Starvation amidst surplus

At first glance, the reports appearing in the American media last summer sounded very much like news about drought-stricken villages in the Indian hinterland. Till, of course, you saw the dateline and carried on reading in utter disbelief about desperate farmers and rural residents praying for rain in the United Sates of America. Since presidential help on the expected scale was not forthcoming, it was perhaps inevitable that god was called upon to do the needful. The Washington Post reported that President George Bush was unwilling to spare more finances for drought relief than had already been set aside in the USD 180 billion farm bill that he had signed earlier in May. The president, however, emphasised his commitment to helping farmers under existing programmes, including the agriculture department's decision to make USD 150 million worth of surplus milk – "spoilt milk" as the Democrats called it – available for use as animal feed in four drought-stricken states.

A drought of this magnitude is unprecedented in the recent history of the US. Crops have withered and fodder has become scarce, hence the need to feed milk to livestock. There is a scramble for new water sources even as urban residents have been asked to stop watering lawns and washing cars. Ranchers have sold off herds rather than let them starve for lack of pasture on their heat-baked fields. "I have never seen it like this and I'm 60 years old", said Richard Taylor, who owns 37,000 acres in Texas and New Mexico but had to sell off much of his cattle herd.