Why would they be mad at us?

[Charsee]

It seems like there are a lot of reasons for people of the world to be angry with the United States and it's people. But I do wonder whether food issues will be the straw that breaks the camels back.

We are getting fatter while many people of the world (growing economic powers) are eating kiddy meals compared to our super-sized portions.

And now we are feeding our cars (500 lbs of food per tankful) when people are starving but more important to the average world consumer causing food prices to go up, and up, and up.

Sounds like a reason for anger to me.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/An_American_eats_5_times_more_than_an_Indian/articleshow/3008449.cms

Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.
178 kg = 392 pounds (India)
1046 kg = 2301 pounds (if my math is correct)
356 lbs (Africa) not meat, no milk etc.

In per capita terms, US grain consumption is twice that of the European Union and thrice that of China. Grain consumption includes flour and by conversion to alcohol.

food oil
90 lbs (US)
24 lbs (India)

milk
172 lbs (US)
79 lbs (India)
24 lbs (China)

beef
94 lbs (US)
3 lbs (India)
13 lbs (China)

Chicken
100 lbs (US)
4 lbs (India)

Pork
94 lbs (EU)
65 lbs (US)
77 lbs (China)

Not vouching for accuracy of my conversions.
You can check it out for yourself here:
http://emsresource.net/lb2kg.shtml

[Cowboy]

When you produce the food you are allowed to get fat. That is the way is has always been. You should show the stats of who produces all the food before you show the stats of who consumes it all.

[prairiemom]

When you produce the food you are allowed to get fat. That is the way is has always been. You should show the stats of who produces all the food before you show the stats of who consumes it all.

Yes, if all we did was eat what we produce, I would agree--we have a right to the fruits of our labors. But we are also manipulating and affecting world markets. Right now the cost of food has very little to do with supply/demand and production costs and a whole lot to do with futures prices and other gambling with the market. Evil and designing men are manipulating the price and availability of food and the poor are bearing a disproportionate burden of this market volatility.

[thor610]

I don't think it is necessarily "we, we, we". There are forces (secret combinations) in this world who seek to control the world's wealth and food supply. They are not necessarily composed of rich people from the USA, although I think it is sometimes made to look that way. These groups are composed of usurpers from around the world. One case in point - the "Federal Reserve Bank", which is neither federal, reserve, or a bank. They seek to control and destroy the USA and they can do it by making us look like the bad guys.

[sunsinger]

Yes, if all we did was eat what we produce, I would agree--we have a right to the fruits of our labors. But we are also manipulating and affecting world markets. Right now the cost of food has very little to do with supply/demand and production costs and a whole lot to do with futures prices and other gambling with the market. Evil and designing men are manipulating the price and availability of food and the poor are bearing a disproportionate burden of this market volatility.

I agree that it should not be "we, we, we,..." We the people of the United States are not the cause of the world's ills. The US government has, at times foolishly, played indulgent nanny to the government's of the world with no repayment. The designing dictators did not use the resources for their people, but to entrench their tyranny more completely. The spoiled child becomes demanding and petulant when it's needs are not met. The world in some ways has done this, expecting the US to take care of them because we have tried to do so in the past. The spoiled child becomes accusing, looking to throw accusations and blame for his problems at the one who indulged him as well as others.


Evil and designing men are manipulating the price and availability of food and the poor are bearing a disproportionate burden of this market volatility.

This is true, but those evil and designing men are everywhere. There are single countries in Africa that could feed the world if they would stop fighting and slaughtering, and irrigate their arid lands. The soil is fertile. It could blossom as a rose. The bloodshed is stopping progress. It is not something for which "WE" are responsible or that "WE" can fix.


When you produce the food you are allowed to get fat.

A whole other area becomes the issue of fatness. I don't think it is just the amount of food, but the contaminants, hormones, chemicals, etc. that are making us fat. We eat an overabundance of calories for our lifestyles, but even the overeating can be stimulated by the ingredients placed in our foods, probably by "evil and designing men." But that is another topic.

[LoudmouthMormon]

Consider: What would life be like living somewhere that can't grow enough food to feed it's citizens. What would life be like, knowing that the only reason you ate yesterday, is because someone on the other side of the planet grew food for you. Consider life in a country where the food distribution system amounts to whatever the thuggish army's latest whim says it is. Consider the backwards lives of illiterate and superstitious peasants who have never been exposed to education. Where healthcare is as nonexistent as means to better your life.

The reasons and causes for situations such as these are diverse and deep. I seriously doubt that being ticked off at America, yelling about America, pressuring policy changes in America, is going to be the solution to your woes.

LM

[Charsee]

I think I am most concerned about how people perceive us because I have a missionary in another country and another son who will be leaving within the next year.

I want them to have good experiences!...hopefully in places where people like US citizens (and LDS) but those kind of places are becoming increasingly more rare.

[Cowboy]

The Lord will protect His own. In the heat of adversity come the greatest blessings. I think the next 10 years will be the greatest time in history to be on a mission. The US may have a bad image, the Church does not.

[Charsee]

Consider: What would life be like living somewhere that can't grow enough food to feed it's citizens.

I was in a ward a while ago that was praying for a missionary in the Congo that he would find enough to eat, I'm sure he must have but his parents were concerned. We aren't used to starvation rations around here.