Unfettered Letters

Food for the future

When I read a recent report that the U.N. says food production may fall 25 percent by 2050 because of land degradation and loss, water scarcity and climate change, I immediately thought of our neighbor who is working to solve this problem: Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute in Salina, Kan. He and six plant geneticists and agronomists are developing perennial grains from such annuals as wheat, sorghum and sunflowers.

Perennials have many advantages over annual grains. Their massive 10-foot roots manage water and nutrients better and hold the soil all year from erosion. Since they regrow each spring, there is less need for fossil fuel-dependent farm machinery to plow and plant seeds. They have a longer growing season and require less fertilizer and other chemicals.

U.N. Environment Program director Achim Steiner said: “We need a revolution that boosts yields by working with rather than against nature … Simply ratcheting up the fertilizer- and pesticide-led production methods of the 20th century is unlikely to address the challenge.”

Mary Helen Korbelik
Mission Hills

A festive way to help fight hunger

With the current economic conditions, the food pantries are overburdened and undersupplied.

We recently held a 50th birthday celebration for a dear friend. His request was to bring a food item rather than a gift. We had a large table with birthday-wrapped empty boxes, which were soon brimming with all kinds of staples. The result was a very nice contribution to the Village Presbyterian Food Pantry.

There will be many social and family gatherings in the days ahead. I hope others will take the cue. It is a very simple way to help and adds a new dimension to a holiday gathering.

Barbara Alley

Leawood

Thanks, Argosy employees

Argosy Casino recently donated over 3,000 pounds of nonperishable food to our food pantry, the Southern Platte Emergency Assistance Center. As a volunteer for the center, I would like to say a special “thank you” to the employees for their successful food drive. Not only did they donate the food, but upon delivery they sorted and stocked the pantry shelves for us. It is great to see local businesses supporting the community and helping those in need.

Rhonda Capps
Kansas City

Hungry to save money

I’m surprised that President Bush didn’t come up with this idea of cutting your grocery bill in half: Eat every other day.

Mike Kahn
Brunswick, Mo.

Present needs are top priority

Past life or present troubles? Two articles in the 5/28 Star — “Glitch halts work by Mars spacecraft” (A-2) and “Food stamps can’t keep up with prices” (A-1) — make me wonder which is more important.

It’s a no-brainer. Millions, perhaps billions, of taxpayer dollars to hunt for clues to possible past life on Mars, or money to help solve our own present problems?

That past life (if found) is past. If they find any, then what? Why, when and how this happened? Will they dig in the dirt for maybe more clues?

All that money for past, possible and perhaps?

I don’t think so, and I’ll bet many, many agree.

Louise V. Miller
Wellsville, Kan.

Help feed hungry kids in KC

Laura Scott’s commentary regarding childhood obesity and hunger (6/2, Local, “Obese poor children need better nutrition”) was right on several points — anyone who’s ever been on the Atkins diet knows steak is more expensive than mac and cheese — but she missed the boat when referring to Harvesters as a food pantry.

Technically speaking, Harvesters is not a food pantry but a huge food bank that provides food to more than 500 member agencies throughout our region. It is true that, like small food pantries, Harvesters does collect food, but it also distributes nearly 2 million pounds of food each month, which requires a large warehouse, equipment, professional staff, hundreds of volunteers and complex distribution and inventory systems.

My recommendation would be to support the hungry (oops, the politically correct term is “food insecure”) in our city with monetary donations at www.harvesters.org.

Skip that latte every Friday and donate $20 a month to support feeding kids in Kansas City.

Shere Parker
Lee’s Summit

Global hunger crisis

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the USDA’s food program, says “poor farmers will not be able to afford fertilizer and diesel” because of high energy prices (4/15, A-6, “Global hunger crisis deepens”). She correctly sees the connection between biofuel and food shortages. But in that thinking also lies the assumption that fossil-based diesel and fertilizers would help us to overcome the crisis.

How safe is a food production based on nonrenewable energy? What happens when these are getting scarcer? We have to honestly tell the world that basing agriculture on these two pillars not only destroys soil and farms, but has also raised totally unrealistic expectations on how many people the Earth can sustainably feed in the long run.

The U.S. agricultural system has proved to be ruinous for the land. Pollution, degradation of the soil, high erosion, health problems for man and beast are just a few of the consequences.

We need to find ways to produce food in harmony with nature all around the globe. That is the organic way.

By the way, my wife and I farm organically with draft horses and provide more than 90 families with vegetable and eggs.

Klaus Karbaumer
Platte City

Using food for fuel

It is very short-sighted for Americans to let our agricultural commodities become used for fuel. Not only is our food — rice, corn — seeing incredible price inflation, but it takes our most precious commodity, water.

People talk about going to war for oil, but you take away people’s water to grow food and it will be very serious situation indeed.

Josh Hill
Kansas City

To paraphrase, the modern-day Marie Antoinette would have said regarding the plight of the poor masses due to high price of corn and other staples, “Let them drink ethanol”

Paul W. Stark
Shawnee

Rising food prices

Thank you to The Star for your recent coverage of the worldwide spike in food prices, and the riots and suffering this trend is causing (“Sky-high cost of eating,” A-1, 4/13). This is a crisis that no one who eats can afford to ignore.

As the article points out, numerous factors contribute to this trend: Rising fossil fuel prices that directly influence the cost of food production and transport, competition for farmland due to the mad rush toward biofuels, and drought.

None of these trends are likely to go away, which means we could soon face the prospect of a $3 cucumber or $5 tomato at our grocery store. A $3.50 loaf bread is already a reality.

Fortunately, Kansas City is home to several groups working to create a local, sustainable, secure food system less reliant on fossil fuels. One group — Food Not Lawns Kansas City — encourages local citizens to rediscover the skills and joys of growing vegetable gardens.

This group offers a direct, hopeful solution to the serious trends that could significantly affect the pocketbooks, stomachs and health of all of us. For more information, see www.foodnotlawnskc.org. vf

Laura O’Brien
Kansas City

Working poor need help

Karen Stumbaugh (12/7, Letters, “Hungry during the holidays”) is correct that Harvesters and its network of agencies serve the “unemployed, elderly, disabled” and “extremely poor” in Greater Kansas City. But we are also seeing an increasing number of working poor families at our doors.

In fact, nearly half (48 percent) of those turning to Harvesters’ network for emergency food assistance have at least one adult in the household who is working. With stagnant wages and rising costs for everything from food to gasoline to utilities, more of the working poor need help to get by.

Assuming that an individual who has a job cannot be in need is naïve. Many households are just one or two paychecks away from needing assistance themselves. A hospitalization or a car repair can put a struggling family in a food pantry line.

Further constricting the definition of “need” and turning away working families during hard economic times may keep our shelves fuller, but our hearts will be emptier.

Karen Haren
President and CEO of Harvesters
Kansas City