As we all know by now from reading animal rights literature, famine in the developing world occurs because people in the developed world (i.e. you and I) insist on eating meat which deprives those poor people in foreign lands of enough food to eat. In fact, something like that is going on in the African nation of Malawi as we speak.
Back in July and August 2001, Malawi experienced a a number of problems which led to a shortfall in its staple crop, maize. Agricultural experts and others predicted that Malawi would be about 400,000 tons short of the amount of maize it would need to feed its people.
The government of Malawi said that such claims were nonsense. There was more than enough food to go around and the country could not possibly be anywhere near starvation. In fact there was so much food in Malawi, that last fall the government sold much of its maize reserves to Kenya.
Of course countries that are openly selling grain to other countries don’t attract a lot of attention from aid organizations and donors. Malawi blithely went on its way pretending that it had more than enough food — in fact, some of its leading politicians apparently horded food on the mistaken belief that there would soon be shortages and the price of food would go through the roof.
By January 2002, the effects of the food shortage were beginning to be felt and people in Malawi started dying from hunger-related conditions. In February 2002, despite the fact that it had no shortage of grain whatsoever, Malawi President Bakili Muluzi was forced to finally declare that his country was experiencing a humanitarian disaster and go begging for money and food from the developed world.
Now, Malawi needs about $22 million in aid to avoid widespread starvation, but since it waited so long to do anything about its hunger situation, it has only been able to raise $5 million. Malawi was counting on $47 million from the IMF, but that organization concluded that the government of Malawi was so corrupt that the aid would largely be wasted and denied the African nation’s request for assistance.
Okay, I know what you are thinking. So far this disaster was caused partly by a drought which was exacerbated by wholesale government mismanagement, corruption and delay. But what about the meat eaters? What role did they play?
That I am not sure, but they had to be behind it all. Those animal rights activists wouldn’t lie to us, now would they?
Sources:
Malawi declares famine emergency. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, February 27, 2002.
Hope fades for Malawi aid. The BBC, May 16, 2002.
Malawi bishops deplore famine chaos. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, March 31, 2002.
Malawi famine set to continue. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, May 14, 2002.