GREED AND POVERTY

GREED AND POVERTY

Imagine a world where stability is the norm and instability is the exception. In this world we are imagining, there are no shortages of life’s basics: food, clean water, shelter, and a healthy environment. Although competition may still exist on many levels, it is no longer concerned with life’s necessities, but only with the non-essentials—those extra things that make life more fun and exciting. But this time, these non-essentials are no longer allowed to have priority over life’s essentials. Instead, life’s essentials are a part of a globally-protected agriculture zone. How can this imaginary existence become a reality? Let’s look at our situation and see: If every square mile of land were occupied, there would be around 5 acres per man, woman and child. That seems like plenty of land until you factor in climate, terrain, deserts, swamps, pastures, infertility, forests, barren rock and general misplacement of buildings on top of agricultural lands. That reduces the available arable land to only about ½ an-acre per-person on the planet. Again, ½ an acre of usable gardening space/farmland per person still seems like plenty of room until we consider various environmental abuses, incompetent soil management, government interference, inequitable land distribution, laziness and greed. Hopeless, you say? Perhaps, but maybe not insurmountable. When nations unite, great things are accomplished. This world has been given so many bright minds and abundant natural resources. I really believe that we have the ability to change this world into the kind of place that God originally intended. There have been times of relative peace and prosperity when nothing seemed impossible. Consider the years of post-World War II, when the world seemed to awaken from a nightmare to discover life anew. Then our dreams were golden, when no dreams were too large, and life was fresh and hopeful for millions of people all over the planet. Surprisingly, those countries which had suffered the greatest losses were among the first ones to rebuild. Their tragic memories were changed from sorrow to renewed vigor, a zest for living, and ultimately the rebirth of civilizations that had been destroyed by war. This rebirth sought a new world full of opportunity and fulfilled dreams, where everyone had a chance to build a life of hope for their family. These were not idle dreams, but were instead realities that were achieved by millions of families throughout the world. We are once again poised at such a crossroads. Will we, as citizens of the world, make a decision to seize this opportunity to fulfill our destiny and our dreams, or will we be satisfied to live in the shadow of former greatness, under of a cloud of disillusionment and shattered hopes? How can we begin to realize these dreams and make them our realities? We need to unite globally with others who share our vision of an achievable, prosperous and fulfilling life for all of our citizens. One good place to begin is by supporting efforts to reclaim arable land for agriculture. These are lands that have long remained unused through misappropriation and neglect. Let’s insist that cropland no longer be used for building construction sites. Let’s further insist that every vacant lot be made available for shared green spaces in every city and town on the planet. Let’s remove all unnecessary buildings which are mislocated on arable land, and finally let’s insist that cities, towns, industrial sites and other infrastructures be placed on sites which are unusable as arable acreage. When this has been accomplished, we will notice a startling thing—we have now increased our arable acreage to between 1-2 acres per person globally. When these crops have been planted, harvested, and properly stored, transported, sold at a reasonable profit and consumed by a thankful public, we will have achieved an economic substrata that is immune to inflation. Think about it—all the efforts to increase our available arable acreage, plant, harvest, store, transport and sell these agricultural commodities globally, will now be standardized into an ever-increasing quest for a sustainable and globally-affordable food supply that is no longer dependent on the former conditions of supply and demand. Our food supply will no longer be held hostage by the highest bidder and warehoused for the purpose of price-gouging and price-fixing. Alarmists will squeal that this will remove any incentive to sell agricultural products. They base this argument logically on other failed attempts at agricultural utopias. But they have forgotten that we now have the available ingredients for success at our disposal. In addition to all the bright minds, we have unprecedented infrastructures in place for communication, transportation, storage, preservation, security, fertility, nutrition and mechanization, in addition to a protected global agricultural zone that is immune from fluctuations that affect non-essential items that are a part of the supply and demand superstructure. We know, and have known for a long time, which agricultural items have proven to be successful in the past, which are high-demand items versus low-demand, nutritionally-superior, practical and sustainable. We also know quantities and calories of consumption based on current levels, and which supply levels fit the ever-improved global diet which includes a much-wider spectrum of all basic food groups. What then remains for us to accomplish these goals in our lifetime? First, we need the shared vision of ending hunger and reducing poverty. We may never succeed in eliminating poverty, but we are on the verge of at least ending starvation and malnutrition. These are achievable goals which need only proper planning by the greatest minds on the planet, the investment of time and energy necessary to accomplish them, and the agreement to global cooperation and mutual aid that befits a committed and humanitarian society. Let us begin now to move in this direction, trusting that God will empower us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over all” that God has placed under our supervision.

Mark Overt Skilbred