Green Leaf Report

Recently President Bush mentioned a rise in the Indian middle class as a cause of the increasing food prices in the US.  The responses from India were pretty funny, and true  - how did our culture get to the point where so many people use surgery to remove the signs of overeating?

For instance, Pradeep S. Mehta, secretary general of the center for international trade, economics and the environment of CUTS International, an independent research institute based here, said that if Americans slimmed down to the weight of middle-class Indians, “many hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plates.”

He added, archly, that the money spent in the United States on liposuction to get rid of fat from excess consumption could be funneled to feed famine victims.

Mr. Mehta’s comments may sound like the macroeconomic equivalent of “so’s your old man,” but they reflect genuine outrage — and ballooning criticism — toward the United States in particular, over recent remarks by President Bush.

With the “Obesity Epidemic” part of our American vernacular, can we really point a finger at other countries for causing problems in our access to cheap food?