Bush tells Indians not to eat

Hey, Stop eating. Haven't you heard President Bush telling that you (Indians and Chinese) have caused a global food shortage by eating regular three meals. World was a much happier place when you guys were starving. How dare you cause a global food shortage. Bush has a point. Where as Indians and Chinese are used to going hungry the Americans are not. How will people in the US survive if they can't throw a half eaten burger in the garbage. Won't the garbage collectors loose their jobs? Bush is not the only one, his secretary of the State Condoleeza Rice has the same point of view.

In India leaving your meal half eaten or wasting is considered practically sinful. Wastage of food is rare. A kid would probably get a juicy smack if he leaves food in his plate. In the US the amount of food that is thrown in the garbage bin by an average house hold could feed two families.

India and China are producing the food they are consuming. If a country does not want to export its food grain, why should the US get heart burns.

Now some serious stuff:

US President George W Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have their numbers wrong when they accuse China and India of contributing to the global food crisis as a result of growing prosperity-led consumption.

Data collected by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nation show that the consumption of cereals (wheat, rice, maize, corn and so on) is growing far more rapidly in the US than in India or China.

According to a global food market report put out by the FAO, the consumption of cereals by India is projected to have grown 2.17 per cent from 193.1 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 197.3 million tonnes in 2007-08, while that in China has risen 1.8 per cent from 382.2 million tonnes to 389.1 million tonnes.

In the same period the consumption of cereals in the US, the world's largest economy, has been projected to have grown 11.81 per cent from 277.6 million tonnes to 310.4 million tonnes. However, a large part of this spike is learnt to have been caused by the country's new-found appetite for bio-fuel made from corn.

Now get a load of this: About 30 million tonnes of corn was used in US to produce bio-fuels last year. It seems Americans would rather drive their cars than grow food for eating. Sure, they can blame the shortages on others.

According to Mr. Bush the Indian middle class population is the same as the total population of the Us. Maybe true, but what he fails to mention is that the total consumption of cereals by India (middle and other classes included) is less than the Us consumption(310.4 million) and Indian Consumption is growing at a slower pace than the US.

But I still maintain, eat less food so that our US brethren can keep wasting according to their habitual needs. How will they digest they whole beef burger if they don't throw half of it, whereas you, my Indian bro are used to surviving on half meals. Let us not change our good habits.

Chew on that for a while Mr Bush and Ms Rice.