program supposedly helping out farmers. But nobody is receiving substantial money.

A writer in the paper noted that they received $7.42

Seven dollars and forty-two cents.

How does that cover a year's loss?

So why do we have multi billion dollar programs when we could actually create a market program that worked by paying our farmers for product while giving another nation aid we would give anyways?