Is it normal to think there's no point in developmental food aid?

What if we could teach them (and help them) to grow their own food? I know the soil and conditions are not always great. But ways to combat those problems are out there.

I don't entirely disagree with you either. Fewer people would be better. so I am for sexual education and access to contraception for them.

I am so tired of these overpopulation posts.

I'm gonna go mop all the 3rd world countries.

1. Food is a basic necessity and it is not "pointless" to feed people. Your apathetic rant is the thing that is pointless.

2. Since overpopulation in third world countries is such a concern to you. Become a sex educator and travel these countries to address these issues.

I suspect you would feel differently if you were the hungry one. Starving, poverty stricken children didn't get to choose the circumstances in which they were born.

Half the number of people, twice as much food and potable water resources for everyone, it's that easy!

No food aid unless a comprehensive population reduction strategy is agreed on.

It is not so simple as to have this apply only to the people in displaced persons camps, but should include the surrounding (neighbouring) region as well, since these displaced persons must have come from somewhere.

It is also not so simple as to teaching these people to grow food / raise livestock, since we are currently using practically all of the world's available arable land (plus much marginal land), and in fact losing productive land through desertification, and we are (collectively) causing a substantial amount of environmental degradation to the world's natural flora and fauna, through our agricultural practices.

Well food aid is primarily to create stability in poor countries so their resources are easier to gather by corporations. In that sense it isn't a waste, it achieves its goal.

However in a human context it would be much better to link aid to lowering a country's birth rate. Africa for example has been breeding itself into misery for a long time. In 1900 it was under 200 million, now it is 1 billion and that would be fine but they can't support the population. Their high birth rate shows no sign of stopping either which has and will continue to lead to quite a bit of human suffering and death.

teach a man to fish and hell lay around in a boat drinkin beer all day.

all that there food aid keeps them farmers workin which means it keeps all them fertilizer and tractor makin and railroad and shippin folks and everyone inbetween workin too. what the hell do ya think them farm subsidies are about anyway?

I agree entirely.

Any and all charity should go to helping people help themselves. Conversely, giving for the sake of giving accomplishes basically nothing.

"Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach someone HOW to fish....."

I completely agree with you. Starvation, population problems, disease, and the rate of poor in a country is determined by How the government is running things.

There is a saying "Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime". Simply giving them a fish for a day is not going to guarantee they will always have food. It does not guarantee the fish wont be stolen by thieves.

If you keep giving them fish nothing in the country is being fixed. On that note I would add "if you are sick, dying, and starving you should not choose to have kids or better yet stop having sex if you know you'll keep getting pregnant."

Amen

I agree, just fattening the lambs.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.
Give a man a religion and he will pray for fish and starve.

Bottom line is they do not learn. Many years ago, a charity did just that- gave the tribe some seeds and goats, taught them how to sow, nurture and reap a harvest then left having shown them the whole process and been there to teach them so they could be self-sufficient and left enough for that to be a reality with the work and favourable conditions. A couple of years later, they returned and they were in the same situation as at the start. When asked what happened, they said they ate the goats and food and now wanted aid!

Some cultures learn, some don't!

And I agree, overpopulation is a massive problem that people play ostrich over and bury their heads in the sand... And it's a system supported by the powers that be via charities and tax links for their own benefit, not our's or the starving people in other countries.

Instead of forming dependencies, I think that it should be mandatory that "charities" give people the tools and training to being self-efficient. There is only one charity where I have seen this. I forget what it is called, but instead of giving them handouts, it gives them the tools (livestock, bees, fish, plants,etc) and training so that they can be self-efficient.

I think that it is very strange that people in impoverished areas, don't know the expert farming techniques of their ancestors!

You need to stop eating. It's only a temporary fix... You'll be hungry again.

During the Katrina disaster and for most black third world nations, I have always suggested sending birth control and forced sterilization. Then in 80 years the problem will have taken care of itself. Finally.

I genuinely believe many problems can be solved by reducing population over time. There are too many people in our world now, so in order to overcome future food and disease crises, we need to start being sensible about birth control on a global basis. I agree with you.