Ayrshire wrote:
Jonathan Ball wrote in
link.net:


[...]

You may be correct that I have confused who was praising Lappe.

I definitely was not praising Lappe.

Her views are driven by leftist ideologies rather than a scientific
conclusion. She has ignored evidence that refutes her stance.

It's important to note that there are two distinct
pieces to her stance, one of them scientifically
founded but trivial, the other anything but
scientifically based. Her conclusion that people can
live healthfully and economically on a meat-free diet
is probably scientifically sound, but it is also
trivial: who cares? It's when she bases her policy
prescriptions on it that she gets into intellectual
trouble.

The '12
Myths of Hunger' from the FoodFirst web site is a political document
based on the usual leftist prescriptions, land reform, income
redistribution, hatred of the market, a living wage and the evil
rich.

A lot of the statements in the '12 Myths'
(http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgr...8/s98v5n3.html)
are unobjectionable. For example, myth #1:

Myth: Not Enough Food to Go Around

Reality: Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the
world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other
grains are produced to provide every human being
with 3,500 calories a day. That doesn't even count
many other commonly eaten foods-vegetables, beans,
nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish.
Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3
pounds of food per person a day worldwide: two and
half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound
of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound
of meat, milk and eggs-enough to make most people
fat! The problem is that many people are too poor to
buy readily available food. Even most "hungry
countries" have enough food for all their people
right now. Many are net exporters of food and other
agricultural products.

That is pretty much true: with minor exceptions, there
is plenty of food. What the sneaky leftists at
FoodFirst leave out of this is, the food in many cases
is NOT where the hungry people are. They also largely
misidentify *why* the food isn't where the hungry
people are.

In the 12th Myth Lappe gives a cursory overview of why our
country, USA, was established. To encourage liberty for individuals.
land ownership was part of the desired outcome for many in the early
part of our history. But the document rails against liberty by saying
that the trend toward privitzation & de-regulation isn't the answer.
My expertise is in the agricultural sector, farm management & policy.
I believe more harm has been done to land ownership of small farmers
by policies that the US Congress has set, in the name of helping
small farmers, than the market.
The document written in 1998 also says things like 'growimg
number of hungry' 'growing numbers of working poor' due to welfare
reform ignores the great Clinton economy, the rising numbers of jobs
and low unemployment rates of the time.