Mr Brown eating rice and beans wouldn't do much to reduce poverty levels. The problems are self-inflicted by careless pursuit of short term gains based on the belief that the fantasies seen on TV and movies are real. People migrate from rural areas to cities to live out their fantasies in squalor. And those left behind do agriculture like a clean room operation - lots of pesticides, fertilizers, weedicides, and wasted groundwater. It is time people exercised judgment and worked with nature and environment instead of against it.

Politics is full of hyprocrisy, look at Al Gore, the global warming scare god.

Al Gore's home used more than 20 times the national average. - http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

Of course if you look at the word 'Politics', you'll see why. Poli - meaning 'Many" and tics - meaning 'blood sucking parasites.