Destruction Of Rice

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31290, 9 February 1967, Page 12

Destruction Of Rice

Sir,—As a regular contributor to C.0.R.5.0. and the Freedom from Hunger campaigns, may I protest against the burning of tons of rice captured from the Viet Cong, as shown in television news. In view of the world food situation, particularly the desperate need for rice, such action, even under the expediency of war, borders on stupidity, undermining our efforts to win the faith of the Vietnamese people and denigrating our image on earth and in Heaven.—Yours, etc., REALIST. January 28, 1967. [The Rev. H. C. Dixon, national secretary of the C.0.R.5.0. Freedom From

Hunger Campaign, replies: “We agree whole-heartedly with ‘Realist,* as surely must all right-thinking people, whatever the rights and wrongs of the war in Vietnam. C.0.R.5.0. has sent milk to Vietnam to meet the urgent need there, and it is dreadful to read of food being wilfully destroyed by both sides. An N.Z.P.A. Reuter dispatch printed on January 31 speaks of the grave shortage of rice in many areas in Vietnam. One of the aims of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign is to avoid waste. F.A.O. is calling now for vigorous action to reduce food losses between "field and table.’ In some cases up to 50 per cent of the food is lost through pests, inadequate storage, etc. In a world where there is a mounting crisis of world hunger, where the per capita availability of food is actually decreasing, it is of the utmost importance that more food should be produced and all that is produced should be used. Deliberately to destroy food in such a world, whoever does it and for whatever political motive, is not only stupid and wrong; some of us would say it is also sinful.”]