To read about the Oxfam campaign, visit here Oxfam
Climate Change
Seasons change,
as they always have.
Something is wrong,
the seasons don't match
their previous paths
Dry when it should be wet.
Wet when it should be dry.
Floods wash away crops.
Drought kills crops.
Winds wreck crops.
Food that should feed,
dies as the farmer watches.
Helpless.
Families suffer.
Children starve.
Livestock falters,
Children die!
We may not be able to alter
the damage we have done.
Let's feed those that suffer,
because of our avarice.
They did not cause this nightmare,
they are paying the consequences.
It's time to think differently,
The System's Bust!
©2011 Trevor Litchfield
Land Grabs.
Can you imagine how it must feel,
to have the land you need to survive,
the land you call home, taken away?
You live on a smallholding,
farming enough to survive,
enough to feed your family.
Along comes this man,
he says you must leave your home,
go away, at the point of a gun!
This is done in the name of progress,
you starve to make others rich.
Others starve alongside you.
The man gets rich on your loss,
the land goes to waste, fallow.
Nothing grows where once stood crops.
How do you feel now?
It’s time to think differently,
The System’s Bust!
©2011 Trevor Litchfield
Food Price Hikes
How is running a car
more important than eating?
This is a question you would ask,
if you were starving!
How can it be right,
that people starve whilst food rots?
Warehouses full of grain,
rats having the time of their lives.
Think about Africa or India,
continents that daily go without.
Start to think of Europe, the Americas.
Look down your street,
who is going hungry tonight?
Children cry themselves to sleep,
through hunger!
Parents foregoing meals!
Now how do you feel about fuelling your car,
with that biofuel you bought today?
Do you even think of the food waste
that ends up in your bin?
Look in your fridge, what will you eat?
What will be thrown away without regard?
It's time to think differently,
The System's Bust!
©2011 Trevor Litchfield
Intensive Farming
You can see for miles,
the big sky, blue overhead.
The flatness of the land,
villages lost in the haze.
Far off church spires
glisten in the sunlight.
Water towers dot the skyline,
even from a distance, dominating.
This is Fenland,
This is Farmland!
Giant machines crawl over the land,
no hedgerows hide their progress,
no trees offering welcome shade.
Irrigation ditches the half-hidden landlines
that cut the land deeply, dividing.
Mile after mile of fertile soil
worked until it can produce no more.
Grain, fruit and vegetables,
destined for western tables,
and ultimately western bins.
Gone are the days when
farming was a way of life.
Living off the land,
selling the surpluses.
We now measure our surplus
by the value tied up in it.
Not in how many mouths it could feed,
not by thinking who will eat tonight?
It's time to think differently,
The System's Bust!
©2011 Trevor Litchfield.
