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Published 21/08/2009
On Friday 21 August, we read a fantastic article in Time magazine headed "America's Food Crisis and How to Fix It." The article shows how the current American farm and food system is contributing to human ill-health, devastating resources and causing animal suffering.
We immediately wrote a supportive letter to Time, pointing out that this is much more than an American crisis - it is truly a global food crisis, with industrial animal farming virtually taking food from the mouths of the poor.
Here's Compassion's letter to the Editor of Time
21 August 2009
Dear Editor
Thank you for your great cover story "America's Food Crisis and How to Fix It."
Of course this is not just America's food crisis; it's a growing global nightmare. By feeding over a third of the world's cereals and over 90% of soya to farm animals, we are in effect taking food from the mouths of the 1 billion people who go hungry to bed each night.
Add the diversion of land and crops to bio-fuels to this and we become further than ever from ending global hunger.
Meanwhile the growing urban middle class in China, India and Brazil strive to adopt the American high-meat diet and the strain on global food sources grows ever greater.
With this scenario, the global poor will still endure their daily remorseless pangs of hunger, the growing numbers of animals in those industrial factory farms will continue to endure lives of misery and consumers in the western world will suffer soaring rates of obesity and related health problems.
This recipe for disaster needs to be addressed urgently by global leaders, the United Nations and by the new US President.
Yours sincerely
Joyce D'Silva
Ambassador for Compassion in World Farming
By the time we had written our letter, the online title of the Time article had been changed! Now it reads "Getting real about the High Price of Cheap Food." This title is presumably less challenging to American agri-business.
Who on earth could have persuaded Time to change the title?
The article remains a great one and we strongly recommend reading it!
Read more on Compassion's campaign to end all cruel factory farming practices.
