“What are you doing to help them?”

without seeing your body language it’s difficult to see if this was posed as an accusation but i’ll respond anyway.
Much of my extended family are South American, some of them farmers grappling with the issues that you discuss. I lived and worked in South America for 7 years working with people and on projects areas of my environmental passions and will soon return. Now that i’m in the UK i consume very little (as Vandana rightly suggested) which hopefully reduces pressure on scarce and needed resources. What i consume a consume aware of origin and impact.

You’ll note that i believe and i try to influence the Transition network that “Until Transition adequately and directly addresses issues of poverty, social justice and peace, it’s only a part transition.”

I’d have to say that your sugar cane example isn’t black and white either. Mauritius is close to being in the top 3rd per capita economically and suffers from the same stark contrast in rich and poor as South America. One could say that to bare this down to an issue of trade would be “simplistic nonsense”.

Shane

Even this woman’s argument about fresh vegetables is fallacious. May I suggest you read the fact sheet from FairTrade http://tinyurl.com/yz27zcq from which I quote:

“While reducing the carbon footprint of food is important, the issue is not black and white. Air travel for fresh produce represents a tiny portion of overall emissions, 0.1% for the UK. Fairtrade vegetables represent an important source of income for marginalized farmers and workers in countries responsible for only a fraction of overall global emissions.”

Many people in Africa do not own land on which they can grow food. They rely on plantations for work. No exports = no work = no income = no education, health care, etc, etc. Africans do not want to return to subsistence farming. They aspire to the quality of life you take for granted. What are you doing to help them?

It is not true that only multi-national companies grow cash crops for export from developing countries. In Mauritius sugar is produced by local companies and small planters and exported by a cooperative. If you stop buying sugar from us it will massively impact our balance of trade, we will not be able to buy the goods and services we need to continue our development. In fact you will send us backwards. Is this the kind of transition you want to impose on us?

What is needed is fair trade. Where you pay a fair price to our farmers instead of giving massive profits to mercantile middlemen and supermarket chains. Where you stop subsidising your own farming so that we can compete with you on a level playing field. Don’t stop importing our crops if they come by sea. If necessary we can revert to sailing ships when the oil runs out. But if you insist then send us your technology for free so that we can achieve a fair standard of living. Or is “Contraction and Convergence” an empty phrase for you?

These visuals also are very relevant -
http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/06/30/global-warming-causes-and-effects/

These short-hands are better (yet, nevertheless, inadequate) -
(a) ‘South’ and ‘East’
(b) ‘North’ ‘West’

“North”-”South” terminology is common though.

That language has been used a lot in the recent and ongoing climate negotiations. Here’s one important example -
http://understory.ran.org/2009/10/02/reparations-for-climate-chaos/

Here’s a different example -
Last year I was chastised for not settling for that oversimplistic “North”-”South” terminology when I wrote a course paper about development issues. (That professor thought that a footnote would have been enough to convey my concerns about “North”- “South” language.)

I don’t think she’s from Australia