Food

I read a lot about two chems these days in global media outlets. Atrazine and Glysophate. People are scared of them and the media is all over this. The articles on every news outlet usually go down with this formula:

Headline of: "This Dangerous Chem is Banned in Europe but Not Where We Live!?"
Article consists of: Blah, blah, blah, blah.
User Comments Section: 500 instances of "Oh my Sweet Lord why isn't this Chem Banned!?"

Why if something is banned in Europe should it be banned everywhere? Is Europe like the number 1 and most efficient food producer on earth? No, not even close. Why is Europe supposed to be the leader and pace setter for agricultural practices then? Who knows. It's not the nation everyone should try to emulate in regards to agriculture...not in the least.

Here are the top producers of crops globally. You'll notice the country known as Europe is very rarely in the top 5 and rarely ever in the lead in any crop category

(Source: United Nations FAOSTAT)

Buck Cereals

Buck Vegetables

Buck Fruits

Buck Fruits, Continued.

 Buck Meats and Whatnot

And of course Deez Nuts (Got EEEM)

If You're Not Number 1....then just Pretend that You Are, That's All


Wow, China, China, China, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Number one is always China, China, China, almost ad nauseam. Reading this leaders list is like listening to a Donnie Trump speech. China, China, China, China, Chi-NA. Chiii-na, CHINA, China, China, China......

 I hafta have my China

China in some categories is like off the charts in the lead too. China makes over 200 million tonnes of rice per year. That's quite a lot of rice.

America isn't bad either. It produces the most corn on earth by a large margin. Why is this? Countries like China and USA can be number one because they value science, they aren't scared of the word GMO, they figure out what works and go with it. They reduce land use and get more out of it...they make MORE with LESS because they are smart and good at it.

The USDA shows the evolution of corn production in the USA with this line graph and the big spurts in production coincide with the biological advances made in science. They have mastered making corn. How did they do it? With research and science, that's how.

Alright so as we can see from the data....Europe is not number one in agriculture, but it seems every news article I read tends to think that it is for some reason. This whole "Europe is doing it! So we have to do it!" motif is based on what exactly?

It's like being in school and everyone wants to copy the dullard in class and be like them. It's like the whole world is in school and Europe is the dumb kid picking his nose and eating his boogers in the back of the class...yet for some crazy reason...everyone in the class wants to emulate his behavior for some unknown reason. Why? Who the fuck knows. I don't know.

Another comparison is that every nation in the world is in school, every country, and everyone is getting good grades except for that dullard Europe...so instead of studying harder and doing research and learning something...Europe just goes around the class with a hammer and beats all the other students in the head with it until they are as stupid as he/she is. Actually that example is even better because THEY ARE DOING THAT.


Organic

If you can't be the best...just pretend you are.

Europe might not make the most, or best, crops but at least they have an ad campaign to pretend they do. Their crops are holier than any other crops. They have an air of regality and sophistication that other crops don't have.

Europe has the Aristocratic equivalent of Farm Produce....they have Organic food. What is Organic food? It's a label. The organic industry is on an honor system...there's no inspectors or guidelines. You pay to get the Organic seal of approval and then you can slap it on your shit.

We all know that most of food produced comes from China, and that doesn't change with organic food. The food is still from China, the same stuff, except it has a package which says Organic Peas instead of Peas. That's it, that's all it is. Same product but just a silly little label on it....like Tommy Hilfiger grey t-shirt instead of just a grey t-shirt, you know?

Why is this? I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings over this because I know a lot of fat rich white people love this Organic shit....but Organic is a form of Mercantilism that is used to keep the profits in Europe and out of places like Africa.


Neo Mercantilism

I am always interested in reading about countries where hungry-ass people live. Countries where deaths from mal-nourishment and starvation are a real thing. I was following Golden Rice and why certain groups want it banned and I am surprised that people in countries where they need to figure out how to make crops flourish in order to make sure people have food to eat actually have a positive opinion of GMOs.

Golden Rice synthesizes beta-caratine into rice in order to deal with the problem that many children on earth don't get enough of this and go blind in their formative years. Most poor people eat rice for their only meal a day and if you can get the nutrients they need into the next batch of rice crops then that may be a substantive method of solving that problem. Poor countries want this. They want GMOs. It's groups of lawyers from Environmental "Charities" who want Golden Rice banned....not the countries with heavy problems of childhood blindness, undernourishment, and death.

Europe has gone on such a firebrand preacher escapade of promoting organic and vilifying GMO that it is actually making a concerted effort to keep people hungry.

Europe doesn't produce much food AT ALL but it exports a shit ton of food. It imports raw goods and then sells products derived from these raw food imports. All of the laws in Europe and the laws it negotiates during trade talks center around this. Keep the raw goods coming in and products going out. Import some coffee...freeze dry it....throw on some Organic bull shit thing on it...and then export it at 1000x of what you paid for it.

Again, I am always interested in reading what people in places where hunger is a reality feel about the organic movement and the anti-GMO firebrand evangelicalism of Europe. I was reading an article by Calestous Juma, a man who's field of study is getting every mouth fed in Africa...and again....I am both surprised and relieved that people in Africa who want to solve hunger problems have a VERY POSITIVE view of GMOs.

Juma: How the EU Starves Africa into Submission

Africa can't export to Europe any good that's GMO, and they are not allowed in the trade agreement to export any manufactured good. Raw food stuff is taxed at a tarriff of about 10% to sell to Europe while manufactured goods are taxed up to 60% in tarriffs. That's high way robbery! And people say that Africa is not an economic super power because they are lazy or some shit...no they are not lazy...they are just getting ripped off by the EU in a Neo-Mercantilism cartel scam, that's why.

Germany doesn't make any coffee but somehow exports 3.67 billion bux worth of it? Ok there.

Calestous Juma believes Africa's only hope to become a strong economic region is to look for other countries to deal with....mainly China and Brazil beause the Mercantilism deal they have going with Europe is a total rip off.

Europe imports it's food from poor countries...then processes it and slaps a bullshit Organic label on it...and then sells the product to yuppies for an huge markup. America has this mentality too now....especially in California where hollywood rich white people have really fallen in love with the Organic scam.

The ironic thing is these Euro-Trash and Cali-Trash rich white pigs really believe they are SAVING THE EARTH by buying something with the word organic slapped on the label. It's ironic because people in the world who really are trying to feed the hungry people of earth and help all the dying children not die are HUGE fans of GMOs and not fans of organic methods.

"Pursuing EU-inspired biosafety policies denies Africa the capacity to leverage biotechnology and use it to meet its own local needs. GM technology has wider application in fields such as medicine and can be used in the development of diagnostics." -Calestous Juma

Africa wants GMOs! It wants pesticides! It wants to meet its local needs to feed everyone. They need a trade deal with a country....probably China or Brazil like he suggested...that will purchase food from them at reasonable prices and have no "bio-safety" fictitious rules to justify charging African food exporters up to 60% in tariffs.

Conclusion

I love Europe, I think it's a swell country. It's a beautiful place full of wonderful people...yet its agricultural model is downright atrocious. Their agriculture practices can be summed up in two concepts.

A) Sign deals with poorer countries with highly Mercantilistic terms

B) Create a very silly marketing campaign to sell processed raw goods for export to be consumed by a demographic of rich dumb white people who want to buy "Organic" food.

Now in my region, two groups are suing the government to ban Glysophate and Atrazine under the pretense that "It's what Europe does."

First off, Quebec is in Canada...IT IS NOT IN EUROPE. Okay? Our laws are not European laws. Okay? Is that really that hard to understand?

Second off, Europe has the silliest and possibly the most un-ethical agricultural model of any country on earth. WHO THE FUCK WOULD WANT TO EMULATE THEM!? WHO!? A moron that's who.

Nobody should be banning successful pesticides that in the case of atrazine has been used for 60+ years.

Man, I wish there was a new chain of grocery stores built for niche market consumers. People like me who think organic is swear word. It would be a chain of stores called "African Sundries" and all products were purchased from Africa at fair market value and all products would say "GMO AND PROUD" on the label....

....and you know who would do all of his mother fucking grocery shopping down at African Sundries? This guy. Me. D. That's who.

Sustainable Long-term Plans for Mali

I've been looking into Mali geographically, economically, and politically lately. I started to think, what's the point of just finding problems without making an attempt to figure out how to solve them?

I'm not an expert or anything, I just mainly write for fun, but if someone reads it and finds it interesting to them, then that's nice.

Ok, here goes...

In this essay we shall be lookin' at the following aspects of problems in Mali. I think I'm going to just not deal with the Islam Mafia stuff...that has enough articles about it anyhow. Islamic Mafia groups in the region could take up the whole article itself and make it really boring. Anyway, let's look at:

A) Mali is almost 100% Landlocked

B) Agiculture needs revamping

C) Water Filtration Improvement

E) Hydro Power

F) The Closing of Areva's highly exploitive and inefficient (both economically and ecologically) Uranium mines.
   
    
Landlocked Hindrance
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Mali)

Right now, Mali is landlocked and its situation is not the same as being a landlocked state in a highly developed economic area. When you are landlocked in Africa...you truly are. The hindrances are far greater.

Mali's only access through river to a port is by Koulikoro river down to Abidjan in the country of Cote d'Ivore. If there is some sort of trouble in that country or relations sour they are rendered 100% landlocked.

Mali has rails and roads but the only access to a port through that means seems to be the port in Senegal. If cooperation between Mali and Senegal were to ever sour or breakdown, Mali would lose that option as well.

Natinonal borders in Africa are not very practical. People should know that borders in Africa were all drawn up by colonial powers following World War I, and if I may say, I think they were either divided up haphazardly or purposely badly in order to hinder Africa. European colonization into Africa in the 1800's prior to the borders being drawn was very brutal and its legacy still lives on today.

This is a good article which sums that up from a website called "Freak-o-nomics" which includes a .pdf of the paper that they reference: http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/12/01/the-violent-legacy-of-africas-arbitrary-borders/

Personally, I do not always see the benefit of being a "nation" and especially since these "nations" were divided up in highly questionable circumstances by Europe after World War I, I don't see why Africa should make a big deal about these borders. It would be highly beneficial for Mali, Cote d'Ivore, Senegal, and the rest of West Africa to form one co-operative union.

Actually, forget Mali, Senegal and West Africa working together as one nation...possibly even a Pan-African Union would bring about optimum circumstances.

Agriculture

As of now, 90% of Mali's residents are farmers. They grow subsistence crops and export crops. When there is no rain...Mali suffers droughts and extreme famines.

The answer to this problem is to irrigate the farmlands from the Niger River, which is on on-going but highly necessary process. Information released from le Office de Niger (the agency in charge of the irrigation of Mali farmlands and the building of canals) is reporting progress. Having a fully functioning irrigation system is the only answer for droughts which often cripple the country.

Right now Mali's main export crop is cotton but I've read an interesting suggestion the other day on what Mali's future cash crop should be. The next cash crop in Mali...should be Hybrid Sorghum.

Hybrid Sorghum: http://www.agra.org/AGRA/en/what-we-do/hybrid-sorghum-now-reaching-farmers-in-mali/

Sorghums

What should they do with Hybrid Sorghum? According to this article I read on "eco-rex" they should farm sweet sorghum to manufacture Ethanol Fuel. Why? Because it is 100% the optimum place to do so.

Brazil for example, the world's largest exporter of ethanol fuel, is NOT the prime place to do mass ethanol production. The mass deforestation of Brazil and the Amazon rainforests to make the land suitable for mass agriculture is a large cost in exchange for ethanol. Is the rain forest and its carbon capturing capabilities (after factoring albedo effect which would doubtfully off-set it) worth trading away for ethanol? Personally, I don't think so...I think Brazil is better off with the rain forest.

Mali on the other hand...is already a veritable desert with no trees and certainly no rain forests. It's the perfect place to begin the mass planting of Sweet Sorghum and the manufacturing of bio-fuels and bio-diesels.

Mali will have fuel to power its automobiles and the vast excess bio-fuel would be exported for profit.

Not bad.

Water Filtration

Here's an article from Christopher Vaught from 2004 on water filtration in Kayes, Mali :

http://cee.eng.usf.edu/peacecorps/5%20-%20Resources/Theses/Water/2003Vaught.pdf

Vaught concludes in his research that,

"The people of Kayes are struggling to afford the water they need to live. The local operators barely have the expertise and resources to manage their water treatment plant. Yet the people of Kayes are succeeding at providing one of the best water supplies in the country of Mali. People coming from around the country enjoy the luxury of tap water after spending many hours of every day for many years pulling water from a well. The people of Kayes are most limited by their lack of financial resources. Major upgrades to the water treatment plant must come from outside sources. This leaves the local people without control over their own water. As the general population is struggling just to pay for the water they do have available, an upgrade is out of their realm of possibilities. In the hottest city in Africa people regard water simply and cherish it."  - Vaught, C.

Second only to irrigation, water filtration plants are the top priorioty task for development in Mali. They need a sustainable source of food and water before you can even talk about anything else.

What about Uranium mines, you ask? Uranium is NOT a priority above food and water.

The Need to Close Areva's Operations in Mali and surrounding regions

France's Areva Corp's uranium mines are not a benefit to anyone. They really aren't. Mali isn't getting anything by working for $1 an hour as slaves to keep a shit power source like nuke energy going.

The future really doesn't have a place for the highly dangerous power source anyway. You could try and argue that money and economy will prevail over all, and that greed for energy profits will win out....but you'd be on the losing side of that argument. Have you seen Areva's stock and net profit recently?

Areva posted a 2.4 billion dollar net loss in 2011, and no one's predicting a positive 2012. It seems since the latest nuclear meltdown in Japan...nuke power just isn't that hip to anyone anymore. One earthquake and bam...radiation everywhere. A lot of nations are not touching nuke power any longer.

Nuclear energy is not looking as hip as it did when the oil companies first bought/stole the patents for it from the American taxpayers all those years ago.

     
Hydro Plants

Kainji hydro

So, to segway out of nuclear power and into a cooler one. Can the Niger river basin support hydro-electric plants to give Mali sustainable and clean power generation? According to some info I've read, yes. In fact there's already hydro-electric production in the Sahel region so why not make more?

There's nothing wrong with low-polluting and highly-efficient power generation.

(http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P093806/niger-basin-water-resources-development-sustainable-ecosystems-management-project?lang=en)


Conclusion

Top Priority Tasks:  
-Irrigation of the Sahel Region and Niger River.
-Water Filtration plants (the uprading of the existing ones and buidling new ones in towns with none) 

Second Priority Tasks:
-Extended co-operation with West African regions and access to import/export from ports.
-Highway network to facilitate goods from to-and-from ports

Third Priority Tasks:
-The increase of hydro power generated from the Niger River Basin
-The implementation of Surghum manufacturing to produce Mali's new #1 export that the future craves...Bio-Ethanol fuels.


(Okay, so I know something like this isn't very practical considering the Islamist and European thug groups battling for dominance there....but if saner non-mafia type people were running the world I think that would be a pretty good template for the future of Mali....but then again...what do I know?)