Who Is Starving Whom?

Pres. George Bush’s assertion that the current spike in worldwide food prices stems from rising demand from China and India has Indians in a tizzy.

Bush observed, “When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”

Pradeep Mehta, who works for a private economic research organization in India, repudiates that claim, noting that Americans consume 50 percent more calories than Indians. Americans consume an average of 3,770 calories per capita a day, the highest amount in the world, according to data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, compared to 2,440 calories in India.

“George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics,” Jairam Ramesh, the minister of state for commerce, told The Press Trust of India after Bush’s remarks, which he said proved again how “comprehensively wrong” Bush is.