A quick and dirty solution to your food and fuel crises is all around you, strangling you. Typha (cattail, bulrush, canico, Kachalla) of various species choke many of your streams and lakes. If grown in clean water and soil, typha is food. If not, it can be made into fuel. Clearing it would reduce both flooding and drought, and simultaneously fight malaria. This plant, and the reed Phragmites, is a major nuisance all over your continent, and is an excellent source of both food and fuel. It has the habit of collecting and hoarding pollutants, so not just any can be eaten. Most of what is unfit for human consumption can be brewed into ethanol