Why is there so much poverty and hunger in Africa and the United States?

Land used not for feeding the poor, but profits for big name companies' products.

In 1926, Firestone signed a concession agreement with the Government of Liberia for a period of 99 years. That agreement covered one million acres of land, leased for a fee of 6 cents per acre for a total annual price of $60,000. In 2005, Firestone signed a new 37-year agreement with the Transitional Government in Liberia to lease the land for a fee of 50 cents per acre, according to New and Press

According to a recent report published by the Save My Future Foundation, between 2000 and 2003 Firestone exported 167,165 tons of rubber. Today, the price of rubber is at historic highs, $486 per ton. At today's price, Firestone is receiving $81,242,190 from its production in Liberia.

Firestone, now owned by Japan’s Bridgestone, has operated in Liberia since 1926 but wants out. Maybe the Liberians will take the plantations over, but unless somebody invests in replanting, “the industry in Liberia is probably dead within a decade or perhaps a little bit more.” (Michael Peel, FT 28 July 04)according to Bret Wallach

Mittal Steel, the world’s biggest producer (extraordinary: nobody had heard of it 10 years ago) plans to mine Liberian ore near the Guinea border. Mittal owns Ispat Inland in the U.S., and says that access to the Liberian ore—a billion recoverable tons of 14 it--will guarantee 30,000 jobs in the Chicago area. Accordingly, U.S. government negotiators support Mittal and say that Liberia’s doing a deal instead with Global Infra-structure Holding will “slow down their support of the peace process.” Does that make Liberia an iron-ore republic, on the order of the banana republics of Central America? (Dino Mahtani in FT, 26 Sept 05)continues Bret Wallach

A new oil-hunting technology: ExxonMobil’s R3M (Remote Reservoir Resistivity Mapping) has been successfully tested off the coast of Africa. Oil is an electrical resister, so rocks containing oil reflect electromagnetic waves. The technology has long been used by drillers testing the rocks they were drilling through, but this new method allows a ship to skim the seafloor and check for oil-bearing strata, writes Bret Wallach

Now let's hear it for that corn fed ethanol and the Indiana Toll Road, that will create a jobs to help Indiana's economy, more than likely some big name company.