frustration

I have been watching and reading with interest reports about an impending crisis in the world. The crisis is starvation, caused by a limited availability of wheat and rice.

It upsets me as I take in these stories that I don't care more, that I don't feel more compassion.

Instead I feel anger and frustration. People are starving, and yet environmental extremists, "world" organizations and rich spoiled countries (including our own) seem to want American agriculture to be less productive and less competitive.

For instance, this year in California, an additional 600,000 acre feet of water will be dumped out into the ocean in an environmental "take" rather than used for farming. That is 600,000 acre-feet!

People are starving and 600,000 acre-feet of water could grow at least 300,000 acres of wheat.

At three tons to the acre, that equals 900,000 tons of grain. There are almost 40 bushels to a ton, so that's about 36 million bushels. And you can make at least 90 one-pound loaves of bread from a bushel, which adds up to 3.2 billion loaves of bread.

Please check my math -- it will make you sick to think of all the food that could be produced from that one source of wasted water!

It's madness that in our rush to "save" the world from ourselves, we lose the concept of reason.

I think it is truthful to admit, however, that even in this crisis of starvation, we still must not be very hungry!