From whatever data he could assemble, Brown projected a deficit of at least 10 million tons of grain below the Indian government’s official demand estimate of 95 million tons. Previously India had never imported more than 4 million tons a year. If Brown's calculations were correct, feeding the nation would require a huge mobilization.[...]
A 10,000-mile bucket brigade
The USDA tapped logistics specialists who had served in the Army Quartermaster Corps in World War II. They leased an Esso supertanker longer than a football field, the Manhattan, and anchored it in the Bay of Bengal to act as a floating harbor, because India's ports were insufficient to handle so vast a scale of imports.
Trains delivered U.S. Midwestern wheat to ships awaiting them in Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans. About two ships a day left for India, more than 600 in all, according to Brown’s 2013 memoir, Breaking New Ground. They docked to the Manhattan and emptied their grain into it. Thirty-foot boats called dhows then filled up with grain and carried it up the Ganges. About one-fifth of the U.S. wheat harvest in 1965 was shipped to South Asia. India produced only 77 million tons of grain, 18 million tons below the official demand projections.
"It was the largest movement of grain between two countries in history," Brown said. "We managed to get the grain in there and avoid the famine, but time became everything in that effort."
É curioso, este episódio na vida de Lester Brown pura e simplesmente não é referido na sua biografia que aparece na wikipedia. Aí, só aparecem as suas atividades como ambientalista, que se iniciaram mais tarde.
ResponderEliminarÓptimo, Luís Lavoura! Aí está uma oportunidade para o Luís contribuir para a Wikipédia ao alargar o artigo sobre Lester Brown. E até já tem uma referência para usar no seu contributo. Não tem que me agradecer, o prazer foi inteiramente meu...
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