Editorials and commentary

A food agenda for Obama: now is the time to reinvent America's farm and food policies  Christopher D. Cook Christian Science Monitor December 22, 2008

Farmer in chief (a letter to the President-elect about food policy)  Michael Pollan New York Times October 9, 2008

The Administration and Congress mobilize to bail out giant financial institutions, but no rescue for the hungry  Joel Berg Washington Post September 29, 2008 (You will leave this site.) 

An even poorer world New York Times September 2, 2008

After 75 years, the working poor still struggle for a fair wage Adam Cohen New York Times June 17, 2008

“Local” purchasing of food aid? It may be good to think twice about this idea.  Daniel E. Shaughnessy World Hunger Education Service May 30, 2008

Behind Latin America's food crisis Laura Carlsen   Center for International Policy  May 19, 2008 See also world food and hunger crisis stories

Sweetheart deal: the latest farm bill outrage is a plan to prop up sugar producers Washington Post May 6, 2008 (You will leave this site, be required to register once with the Post, and thereafter sign in using your email address.) See Hunger Notes special report Global Issues: Trade, Hunger and Poverty

The World Bank, IMF, and the US and other developed country governments are 'shocked, shocked' by the global food and hunger crisis: is this cluelessness or dishonesty? Lane Vanderslice Hunger Notes April 18, 2008  See also world food and hunger crisis stories

Would the United States government pass the ‘good Samaritan’ test? Lane Vanderslice World Hunger Education Service April 5, 2008

What's your consumption factor? Jared Diamond New York Times January 2, 2008 (You will leave this site.) 

Letters to the Editor

October 9, 2008

Dear Hunger Notes

I am a geography teacher in secondary school in Luxembourg and organizing a project about nutrition and hunger in the world for my students. I am actually looking for actualized (if possible from 2008) data about numbers of calories consumed in the different continents and countries in the world (statistics and maps) andinformation about the nutrition situation in India, South America or Africa Could you help me in this enquiry (by for example telling me where to find such Internet resources)? I would be very grateful. I thank you in advance,
Regards, S.L.
Lycée technique Josy Barthel Mamer

Dear S.L.,

In response to your questions:

1. What are calories consumed in the different countries and continents?

The key data source, I believe, is the FAO food security statistics.  The main page is located at http://www.fao.org/es/ess/faostat/foodsecurity/index_en.htm. The statistics on (average estimated) caloric intake per person for  countries and regions may be found on that page under the heading food consumption and then under the subheading Dietary Energy, Protein and Fat  This link leads you to a downloadable Excel file.  One table has dietary energy consumption for countries, another has dietary energy consumption for regions. As you will see, the statistics are far behind, with the latest entry for the period 2002-4.

2. Where would I find information about the nutrition situation in  India, South America or Africa?

See the statistics under the subheading 'food deprivation' on the main FAO food statistics page. Also see other items in the far right column on this page.  The FAO hunger map, for example, gives a good graphic picture of where hunger is worst.  I would also take a look at the FAO's 'Monitoring progress since the World Food Summit'--part of the first Millennium goal is reducing hunger by 50 percent.

Editor, Hunger Notes

July 11, 0008

Dear Hunger Notes,

I'm the graphic artist for an event to support anti-hunger efforts here in Albuquerque NM. I am trying to find some facts to place on the poster about hunger in Albuquerque. Right now I have dummy text as follows:
It is estimated that ?? people in Albuquerque suffer from hunger and malnutrition. About ?? people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Every year more than ?? children die of hunger and preventable diseases –that’s over ?? per day and one every ?? hour.

I'm hoping that your organization may have knowledge to the ?? marks above. If so please email the facts to me, it would be a great help in getting the word out her in Albuquerque. Thanks very much for your help.  M.E.

Dear M.E.,
I am not aware of specific information for Albuquerque. The nearest and best information that I am aware of is information for New Mexico. Here is the specific link from America's Second Harvest, the principal US food bank network. Here is the more general link:

I should warn you however that your questions, while appropriate for developing countries, are less so for the United States. Hunger is much milder in the United States, and the questions that you ask have not been answered to my knowledge for the United States, in large part I believe because the number of people hungry and the severity of their hunger is not nearly as acute here as in developing countries. At the risk of oversimplifying somewhat, hunger in developing countries means some level of malnutrition; in the United States it means that people have gone hungry for some period of days. So I would think that your poster questions are going to have to be revised.
Best wishes for success with the poster and the event.

May 27, 2008

Dear Hunger Notes,

I am doing a report on world hunger for my sixth grade class.  Would you answer the following questions for me please? This will be a lot of help! [The questions appear below] Thank you again so much for helping me on my project.
Hope you have a nice day. J.Y.

Dear J.Y.,

To respond to your questions:

1. Do you think that we can solve the problem of world hunger soon? (In our generation)
 I don't think we will solve the problem of world hunger in this generation.

2. Do you think this problem of world hunger has grown or decreased, and why do you think it's happening?
The problem of world hunger  has decreased.  It is still a major problem. The two major reasons why hunger has decreased is that governments have become less oppressive and uncaring about what happens to their poorest citizens than they have been in the past and, secondly, that economic growth in countries has increased incomes for people, including poor people.

3. When you give money to help or support them where does the  money go to?
There are specific organizations in the United States and the world whose mandate is to assist poor people. Examples of such organizations would be CARE, Catholic Relief Services and the the World Food Program. The World Hunger Education Service, the publisher of Hunger Notes, gives money to a specific  organization each month when people take our hunger quiz.   See our hunger quiz website at  http://www.worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm for details.

4. When did this organization start? And why? WHES started in 1976 to educate people in the United States about world hunger.

5. Can you describe when you think about where all of the famines or droughts are happening, do you think it's because of where they are or it just happened there?
Famines and droughts are two different things with different explanations.   To focus only on famines.  Large scale famines have diminished greatly.  This is due principally to two  reasons. 
     --Governments  in general oppress their people less.  China for example during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s had a famine that killed perhaps 10-20 million. Now China has many policies that help its people.
     --There is an international (and national) aid system that does work to assist people that are in large scale disasters.

6. Where do you think needs the most help right now?
The major suffering in the world is not in a specific geographical area such as the Sichuan province of China, but in millions of poor families, mainly in countries in Africa and Asia, who are so poor that they cannot afford enough food for their families.  Thus they, and especially their very young children who are more vulnerable, suffer.

7. How can we help without paying money? Or can't we? 
This would be a good question for you to think about and  answer for yourself.  In helping hungry people in developing countries, I would think the main thing that we could do would be to contribute to organizations that are helping them.

8. Do you think this problem could get bigger than the problem of global warming right now?
You have to ask yourself--why is a problem perceived as big?  Both global warming and world hunger are very important world problems.

9. About how many people die each; year? month? day? minute?
See our page on world hunger facts http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm  About 5 million children die each year.

11. Do you think that the USA government needs to pay more attention to the problem?
Certainly. US government assistance to hungry people is miniscule.  It has a decent food aid program, but not much else.

Thanks very much for asking such great questions.  Sorry the answers were so brief. 
 
Editor, Hunger Notes

Dear Hunger Notes,
My name is S. H. and I go to Menlo School in Atherton, California. As a school project in seventh grade we get to research a compelling world problem and try to come up with some practical solutions to solve it. For my topic I have chosen global hunger and food shortages. Part of our investigation involves interviewing an expert on the issue. Would you be willing and able to answer a few questions that I have about this topic?

1.    Which population subgroup (infants, children, teenagers, adults) does hunger most predominantly impact?
2.    What is the leading cause of malnutrition in most countries?
3.   What are some of the current, most effective efforts to address the situation of hunger?
4.    What are the societal effects of hunger?
5.    Do malnourished people predominantly die of starvation or disease?

Thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions.


                            Sincerely,
                            S. H.

Dear S.H.
Thank you for asking these important questions!

1. Which population subgroup (infants, children, teenagers, adults) does hunger most predominantly impact? 

First, it is important to note that, when faced with severe hunger and even starvation, everyone feels it acutely.  See our hunger quiz "what does long term hunger feel like," which is based on (then Congressman) Tony Hall's description of his fast.  Adults are able to bear up better under acute hunger than infants and children. Secondly and importantly is the impact of acute hunger on various age groups.  No doubt, the group that suffers the greatest mortality and if they survive, long-term negative physical and mental impacts, are infants and young children.

2.  What is the leading cause of malnutrition in most countries. 

The leading cause of malnutrition is poverty, typically extreme poverty--people living on $2 or even $1 a day and less in income.  The second principal cause of malnutrition is conflict.

3. What are some of the current, most effective efforts to address the situation of hunger?

I would name three: the millennium development goals and the efforts made by countries to meet those goals; the international relief 'apparatus' to deal with crisis situations; and the efforts by quite a few countries, including but not limited to  China, India and Brazil, to adopt a range of economic and political policies that have enabled their countries to grow economically and with some mandate to reduce poverty.

4. What are the societal effects of hunger? 

Before answering this I would like to say that it is not just hunger, but also poverty and exclusion from participation and power in society.  All these are related, and to a real extent, hunger is the result of poverty and the exclusion of many people from participation and power in society.  Hunger is really the result of a societal system based to a significant extent on the appropriation of the benefits of society by a relative few.  We have called this harmful economic systems in our website and have a page devoted to this issue. So in some sense I would modify the question you ask to: what are the societal effects of a social system that creates hunger?  I think that the reaction to a desperate situation on the part of poor people is a significant factor leading to rebellion against the government, and crime and violence.  Poverty and hunger, if not addressed in a robust manner, can have very corrosive effects on society.

5. Do malnourished people predominantly die of starvation or disease? 

A tough call, since they typically die of both.  Hunger is the underlying cause that weakens people, especially infants and children, so that they die of a specific disease such as measles.  If people had more food, and were thus more robust, they would typically not die of measles or other diseases.  So a specific diseases is often listed as the cause of death, but in reality it is hunger that has caused the death. 

Editor, Hunger Notes

April 3, 2008

Dear Hunger Notes

I am a student doing a research project on world hunger and would be delighted if you could help me.  There are some questions that I need help answering.  I was wondering why so many people die from starvation if in America we have so much food.  I would also like to know how I and some other peers of mind could help the hunger situation.  Do you know the countries with the most hunger issues?  Thank you for your time!  Sincerely, M.O

Dear M.O,
To respond to your questions.

Why do so many die from starvation if in America we have so much food?

This is because the world runs on a market economy. People purchase things, including food depending on how much purchasing power they have. How much purchasing power you have principally depends on your income (and also on savings and other assets). Poor people in developing countries have much less income than we and other people do. So they lose out big time in the competition for food. The main point is that we have the income to eat very well and we do.

Three important ways that we 'use up' food resources:

--meat products use up a lot of food resources. Grain is purchased as livestock feed and we then eat the animals. This uses up many times more grain than if the grain was directly used for human consumption.
--increasingly we use food resources for fuel. Corn for ethanol, for example.
--also we tend to overeat.

But even if we ate meat in extreme moderation, did not use food resources for fuel, and watched our diets, the basic point would still be there that we have vastly more purchasing power than poor people in developing countries.

There are almost 1 billion people in the world living on $1 a day or less. How much do members of your family live on per day? Perhaps the easiest way to calculate it is to take total family income for the year, divide this by the number of family members and then divide by 365, the number of days in the year. What do you come out with? With median family income in the United States as approximately $60,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States and with the average family size as approximately 3 (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts), the daily income per person is $54.79--over 50 times that of the poorest 1 billion.

How can I and my peers help the hunger situation?

Do one or more of the following:
1. Learn more about hunger.
2. Contribute to organizations who are trying to reduce hunger.
3. Volunteer with an organization such as a food bank that is trying to reduce hunger or other aspect of poverty.
4. Join an organization such as Bread for the World that is trying to influence United States government policy to assist hungry people
See the Hunger Notes section on 'you can help reduce hunger' for more details (http://www.worldhunger.org/reduce.htm).

What are the countries with the most hunger issues?

The World Food Program World Hunger Map is a good place to see this (http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/hunger_map/map/hungermap_popup/map_popup.html)

Thanks for some interesting questions. Good luck with your paper!

Editor, Hunger Notes

Dear Hunger Notes,
I am a high school student and am currently involved in a project to raise awareness about the crisis in Africa in regards to hunger and HIV/AIDS. I would greatly appreciate if you would be able to assist me with data. I need data for hunger and HIV/AIDS, data tables, statistics, graphs, etc. I would be willing to state the name of the website on my presentation which will clearly increase awareness of the website and talk about what you do. Thank you, U. M.

Dear U.M.,
To the best of my knowledge there is no statistical source that estimates hunger due to HIV/AIDS. The standard source for estimates of food insecurity is the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's State of the World's Food Insecurity report with the latest being from 2006. It is available beginning on http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0750e/a0750e00.htm. However when I tried to access the actual PDF report I was unable to do so, due to some sort of technical difficulty. Perhaps you will have better luck. The source for HIV/AIDS statistics is UNAIDS and its 2006 report can be accessed beginning at http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/2006GlobalReport/default.asp.  See Annex 2. Another good source for Africa is Avert http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm . Also see the article 'SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV-induced famine's impact on agriculture' on Hunger Notes PHN page. Not statistical, but useful I think. The book cited there 'Silent Hunger..' is also very helpful and can be accessed at http://www.fanrpan.org/documents/d00351/ . I hope your report on this important question turns out well.
Editor, Hunger Notes

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