Indians blame fat Americans for rising food prices

[Elspeth]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/business/worldbusiness/14food.html?em&ex=1210910400&en=2c9ea731eb359c6b&ei=5087%0A

NEW DELHI — Instead of blaming India and other developing nations for the rise in food prices, Americans should rethink their energy policy — and go on a diet.

That has been the response, basically, of a growing number of politicians, economists and academics in this country, who are angry at statements by top United States officials that India’s rising prosperity is to blame for food inflation.

The debate has sometimes devolved into what sounded like petty playground taunts over who are the real gluttons devouring the world’s resources.

For instance, Pradeep S. Mehta, secretary general of the center for international trade, economics and the environment of CUTS International, an independent research institute based here, said that if Americans slimmed down to the weight of middle-class Indians, “many hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plates.”

He added, archly, that the money spent in the United States on liposuction to get rid of fat from excess consumption could be funneled to feed famine victims...

[Squatch]

1. 1,000,000,000+ skinny Indians puts the pressure on, too, yano?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. Yeah, if they'd learn how to use contraception there'd be a lot of extra food!

Good point. :thumbsup:

[El Pinko]

11. Somehow, I doubt the Indians gorge and throw away perfectly good food the way we do...

They have a damn good point. America's gluttony and wastefulness is disgraceful.

India's population growth has slowed from over 2% in the 1970s to 1.3% now and continues to fall.

And unlike the United States, their poverty rate has fallen and their middle class has grown over the past 3 decades.




America is 5% of the world's population, but gobbles up about half of its resources.

How you guys can be smug about this is beyond me. We could do much better than this.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

12. Population shouldn't be growing at all.

Touting 2% or 1% as a "good" growth rate is ridiculous. The earth is choking under the weight of billions of people. And more and more people around the world are adopting US consumption habits. What is needed, I'm sorry to say, is negative population growth everywhere, along with us Americans curtailing our wasteful ways. Sadly, most humans are too vain to pass up the opportunity to replicate themselves so we will breed ourselves into extinction in a few decades.

[El Pinko]

21. I agree, but it's easy to sermonize to an undeveloped country from a comfortable 1st world perch.

All I'm saying is Americans have absolutely no right to criticize. When we start setting a better example, maybe, but up to now we have been the planet's #1 swarm of locusts.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

26. I think Americans should stop being wasteful. And stop breeding too.

One American child will use up to 600 times as many resources as her 3rd world counterpart. So I'm not lecturing from any perch. :shrug:

[raccoon]

34. THANK YOU.

" One American child will use up to 600 times as many resources as her 3rd world counterpart."

[crimsonblue]

48. No we won't...

At some point, humans will branch out from the earth. It's inevitable. There will be space colonies and Mars and Moon colonies. We will probably figure a way to grow crops on Mars or in Space itself.

[El Pinko]

58. I don't think that large-scale settlement of Mars or the moon will ever be practical.

It's great as scientific endeavor, but the cost of transporting people and supplies and terraforming will never be lower than the cost of cleaning up the earth and developing recycling technologies here.

This is what we are stuck with, until the sun blows up and burns it all to a cinder. Light-speed travel is a physical impossibility, so migrating to distant planets will never happen either. We need to take good care of this planet or a huge percentage of us will end up dead (permaturely - of course, all of us will end up dead eventually, both as individuals and as a species. It's inevitable.)

[The2ndWheel]

17. If energy is cheap, it will be wasted

Depending on the definition of waste. The cheaper the energy, the more people have access to it, and everybody has their own wants and desires, so it depends on who gets to define waste.

[malaise]

19. Excellent post

as usual.

[New Dawn]

57. I agree, good post.

[Hannah Bell]

23. us uses 1/4 of world resources.

[Matariki]

25. Do you know there's a direct correlation between poverty and over population?

In countries where the only form of 'social security' for old age is your children caring for you, it becomes a form of wealth and security to have a lot of children. Also, the greater the risk that many children won't make it to adulthood also creates the incentive to have many children.

Countries with a higher level of wealth and education, especially equal education for girls, the birth rate goes down.

[ensho]

31. true

nt

[mrreowwr_kittty]

32. Yep. nt

[raccoon]

33. Yeah and if Americans and citizens in other Western nations didn't hog the lion's share of the

world's resources....

[mrreowwr_kittty]

35. Agree 100%. We do hog resources.

However, us reducing our resource usage does not totally mitigate the harm caused by global overpopulation.

[The2ndWheel]

41. We won't reduce our resource usage

At least voluntarily. We'll get more efficient at using the resources, but that just makes our extraction rate better, which gives us more energy to use, and we don't voluntarily, on any meaningful scale, reduce our usage.

Since there are a few billion people who aren't hooked into the global system, whatever resources we don't use, will be used up by those few billion people. Since there will be an additional few billion added before the population even starts to level off, they will also need everything that everyone else has, which will further increase our resource usage.

More people is what causes what we know as progress. If we have fewer people, progress will stop, because at some point everyone will have everything they could ever need. However, if we stop, physics starts to catch up to us, and then we have to increase our usage even more so that we don't get caught.

So we have to reduce the total population(which won't happen until everyone, everywhere, has everything they need), and reduce our total consumption(which won't happen until everyone, everywhere, has everything they need), but then we have to increase either our total population(so that material progress doesn't stop), or increase our total consumption(so that all the material progress up to that point wasn't a giant waste of time). All that while decreasing the impact we have on the habitat while increasing the efficiency with which we can use the energy. That has never happened.

[Freddie Stubbs]

46. 10/12/2007 -- India facing obesity epidemic: experts

Problem high among schoolchildren

HYDERABAD: Morbid obesity has acquired epidemic proportions in the country with 5 per cent of the population suffering from it.

This is only the tip of an iceberg and the incidence is growing, according to medical experts. Latest treatment protocols to combat obesity and other lifestyle diseases will be discussed by specialists from India, the United States and the United Kingdom at an international three-day CME beginning here on Friday. The meet to be inaugurated by Minister for Medical Education Galla Aruna will also focus on ‘Obesity, Heart, Hypertension, Diabetes and Lipids (OHHDL).

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, P. Naveen Chander Reddy and Nagarjun of Mediciti Hospitals, the organisers of the conference, said that recent study found that the problem of obesity was high among schoolchildren in Hyderabad. Lifestyle changes and intake of high calorie food were among the causes associated with morbid obesity.

They said that OHDDL diseases could cause serious log-term morbidity, disability and complications.

more: http://hindu.com./2007/10/12/stories/2007101260940600.htm

[mitchleary]

2. Well maybe they should

stop having as many children. They have one sixth of the world's population and over times the population of the United States. They maybe should remove that log from their eye first.

[Skink]

4. How about corporations stop poisoning the food supply with such things as corn syrup

[Greybnk48]

30. Yup. High fructose corn syrup is POISON!

and that's why many in the us are fat and have diabetes 2.

[treestar]

5. Is it that simple?

Packaging and preservatives could have a lot to do with it.

But we could adopt the Indian diet and come to no harm. How often does one see a fat Indian, even in the U.S.?

[Skink]

6. It only takes a few years of the american diet to alter genes...

a few years a Mcdonalds is all it takes.

[DS1]

8. Hell, just a few trips to McDonalds can alter jeans

[Regret My New Name]

13. haha

[lonestarnot]

51. An entire families' jeans!

[YOY]

7. I've seen a couple

n/t

[murielm99]

9. So have I.

One of them is a very wealthy man. The other is a woman who is my doctor.

[treestar]

61. But what proportion?

Of the Indian population? I know, I know, Google is my friend, but I don't have time right now. Maybe later.

[shanti]

10. in most

"third world" countries, being heavy is a sign of wealth and is admired. they probably just want to turn the tables on us!

[dysfunctional press]

14. i have no intention of adopting the indian diet.

especially if it means eating indian...food?

[YOY]

15. Have you ever had it?

It's really good actually. Chicken Tikki Masala is a culinary miracle.

[dysfunctional press]

43. yes i have, and i find it disgusting.

personally.

[treestar]

62. Maybe you were at a bad restaurant

Try another one!

[Johonny]

16. IDK

there's a good 7.99 $ all you can eat Indian place 5 blocks for my place. Cheapest food around for that volume.

[dysfunctional press]

44. i'd never be able to eat enough to justify paying that much for it.

it's the absolute WORST type of "ethnic" food going.

[RedCappedBandit]

20. Never had it, have you?

;)

[El Pinko]

22. No kidding. Curry and Naan are like crack to me.

Sad that a person can be a grown adult and avoid exposing themselves to all the different wonderful foods the world has to offer.

[YOY]

24. Meatless or Otherwise, one can't go wrong when one goes into an Indian restaurant

Although if you've ever seen Andrew Zimmerman's "Bizarre Foods" he samples some interesting stuff regarding the street foods of New Delhi...some of which looked pretty gruesome!

[NickB79]

42. You had to go and mention naan

I was just daydreaming about lamb and potato curry with a big piece of naan yesterday at work. I had forgotten about it until now. It's going to be a long workday.

[dysfunctional press]

45. a few times- and one time was too many.

curry makes me gag.

[lukasahero]

52. curry isn't "one thing"

Curry is just a word, not a particular spice, flavor or ingredient. It "means" something like vegetable stew. And it's not just Indian.

Not that I think you'll go out and try any other curries but I thought you might like to know what you're talking about before you talk about it.

[dysfunctional press]

53. i've tried many types of curry...thai food is one of my favourites.

except the curry dishes.

[El Pinko]

55. You're entitled to your personal preferences, but you don't need to put down Ind. Cuisine...

...just because you don't care for it. I personally hate Menudo, but I wouldn't rag on all Mexican food because of it.

There are millions of people around the world who love Indian food.

[JI7]

36. Indian food is fattening, with lots of butter used and rice and bread

lots of fried foods.

it could be that the food is spicy so people drink more water than usual which fills them up and they end up not eating as much as they would other food.

[JI7]

40. there are a lot of fat indians in America

i think it may be genetic that most indians tend to be thinner. but as they get older they gain weight.

i know of many indian people in America who once they moved here from whatever country (india , africa, Canada etc) they gained weight. mostly because of all the cheap crappy foods easily available.

in India you can tell which people are indian americans (or brits) and which ones are indian nationals by how big or small they are.

[krabigirl]

63. There were several fat Indian women where I used to work. Nice ladies though.

[Bombero1956]

18. is there any way

that we can turn the fat from liposuction into a fuel source? That might go a long way towards solving our dependence on foreign oil.

[burythehatchet]

27. As an Indian I found this amusing because I took my son

and a couple of his friends to an amusement park outside Atlanta. Lots of Alabamians go there. There were lots there the day we went. I have never in my life seen so much morbid obesity in my life. Children, as young as 8 or 9 walking with sugared fried bread in one hand and a liter of Coke in the other. Parents, who could lose 200 pounds and still be considered obese.

I was beyond shocked. I almost felt embarrassed. I saw a family of 5, with the mother and father chain smoking, while the mother was holding an infant.

This is simply wrong on so many levels. Our public health efforts are useless. This was the first time that it dawned on me that there is no reasonable healthcare reform that is going to fix our health issues.

[Matariki]

28. I've been thinking that placing the 'blame' on developing nations is terribly arrogant and myopic.

The article has a point, even if it's stated in a provocative way. If you look at any stats about world population versus use of resources, the US is taking the lion's share.

[Steerpike]

29. Geez

That headline is laugh out loud funny...

[KamaAina]

37. Oh bollocks. Americans have been fat LONG before food prices spiked.

Way to distract blame from the commodities speculators, guys!

[JI7]

38. it was actually a response to Bush blaming India for the high oil prices

and rise in cost of food and other things as a result

[KamaAina]

39. Ouch. I completely missed that one.

Of course, I stopped paying attention to Bush** quite some time ago.

[Elspeth]

49. Ah, I see

I missed that too

[crimsonblue]

47. the problem isn't the American consumer, it's Monsanto...

Their newest generation of wonder seeds reduce yields (as proven by a recent KU study), but yet Monsanto said that increasing yield was not the aim of the seeds (when they had a press release when the product came out touting that the seeds would solve global hunger). Monsanto strong arms farmers into bankruptcy by repossessing seeds after harvest and forcing farmers to buy overpriced and worthless fertilizer. FUCK Monsanto!

[The Inquisitive]

50. There are a lot of factors involved since it is a global demand problem

and American consumption is part of it.

The first major problem is excessive meat consumption. The major animals animals we use to produce meat (Chicken, Pig, Cow etc) are all warm blooded and inherently have very quick metabolisms. Half of the US corn crop goes to cattle feed. It takes over a dozen pounds of corn to produce a single pound of beef, a lot of consumable energy is lost in the process. Many developing nations are becoming wealthier, and their demand for animal protein is increasing as a result because many more can afford it. As willingness to pay continues to increase suppliers are finding it profitable to up production and consume even more grain/corn to produce it. To make matters worse the global fisheries are more than peaked, and most over fished causing annual yields to stagnate. So the only source of animal protein is from farm animals.

The US diverting food to create ethanol further pushes out demand. Additionally the gains made from the green revolution are stagnating, per capita farmland continue to decrease, and yields per acre are holding steady. Some people put a lot of faith into GE crops to continue to increase yields, though there is some reasonable evidence that claims GE crops may do otherwise, though I'm no expert.

It all more or less boils down to, more consumers, perpetually consuming more, and quantity supplied remaining relatively stuck due to technological limitations, and scarcity of land.

I believe American's are in for a rather big surprise in the coming decades. The age of reckless consumption is coming to close.

[avenger64]

54. um, 1 billion population and they're pointing fingers?

They have stresses on their water and agricultural systems from mismanagement, and the fact that they've overpopulated their niche of the world. They should be blaming themselves.

[Skittles]

56. they can f*** themselves n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

59. I like it when other countries hold a mirror up to our face..

and force us to see who we really are.

I know several Indians and they are not wasteful people.

[Solly Mack]

60. lololol

tit for fat....er tat