Food and No Food

This is incredible! Canada have made a decision that is overwhelmingly good for the poor and the hungry of the world: untying our food aid to Canadian purchases. This allows agencies to buy the food from someone besides Canadian farmers.
If we were talking about this in any other context, we’d call it protectionism. But Stuart Wells from the National Farmers’ Union criticized, saying it would be hard to know if the food was going to the people who were supposed to get it or if the money would go to local farmers rather than brokers in the harbour.
Who cares? This is for food aid to people who are hungry. It’s not a competitive matter. The problem isn’t where the food comes from. We’re trying to get it to go to the right places. Securing the supply is an inherent problem in these situations.
Mr. Wells is all about protecting his market. It’s just plain greed. These farmers have stopped being businessmen and have long ago become wards of the state. They believe their entitled to a permanent subsidy for anything, including feeding people in a starvation crisis.
Mr. Wells also wants us to go to the WTO and suggest that it caused these foods crises. This is simply about farmers keeping a firm grip on the bottom line at the expense of anyone else, including their customers and those who need food.
The Americans do this too and have still not untied their aid. Bad Ag!
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How can anyone be surprised when the US government says that the Burmese government is incapable of caring for its own people. They never did before. They’ve chosen to abuse their people. We should intervene. It sickens me that aid agencies have to wait for visas just to go in and give food to starving people.