December 11, 1974

Could Pope, Butz Agree On "Triage" ?

The worst thing about the quip repeated by U.S.  Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz - that Pope Paul "no playa the game" and therefore should "no maka the rules" regarding birth control in starving countries - is that it threatens to become an overworked rejoinder alongside such classics as "I can't believe I ate the whole thing."

World hunger is too serious to be treated facetiously.  However, the Pope injected his opinions into the World Food Conference at Rome unbidden and joined India and Uganda in criticizing the United States.

His rejection of birth control is justified on the basis of his religious conviction.  However, such a stand while millions of people face death by starvation is open to honest debate.

Pope Paul had no right to complicate an already complex problem without a constructive alternative.

Secretary Butz had no right to belittle a concerned religious leader without considering the moral standards involved.

The critical situation is that a billion people - a quarter of the world population - faces starvation.

The Food Conference estimated that eight 1 to ten million tons of food grain are needed just to save those now starving.

The United States pledged 3.5 million tons, then increased it to 4 million after most of the other nations insulted us for not doing more.  Unfortunately, all of the rest of the food producers combined could not - or would not - match our commitment.

India and Uganda "demanded" we double our contribution to them inasmuch as they had suffered "colonial exploitation" in the past.  No matter that the U.S. had nothing to do with any alleged exploitation.  Any "have" nation is guilty, per se, of something or other and owes plenty to the "have nots."

As usual, Uncle Sugar apologized for giving away our assets - to the recipients, not the U.S. tax payers - and promised to try and do better.

It's the intimation that the U.S. will come through in the end and solve all the world's problems that invites tragedy.  This time it just isn't going to happen.

The grain didn't grow enough.

And even if it had, there aren't enough ships to carry it to the starving countries.  And even if there was, the underdeveloped nations needing the food have no transportation nor distribution system to get it to their starving masses.

The hard, tragic fact is that millions of human beings are dying, and will continue to do so, no matter what we here in the United States try to do about it.

Russia and the other industrialized nations can buy our wheat and use it because they have the money, ships, and organization.  The rest of the world is out of luck.

In the present situation we probably will have to fall back on the army system of "triage" for allocating limited supplies.

When critical medicines, for example, were in short supply at field hospitals during World War II the physicians had to divide the wounded into three categories:

1. Those who would die with or without help.
2. Those who would get well with or without help.
3. Those who would get well with help but die without it.

In this situation, the doctors concentrated on group three.  It was brutal but realistic.

Something of the sort, sadly, is about all the food-surplus nations can do today.

India, despite its bad manners, can be helped effectively.  It is making progress in upgrading its farm production and - despite the Pope's stand - carrying out a widespread birth control program.  There is reasonable hope that India, with a little help, can become self-sustaining eventually.

The sub-Sahara area of Africa, on the other hand, has little expectation of ever becoming self sufficient.  The climate and the soil fertility are not there.

There is some feeling of hopelessness among the leaders of the starving countries.  The Malthusian nightmare of more people than the Earth can support seems to have become harsh reality.

Not so!

The World already grows enough nourishment, wild, to easily support a human population three or four times its present size.

But, that nourishment is in the form of vegetation our human digestive systems can not assimilate in its present form.

What rs needed is concentration of food-processing technology on a scale rivaling the atom bomb or space efforts.

There is no shortage of food on the Earth - just a shortage of technology to convert it to edible form.

All of those who got their noses out of joint over Butz' bad joke - including President Ford and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York - should do what the Vatican office did.  Ignore the remark as trivial.

The furor has diverted our attention from the truly bad "joke" on the human race - that we are starving to death in the midst of plenty.

Author: Lindsey Williams