08/05/2017
If you’re watching what has been unfolding in Venezuela, then you know the people out on the streets have been banging empty pots to protest widespread food shortages. Protesters holding signs reading, “only the government is getting fatter” were teargassed and shot with rubber bullets. Why are they so angry?. “Around 93 percent of Venezuelans cannot afford to buy enough food and 73 percent of them have lost weight in the last year.”
The food shortage has resulted from hyperinflation (triple digit rate). Venezuela imports the majority of its food, while local agriculture only makes up 5.5% of the GDP. Food is not being produce, nor is it getting imported. Baby formula costs 20,000 bolivars.
What was Venezuela thinking relying so heavily on food imports? Well, let’s take a look at US food production. According to the USDA, “America’s farms contributed $136.7 billion of the total sum—about 1 percent of GDP.” It’s time for us all to consider where our food comes from. In a crisis, local food production can save your life, but the system does not currently exist to support such a movement. Sorry to be so dramatic, folks, but Venezuela was a rich country not too long ago, and now they’re going hungry and watching their children die from malnutrition.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN18U0SO
Banging empty pots and brandishing signs saying "only the government is growing fatter," Venezuelan activists in Caracas on Saturday protested food shortages in the crisis-stricken country.
