Alabama State Rep. Tom Jackson (D), chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, on May 8, introduced, into the Alabama State Legislature, the following resolution addressing the global food crisis.

Here is the full text of House Resolution 758:

Whereas, the world is now undergoing a food and fuel crisis of unparalleled proportions, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization; and

Whereas, the Managing Director of the Asian Development Bank, Rajat Nag, recently stated that one billion Asians are at serious risk of starvation; and as well, that 33 nations who are dependent on food imports are now engulfed in riots and political turmoil, including Somalia, Egypt, Niger, and others; and

Whereas, the policy of Free Trade, as promoted by the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, CAFTA, and other institutions is responsible for many nations, including the United States, losing their ability to feed their populations; and

Whereas, the conversion of much acreage worldwide from corn and food production to biofuels has exacerbated this crisis, prompting Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to indict the use of food for fuels as a "crime against humanity"; and

Whereas, the world is now in the grip of a hyperinflationary price spiral in food commodities and fuel, which is disrupting the daily lives of people throughout our nation and cities; and

Whereas, in 1963, President John F. Kennedy called upon the government of the United States to continue the Good Neighbor policy of President Franklin Roosevelt and launch a Food For Peace program to help starving nations around the world;

Therefore, Be it Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Alabama, that we hereby urge the Congress of the United States, which is the branch of government that has as the unique power to change the economic policy of the nation, to enact the following emergency measures:

1. Commit the United States to immediately carry out an agricultural program that would double food production in the United States, and pay our farmers parity prices to carry this out. This program would both feed our own people and initiate a program to help feed many other parts of the world.

2. The government of the United States would hereby cease paying farmers and others to produce corn for ethanol use, and instead, put the corn acreage into cultivation for food consumption. The farm community would again be paid parity prices for this output. It is estimated that over 80 nations would immediately benefit from the resumption of this added corn production.

3. Call on the government of the United States to cancel its membership in the World Trade Organization, cancel its membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and instead, move to initiate normal bilateral trade agreements with other sovereign nation-states, as was our national policy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the succeeding administrations.

Be It Further Resolved, that a copy of this Resolution shall be forwarded to each member of the Alabama Congressional Delegation and to the President of the United States for their immediate consideration and implementation.