Food is a right of citizenship.

KudaPucat

I was sent this article on a city in Brazil: Belo Horizonte. They have declared that food is a right of citizenship, and have cheaply halved malnutrition, and infant death rates since its implementation. All for less than 2% of the city's budget.
The link to the article is below.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger

chillidude

Wow - great story Kuda ! Have already printed it out for a few friends and the missus to read. Brilliant. :cheers:

BatonRouge Bill

Wow.

True leadership/fellowship!
Great article. Will post at work!

novaris

Its interesting that as I understand it the US agribusiness originally started with the same aim, to provide low cost food. Thankfully it looks like Brazil chose a better approach.

Unfortunately our societies are moving in a direction that makes it harder to achieve what they did in Brazil. For example my wife recently attended a meeting of the "Sustainability network" the network is promoted by our local council. They had lots of ideas they talked lots about how the older members of the community could restore knowledge and provide preserves and other goods for members of the community they even discussed aquaponics, and came over later to look at my system. They were all very excited until they were reminded that everything they were promoting was illegal, required licences, facilities, permits, and broke just about every by-law there was. Everything went quite, the council members faces dropped and they admitted at the moment that was the case.

For this to happen we need to drop the nanny state mentality, change litigation laws and restore individuals back a right to trade with each other. I don't expect it any time soon

KudaPucat

I expect you are right. I had thought this impossible anywhere. It's a shining example of what is possible. I fear though that the more developed a place is, the more they will have to change to achieve such a goal.

jdphish

Interesting article. I like the concept except for the fact that it makes the USA look like we let our people starve. We have free school lunches and food stamps and soup kitchens. No one in my town starves by choice. There are several churches that offer free meals as well. The US Department of Agriculture buys billions worth of food for programs each year. People may starve because they are too doped or drunk to get to the food but not because it is not available.

TCLynx

Good article.

Not only does their method improve the health and nutrition of the city population on a whole, it also improves the lives of the small farmers. (The only people who lose are the ones who depend on a down-trodden under class to support their positions and the only thing they need to loose is the bit of attitude that says there must be a down-trodden under class.)

Also, the part that notes school gardens. I think that is great.

This thread makes me think of a sight I have visited where I tended to see lots of whining about how "they" keep the food locked up. Basically it was people who didn't want to work and took unemployment or disability money and would whine that all the food was locked up in stores. They seemed to think that the store owners should just let everyone come in and take all the stuff without having to pay for any of it, (I'm not sure how they expect the store owners to provide the next batch of food after the store has been cleaned out though.) I nearly got my head bitten off when I suggested "grow some of your own food."

Now here in the US, there is usually some sort of food available to the hungry, however there are also what we call food deserts in many big cities. These are areas where fresh foods are very difficult to find. Most of what is in stores there (and provided to food pantries) is processed, packaged junk food. However, I've seen some really inspiring footage about people who are making big changes by growing community gardens to provide fresh food to the poor. Not only do people need education about good food, they also need to know how to prepare and eat it too.

Oh well, one step at a time.

BatonRouge Bill

jdphish wrote:

Interesting article. I like the concept except for the fact that it makes the USA look like we let our people starve. We have free school lunches and food stamps and soup kitchens. No one in my town starves by choice. There are several churches that offer free meals as well. The US Department of Agriculture buys billions worth of food for programs each year. People may starve because they are too doped or drunk to get to the food but not because it is not available.

JD, I didn't get that out of the article, in fact it mentions the fact that food stamp reciepients are on the rise, it doesn't seem to suggest we neglect our poor. I know a low income family of 4 (<$24,000 per year income) recieve almost $600 per month in food stamps as well as substidized rents. And school lunch programs help the children of the dopers eat if they are being neglicted at home. Not to mention the WIC program for women infants and children to eat. But it does make light of the fact that retailers are in business to maximize profits. While the price of energy is down, unemployment is up, consumption is down, The price of food at our local walmarts is way up. and there is less food being purchased. They are keeping the price of essentials high because we are going to have to buy it. By publisizing the comparitive prices of food and deregulating and encouraging small home and urban gardening it looks like a great way to help and without creating state loafers. The gap between the farmer and consumer is how huge now.
A good start would be to undo a lot of the corporate protectionism.
I really like what I read if it is all as depicted.

jdphish

Good points TC and BRB, maybe I got a bit defensive.

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