Food Fight

New at Reason: Ron Bailey gives a blow-by-blow description of last week's GM food ruckus in Valle Verde.

Comments

[Madog]

True, for both sides it was really just a propaganda effort, but atleast it shows that the poor are smart enough to take free food and not listen to crap.

[Sir Real]

I guess that's better than, oh, filing a story about the WTO Cancun conference breakdown (you know, the conference Ron was supposed to be reporting on). Why give us a reasoned, intelligent account of what happened, when he can take pot-shots at anti-globalization undergraduates?

Of course, actually commenting on an important story would force him to concede that he's been targeting the protestors because they're easy, and he lives in moral equivalence land where vandalizing McDonalds is worse than brutalizing billions through subsidies, tarrifs, and WTO austerity plans. It lets him mouth platitudes like "Trade is the Way out of Poverty", without actually addressing the rapacious WTO policies that have destroyed economies everywhere they've been embraced.

Stick to mocking the Patchouli wearers, Ron- it's all you're good at.

[Madog]

Well, I liked the article. There's more to the WTO conferences than what's on the official agenda.

[Citizen]

I was disheartened by the events of the story that were not addressed. That is, the issue of relief versus development. Both sides of the battle used the people of Valle Verde to make their point before a media frenzy, and neither really cared about the interest of the locals. Free and mass distribution of food is great ... after a hurricane. But on a regular basis and when you want to make a point, is institutionally unhelpful at best and self-serving at worst. I've seen it first hand. The better way is for community leaders to develop goals, plans and means of sustainable technology and health. Aid them in this, not in dependence.