Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

….Obama Has Revolutionized the Web and Politics

1. While Howard Dean did a credible job by raising $27-million online when he ran for president in 2004, Obama took online fund-raising to a completely new level by raising a huge chunk of his $200-million on the Web. This include $31-million in April alone as Obama and Hilary went toe-to-toe for the last bunch of delegates. The vast majority of the online donations made were under $200.

2. Obama leverage social networking, using vehicles such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and text-messaging to get his message out. This included eight million viewings of “Yes We Can”, a video made in support of Obama.

3. Obama brought Silicon Valley into politics. By aggressively leveraging the Web and courting Silicon Valley, including announcing his technology policies at the Googleplex, Obama was enthusiastically embraced by the technology community. Andrew Sullivan contends “it was one of Clinton’s many huge errors that she bypassed Silicon Valley’s fundraisers in favour of more traditional areas of Democratic support. And she missed the key element of the new politics: social networking. She was still AOL; Obama was Facebook. Clinton was the PC; Obama was a Mac.”

4. By encouraging the Web as a way to raise money and communicate, Obama did something amazing: he engaged many young voters who had previously expressed little or no interest in politics. By walking and talking in medium that has become an inherent part of how young people live, work and play, Obama figured out how to effectively reach out to people considered to be disenfranchised and disinterested.

More: To see Obama’s remarkable “Race Speech” click here.

Technorati Tags: Obama Barack

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…Food Aid Is Facing The Perfect Storm

1. The perfect economic storm seems to be in full swing. The U.S. housing market is in the tank, oil prices are soaring, and the credit crisis is paralyzing the banking world. While economists debate whether the U.S. is in the midst of a recession, people from all walks of life are finding it harder to make ends meet. Factor in surging food and gas prices and you will find more people in need of food aid.

2. The number of people in need is staggering. USA Today points out that government data for 2006 (the latest available) shows 10.9% of households were food insecure, “a bureaucratic term meaning they did not have enough food for a healthy lifestyle at some point in the year.” That’s 35.5 million people! Of these, 22.9 million are adults (10.4% of all adults) and 12.6 million are children (17.2% of all children). At 21.8% and 19.5%, Black and Hispanic households, respectively, experience the highest rates of food insecurity.

3. Demand for food aid is on the rise. According to the U.S. Department of Agricultural, 26 million people participate in the food stamps program, with working class families accounting for approximately 41% of those in 2006, up from 30% tens years earlier. Second harvest, the largest network of food banks in the U.S., says demand is up an average of 15% to 20% from a year ago.

4. Donations are down. In addition to reduced personal and corporate sponsorship, federal government donations have been on the decline (though should show signs of recovery now that the Farm Bill has been passed by the House of Representatives).

5. Behind the strength of food and commodity prices, farmers are selling crops on the open market as opposed to government, price-supported programs. This creates additional pressure on food banks as those that purchase food to supplement donations are facing much higher costs. In a recent survey of Second Harvest food banks, over 80% reported that they could not meet demand without trimming operations or reducing the amount of food given out.

If you are interested in making a donation, please visit Second Harvest (for U.S. donations) and The Daily Bread Food Bank (Canada). Also, please feel free to post other sites in the comments.

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…Gas Taxes and Prices Should Be Even Higher.

…Surging Oil Is Hurting Public Transportation

1. Unlike their European counterparts, North American cities have been designed and built around the car. Residential areas, particularly in the suburbs, are hard to meaningfully serve with public transportation as they were constructed without this in mind. As more people consider alternative forms of transportation with surging gas prices, the warts of current systems become apparent.

2. While city officials around the continent are urging people to use public transportation, many commuters are finding that existing infrastructure is not up to the task. Many cities are seeing little slack in their systems and capacity needs to be increased in the face of rising demand. In San Francisco, for example, commuters are finding trains more packed than ever, leading officials to experiment with removing seats on some cars to make more room more riders.

3. You have to worry when politicians get involved. John McCain recently proposed repealing the federal gas tax ($28 savings per person for the three-month moratorium), with seemingly little consideration about the impact on public transportation. The American Public Transportation Association recently responded by noting that, “At a time when more and more Americans are using public transportation to beat the high cost of gas, the federal government needs to increase its investment in public transportation. If instead, the gas tax was suspended for the summer, it would eliminate $1.4 billion of federal funding for public transportation and severely restrict the industry’s ability to add and improve transit services for a growing number of Americans.”

4. More expensive oil means more expensive operating costs, which leads to either higher fares or reduced service levels.

5. Public transportation systems have not been designed to be more than utilitarian. There’s needs to be a dialog about how to make it more enjoyable and convenient, not just about how to move more people around. The question remains as to whether the motivation exists for governments to make the required investment.

More: Take a quick look at “The Role of Public Transport To Reduce Green House gas Emissions and Improve Energy Efficiency” by the UITP European Union Committee. The graphs on pages 2 and 3 are enlightening!

More more: Toronto seems to be suffering as well. Article here.

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…Cocaine Is Making A Comeback

1. Cocaine is cheap, relative to other drugs, and has become even more of a designer drug. While meth remains drug enforcements biggest concern, cocaine has re-emerged as a cheaper alternative for dealers looking to move large volumes. As News10 in California notes, meth is currently going for $22,000 per pound, while coke is fetching $10,000. Dealers are also cutting it with flavorings like strawberry, mint and lemon to appeal to teens.

2. Both acreage dedicated to coca bush production and plant yields are rising. In Peru, plots have increased by one-third since 1999, to about 127,000 acres, and other South American countries have seen similar effects. Some experts have noted that the density of coca plantings has increased dramatically and fertilizers have helped leaves yield a higher proportion of cocaine alkaloid, the active ingredient in cocaine.

3. Despite the most recent financial crisis facing the U.S., developed economies across the world have prospered. With prosperity comes disposable income, which inevitably leads to “recreational activities.

4. Facing higher demand, and the growing disparity in income levels with producing nations, there are few better alternatives for some farmers to make a living. A farmer in Peru says, “Here, there is no alternative to coca. They come and they offer us a few chickens and some cacao. How am I to survive on that?”

5. It’s getting harder to catch traffickers, despite best efforts. The traditional cartels have broken down into  a series of international, smaller-scale entrepreneurs. “We’re up against an army of ants,” quotes General Miguel Hidalgo, head of Peru’s national anti-drug police. In addition, many South American rebel groups have recognized that trafficking is in fact a lucrative operation and is eschewing political ideology in the face of business theory.

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….We’re in a Food Crisis

1. Food prices around the world are soaring. Between February 2007 and 2008, prices jumped 39%. Among the reasons cited are demand from China, India and other emerging economies, rising costs for fuel and fertilizer, and climate change.

2. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 37 countries may be facing a food crisis as prices for wheat and rice climb. After the price of rice hit a record high, the Philippines, the world’s largest rice importer, urged China, Japan and other Asian nations to convene an emergency meeting on the region’s food crisis to try and reverse export curbs.

3. IMF managing director Dominique Struass-Kahn said if the food crisis is not averted, “Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will suffer from malnutrition with consequences on all of their lives.”

4. If food prices continue to stay high and people become desperate for food, it is likely that violence will result. There have already been riots in Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania and the Philippines. Meanwhile, troops in Pakistan and Thailand have been deployed to stop the seizure of food from fields and warehouses.

For more insight, check out this op-ed piece in the New York Times by Paul Krugman, who suggests that “Cheap food, like cheap oil, may be a thing of the past.” As well, Eat.Drink.Better has some thoughts on how this food crisis was created.

Technorati Tags: Food

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