For Westerners, “Green” is Better than Black

I used to be very much into the whole “green” movement.  Even when things were very tight financially for the Brown family, I’d shop at the pricey wealth health food store to ensure that I was cooking with primarily “organic” ingredients.  Forget the fact that these foods were several times more expensive than “conventionally-grown” foods.  Forget the fact that there is no research that proves any significant risk introduced through the eating of conventionally grown food. And worst of all, forget the fact that by quadrupling our grocery bill, I was significantly reducing the amount of money that we could send to the world’s poor – people who are starving.*

If you really want to blow through your money, visit one of these!

I have found that greed is stimulated by dire predictions. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the false prophet, Harold Camping.  In order to cash in big time, he took advantage of people by threatening dire predictions of the end of the world.  Thankfully, in response to the false prophesy, some people drained their savings accounts and gave to the poor – a wonderful unintended fruit of Camping’s deception. But, the sad part about the whole thing is the fact that people who were NOT motivated to give to others out love & concern for the starving and sick of the world, were motivated by foolish fear. But before we pass judgment on the people that Camping duped, let me list other examples of the ways that people are  conned into being greedy and selfish by listening to dire predictions.

When we are greedy, we say, “I will hoard 20% of my money – even though all of my current needs are met – and I will stash it away in a savings account – in case of a rainy day.”  See, we worry about tomorrow, and we use that unwarranted worry to prevent us from helping others who are experiencing a “rainy day” today.  This is evil.

If you get sick, why pray to Jesus, when you can pray to Benjamin?

Another thing that we Westerners do, is we anticipate all sorts of health disasters that might or might not come upon us in the future.  We store up loads of cash in our Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in case we might one day get sick and need the money.  Forget people who are dying now – the “What-ifs” take precedence.  I am especially irritated by people who are morbidly obese that are constantly going to the doctor for check-ups and diagnoses.  These people are so worried about getting sick in the future.  They take all kinds of vitamins and “herbal remedies”, are on multiple pricey prescription medications, and set aside loads of cash for their future medical care. All the while, they ignore the abundance of research that tells them: “If you will just get up off your fat, lazy, gluttonous ‘donkey’ and cut back on the food a little bit, then you will add years of not only life, but vibrant life to your future.”  But worrying about tomorrow gives people an excuse to hoard money, food, resources.  God will judge us all for this evil, especially since He commanded us not to worry about tomorrow.

I am currently reading a book by a man named Robert Paarlberg.  I had barely gotten past the preface before I began to cry.  The book is titled, Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa.  Even now I am crying and filled with righteous indignation.  I plan to write more about this book after I have finished reading it, but even now I can highly recommend it to you.

A darker shade of skin color does not negate a person's right to access the nutritious, abundant food that God has given to ALL of mankind, in part, through biotechnological means. Rich Westerners need to get off their elitist high-horses and stop barricading biotech usage in Africa.

The book discusses how the “Green” movement’s major players use fear tactics to manipulate African governments into rejecting biotechnological advances that could save the entire world from hunger (I am not overstating the importance of biotechnology).  These groups present the “potential danger” of using genetically-modified (GM) crops to increase crop yields.  Western countries have been using biotechnological methods for years and have yet to observe any ill effects.  On the contrary, by God’s grace, biotech is responsible for both increasing the Western populace’s access to healthy food, as well as keeping down food prices so that even the West’s very poor population is nowhere near starving. With food being reasonably accessible, the poor are then able to spend money on things like education and health care. But apparently only Westerners deserve this luxury. Read this quote from the preface of Paarlberg’s book:

“Organizations from rich countries are coaching governments and farmers in Africa to stay away from modern science in farming, even though it is the same science that earlier reduced poverty in these wealthy countries.  Instead of investing in new agricultural science, the poor are told to trust in their own indigenous knowledge and to stick with the traditional crop and animal varieties currently in use by their own poor farmers. In effect, rich outsiders are telling African farmers it will be just as well for them to remain poor.”

(Paarlberg, xiii-xiv).

If you are not enraged by this arrogant and hypocritical kind of thinking, please do me the favor of just going back to eating your GMO-corn chips and playing your stupid X-box, okay?

For those of us who know that ALL people are made in God’s image and deserve reasonable access to adequate food, clean water, education and medical care, please join me in my goal of ending world hunger in this generation.  Please buy seeds (seeds that are known to produce better yields) from World Vision or the charitable agency of your choice.  Please read the book, Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa.  Please also read this very telling piece by Paul Jalsevac titled, The Inherent Racism of Population Control (Jalsevac, 2004). And then put two and two together.  Most importantly, pray that God would use you to end this foolishness.  And back up those prayers with generous giving to the poor, remembering that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, But it is swept away by injustice.

Proverbs 13:23 (NAS)

In Jesus Christ,

N. Brown

NOTE: If you are like me, you care deeply about the environment and want to see the beauty of God’s creation treated with dignity.  If you are concerned about the environmental impact of GMOs, I encourage you to CLICK HERE and watch a video on the effects (in fact, benefits) of GMOs on biodiversity.

Source: http://video.monsanto.com/?fr_story=FRdamp355636

IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to vouch for the credibility of Robert Paarlberg’s book for any skeptics that may be reading.  I know that some of what is being said here may seem a little “conspiracy-theorish”, but before you write the book off know this:  Robert Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley College and his book was published by none other than Harvard University Press.  The foreword for this book was written by not one, but TWO Nobel Peace Prize winners: Norman E. Borlaug and Jimmy Carter (yeah, the former U.S. President).  Thus, I think it’s safe to assume that the book is credible.

SOURCES:

1. Paarlberg, Robert. Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa. Cambridge, Massachussetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2008.

2. Jalsevac, Paul. The Inherent Racism of Population Control. LifeSite News.com. 2004 < http://www.akha.org/content/medicaldocuments/inherentracism.pdf>

* I am not against shopping at health food stores or buying organic food.  Actually, I like shopping at the Fresh Market occasionally. But let’s not treat organic food like it has been proven to significantly improve health.  Good health is much more likely to be attained through a Godly lifestyle of moderation.  So when you are choosing to spend $12 on a tomato, don’t delude yourself into thinking that you’re “saving the world” or buying some type of “superfood”.  If you want to help “save the world”, cut a check to World Vision, or some other worthy Christian humanitarian organization.

PS. If you do read/view any of the suggested materials, please post a comment offering your thoughts and response. Thanks!

PSS. Just so you know, I am not being paid by World Vision, Paul Jalsevac, or Robert Paarlberg and have no associations with any of them (except my support of the ministry of World Vision). I am writing this out of personal conviction, nothing more.