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Editorials and Letters |
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The art of doing nothing: agricultural policy making in Cuba Antonio Gayoso December 3, 2009
The Ethiopian government, through inaction, repression, and obfuscation, is a major cause of the developing Ethiopian famine Alemayehu G. Mariam Huffington Post November 25, 2009 See Hunger Notes special report: Harmful economic systems
Seeds of trouble: the top-10 agricultural biotech firms in developed nations control 67% of the global proprietary seed market Latha Jishnu Business Standard (New Delhi) October 29, 2009 Also see Hunger Notes special report: Trade and hunger
The world food crisis: what is behind it and what we can do? Eric Holt-Giménez Food First October 23, 2009 Also see Hunger Notes special report: The world financial, food, and hunger crisis
Ending Africa's hunger: do the Gates Foundation efforts help or hurt? Raj Patel, Eric Holt-Gimenez & Annie Shattuck The Nation September 29, 2009 See Hunger Notes special report on development assistance
Who is to blame for rising hunger? Al Jazeera September 21, 2009 (Video) (Inside Story presenter Maryam Nemazee discusses with Bettina Luescher, a spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme, Christina Schiavoni, a co-director of Global Movement at whyhunger.org and an organizer at the US working group on the global food crisis, and Firoze Manji, the founder and executive director of Fahamu, an African social justice network.) Also see Hunger Notes special report: The world financial, food, and hunger crisis
Liberals at fault for failing to end world hunger Chuck Woolery World Hunger Education Service August 30, 2009
Rethinking food production for a world of eight billion Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Institute July 22, 2009
The global food price crisis: a critique of orthodox perspectives Walden Bello Focus on the Global South June 28, 2009
Managing world water Daniel Moss Foreign Policy In Focus June 3, 2009
Tanzania's ruling elite neglect agriculture and poor farmers Ng’wanza Kamata University of Dar es Salaam May 24, 2009
The global financial crisis and its effect on poor people in the United States (shunted aside in times of prosperity and even more during recession) Lane Vanderslice Hunger Notes May 17, 2009
The stimulus package needs to increase the now minimal support for low income families Randy Albeda Dollars and Sense February 10, 2009
Unemployed people, without jobs, can't get help from welfare programs either! State-run welfare programs have been declining in spite of big spikes in unemployment. New York Times February 8, 2009
(Because of a concern for the privacy of young people over the internet, we only publish initials of people writing letters to Hunger Notes, as a reasonable percentage of those writing to us are young.)
(November 28, 2009) I am doing a paper, and I was wondering how many people in Africa could be fed with $250 million . Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! LJ
Dear LJ,
How many people in Africa could be fed with $250 million
dollars? This is a great basic question--thanks very much
for asking it. Although this is a simple question, I don't
think the answer is given anywhere. I will give two answers
from differing perspectives.
The first answer is based on basic calculations. $1.25 a day
is the lowest poverty level that is measured (by the World
Bank). At this level of income, a high percentage is spent
on food, say $1 per day. So, the number of people that could
be fed in a year would be $250 million divided by $365 per
person, or 68,493 people. This is feeding at a very basic
level, and with no distribution costs--which are typically
many times the cost of the actual food.
The second answer is based on World Food Program (WFP)
estimates of expenditures and beneficiaries.
WFP says that in 2008 donors contributed $5 billion that
went to alleviating hunger for an estimated 102 million
people, or $50 per person. (See WFP 2009 Annual Report, p 4
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp204445.pdf
) So $250 million would feed 50 million people. WFP is
clearly not bearing all the food costs for the entire year
for the 102 million people that it served.
I hope this is helpful and not just confusing!
Editor, Hunger Notes
(November 20, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes, I would like to know the answer to some questions about whether a vegan lifestyle would influence world hunger.
If keeping animals for meat and dairy products takes lots of space and raises the price of crops, that could be fed to people instead of animals, wouldn't it mean that world hunger would be practically solved if the majority of people became or vegan? Wouldn't the promotion of veganism be the ultimate solution for world hunger? Which method would help eliminate world hunger more, sponsoring a charity or adopting a vegan lifestyle?
Thank you very much for reading!
Sincerely yours, MA
Dear MA,
Sorry for the delay in replying. Everyone having a
vegan lifestyle would certainly reduce world hunger, but
it would, in my view, by no means end hunger. Thank you
for raising this important issue which does require some
thought!
If everyone were vegetarian/vegan, it would certainly
free up quite a bit of land and other resources for the
production of plants directly for humans rather than for
feeding animals which are then used for human food. As a
ballpark estimate, it takes 10 pounds or more of grains
to produce one pound of meat. So eliminating meat would
provide the ability to produce much more grain directly
for human consumption. This would be very good.
What problems do I see with this as a way to end world
hunger?
A major part of the world hunger problem is that those
who are hungry are very poor. The poorest
people--about 1 billion people-- live on $1.25 a day or
less. This lack of income of the poorest people is the
major cause of hunger, we believe. (See
World Hunger Facts
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
for a longer explanation.) It would still be a major
problem even if everyone in the world was
vegan.
The poorest people in the world are much poorer than
people in the United States and throughout the world.
The median income in the United States (in 2007, see
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States)
is $50,233. Making the necessary adjustments to compare
these numbers directly, it turns out that the average
person in the United States has 37 times more income
than
hungry people in the world. In light of this,
what might happen if everyone in the United States
became vegan? It certainly might be--and I certainly
think it would be--that it would not be profitable/make
economic sense for farmers to turn their efforts
completely or even significantly to produce food for
hungry people. Farmers would produce other agricultural
products for people with more money than the poorest. A
clear example would be ethanol for US consumers with
cars. Notwithstanding the previous statement, a
vegetarian/vegan lifestyle in the entire world would
produce a significant decline in agricultural prices,
which would benefit the poorest people, though not
nearly enough to end hunger, in my assessment.
A key value of vegans is compassion for other living
things. This value, if we try to apply it through the
complexity of the world and its behaviors, will lead to
a dramatic reduction in hunger. I don't think that one
action, such as adopting a vegan lifestyle--as important
as this would be--is the only answer necessary.
Thus I think we have to act to end hunger in various
ways, and contributing to a charity would be a second
important way to reduce hunger. The 'golden rule'
is "do unto others as you would have others do unto
you." Maybe the 'silver rule' is "do as you would have
others do." Certainly contributing to charity and
being a vegan does provide a valuable example for
others.
Editor, Hunger Notes
(November 5, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes,
I have been reading through the website, and I wanted to know is there any way I can get more information on the fact that starvation/hunger is a problem from not having water, and solutions that could help to support the development of world hunger. Thanks! VW
Dear VW,
Thank you for an excellent question.
There is a reasonably clear relationship between the supply
of water and hunger. The basic fact is very clear. If there
is not enough water, plants (and animals) die, and the food
that humans depend on will not be available.
I don't know that that your question about water and hunger
has been summarized in a brief form.
A major cause of hunger has always been drought. This of
course is still present today. You might look at the World
Food Program website to see how it classifies food
emergencies. Many are due to drought. The World Food Program
is a very large international organization that responds to
food emergencies. Go to its website at www.wfp.org and type
in drought in the search box in the upper right hand corner
of that page. This gives the areas where WFP thinks that
drought is important. An important additional fact to add is
that there are many areas in the world where food production
is very limited due to scarce water resources. There are a
lot of arid and semi-arid places in the world where people
live and where lack of water limits food production, but
where the water shortage is not acute enough and/or
widespread enough to involve the World Food Program.
Solutions.
We are talking about
fresh water. There is plenty of salt water, but it can't be
used as is for crops, land-dwelling animals, or humans. The
two principal natural sources of fresh water are the sky,
and a river system (frequently including mountains as well)
that carries water from places and times where it falls in
abundance through the river course to the sea. (There are
other sources of fresh water as well including ground water
and desalination.)
There are, to our mind, no easy solutions. Two major
problems are deforestation and climate change.
Deforestation: Forests (and, in general,non-agricultural
ecosystems) create their own, much wetter, climate and
ecosystem. Much of the rain that falls on cropland will be
evaporated by the sun. A significantly larger amount of rain
that falls in a forest will not be evaporated but will be
retained by the soil or contribute to river flow. Yet in the
past 50 years there has been great deforestation in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, which has and will reduce available
water in these geographical areas. (Europe and the United
States went through their own deforestation much earlier.)
Climate change is leading to a hotter climate which does
various things, including reducing available water.
Major solutions proposed for water scarcity have been:
--More effective utilization of available water, including
conservation methods such as storing and rationing water.
--Reducing the amount of greenhouse gases, which will slow
the worldwide temperature increase.
In summary, I think that water scarcity will continue to
increase rapidly. As poor people are the ones most likely to
be found in marginal resource situations, including lack of
water, I think they will be harmed greatly, through hunger,
and through lack of water itself.
Editor, Hunger Notes
(August 10, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes,
I’m considering a career change and wondering what would be the fastest, most direct route to a career that addresses world hunger? I’m considering a concurrent Masters in Public Health / International Studies. Thank you. SZ
Dear SZ,
I would think that a concurrent
Master's in
Public Health (MPH) and
International Relations would be very good. Tufts and
Johns Hopkins come to mind as two schools with good
programs in both areas. You may just want to consider doing
a MPH by itself. There are certainly ways (courses and
sequences of courses, as well as just making it explicit to
professors and employers) to indicate that your interest is
in hunger issues. I think the main possibilities for
employment would be in public health/nutrition areas.
A problem with trying to establish a career in the area of
world hunger is that it is not taken as seriously as
it should be as a problem and even less so as a
career path. A major part of the problem is that
reducing hunger requires concerted action between
disciplines such as public health and
agricultural science and various bureaucracies (such
as the
ministry of health and
ministry of agriculture), collaboration which is by
and large absent, though there are some good examples of
collaboration recently such as Brazil's Zero Hunger
program. See our excellent article by
John Field on the problems with ending hunger
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/global/Endingwhunger/field.htm.
But this is not to say that it cannot be done. Having a
vision of what you want to do is extremely important.
Our best wishes for great success!
Editor, Hunger Notes
(May 3, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes,
I'm from Germany and I am currently preparing a presentation about
"Poverty and What can be done about it" for school. I would
like to ask you some questions about this topic and
about your organization and hope you can help me.
1. Why is there poverty at all?
2. Can we talk about an end of poverty sometime or is
there no end?
3. Which other possibilities of helping poor people are
there except contributions?
4. Could you please describe (shortly) how exactly your
organization helps
poor people?
I would be pleased if you sent me back the answers, and I
would like to
> add those to my presentation.
Thank you and greetings, MB
Dear MB,
Here are my answers to your questions
1. Why is there poverty at all?
The world since ancient times has been one of dominant
groups conquering and then controlling others, with the
dominant groups using their power to obtain greater income
and becoming rich, actually or relatively, and the
subjugated groups, as they must provide income in various
ways becoming poor/poorer than they were. See e.g.
Imperialism Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
We live in an age when conquest is less dominant, (though
control of national and international society still is), but
the patterns of wealth and poverty established in past
years--decades and hundreds of years ago still continue to
exist. And, as people with power in society use that power
to reinforce their situations (which they typically now
think of as 'natural' and due to their abilities and
contribution to society) poverty has existed, and to answer
question 2. will continue to exist.
2. Can we talk about an end of poverty sometime or is there
no end? See my answer to question 1. It doesn't look good
for an end to poverty.
3. Which other possibilities of helping poor people are
there except contributions? There are three further
alternatives for you. Learn more about hunger. As you are a
student I would definitely recommend this. Just don't learn
facts but also try to express in words (and very possibly
then critique) why you think that people are poor. Secondly
join an organization that is taking some political action to
help reduce hunger. Thirdly, work directly with poor people.
More on these options, at least for people in the United
States, can be seen at
http://worldhunger.org/reduce.htm
.
4. Could you please describe (shortly) how exactly your
organization helps poor people? The major function of Hunger
Notes and our parent organization, World Hunger Education
Service, is to educate people in the United States and to
some extent in other countries about world hunger and
poverty. So if we do increase understanding and this leads
to helping poor people, then this is how we help poor
people. A secondary but important way is our hunger quiz
http://worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm that asks people
questions about hunger and then makes a small contribution
to an organization attempting to reduce poverty and hunger.
Editor, Hunger Notes
(April 20, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes,
My name is NW, and I go to Seattle Girls'
School. I am doing a
Pay It Forward project and I am to focus on an issue I
care about and help the cause. The issue I chose was
malnutrition in Africa, specifically Ethiopia. I went on the
internet and saw that the UNICEF helps a lot of people. I
was wondering if I could have an interview to see what you
know about malnutrition. It would be great because then I
could have better information for research and see what I
can do to help. Some of the questions I had was what are
some ways I can fight malnutrition. Also, some of the ways
it affects the people, and what the causes are. Here are the questions:
1. Who is most affected by the problem of malnutrition and
in what ways?
2. How does UNICEF seek input from the community you serve
3. What do you see the root causes of the problem of
malnutrition?
4. What is the biggest problem you face in trying to deal
with malnutrition?
5. What actions could I take to address the problem?
6. Could you show me any statistics that quantify the
problem? Why are these measurements important?
7. What is your evidence that your work is effective?
8. What is the most important information I should share
with the general public about this issue?
9. What gives you hope and keeps you motivated in addressing
the problem?
Thank You So Much,
NW
Dear NW,
Here are my answers to your questions. Thank you for some
very interesting questions.
1. Who is most affected by the problem of malnutrition and
in what ways.
Poor people and people in conflict zones are the most
affected. Most people who are poor enough to be affected by
malnutrition are in Africa and Asia. Within these two
groups, poor people and people in conflict zones, it is
children that are the most affected. Malnutrition affects
children's height, weight and ability to think. For a good
brief introduction to this see the audio slideshow India
struggles with hunger at
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/13/world/asia/20090313-malnutrition-audioss/index.html
.
2. How does UNICEF seek input from the community you serve?
It does not. Understandably, as Hunger Notes and World
Hunger Education Service, the parent organization of Hunger
Notes, basically try to educate people about world hunger
and its causes, and UNICEF takes action against hunger and
other widespread childhood problems.
3. What do you see as the root causes of the problem of
malnutrition?
Extreme and widespread poverty, conflict, and the
unwillingness of the rich part of the world to address this
issue effectively.
4. As noted in question 2, we do not deal with malnutrition
directly, but try to help people learn about world hunger.
See our mission statement at
http://worldhunger.org/about.htm .
5. What actions could I take to address the problem. Our
key suggestions are 1) learn more about hunger and 2) take
action to reduce hunger. Our three action suggestions are
work directly with poor people, contribute financially to
help reduce hunger, and influence public policy to reduce
hunger. For more detail on this point see our page 'You can
help reduce hunger'
http://worldhunger.org/reduce.htm .
6. Can you show me any statistics that quantify the problem.
Why are these measurements important?
A good place to start with statistics would be FAO's 'State
of Food Insecurity in the World'
http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0291e/i0291e00.htm
and also our World Hunger Facts
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
. It is difficult to explain why these measurements are
important before you have a chance to look at them. Ideally
why they are important will be reasonably obvious.
7. What evidence do you have that your work is effective?
Our evidence would be that we do have readers (550,000 last
year and growing every year) and our own judgment that we
are doing a reasonably good job with limited resources. Not
totally compelling evidence, but....
8. What is the most important evidence that I should share
with the general public about this issue? You are examining
this issue, and I think it would be worthwhile for you to
come to your own conclusion on this point.
9. What gives you hope and keeps you motivated in addressing
the problem? What gives me some hope is the fact that there
has been slow progress and that there is a large group of
people (numerically, if not in percentage terms) including
poor people who are trying to work toward reducing hunger.
In terms of my motivation it is worthwhile to be a part of
such a group.
I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your project!
Editor, Hunger Notes
(April 20, 2009) Dear Hunger Notes,
I am KT from Montgomery Blair High School. I was
curious about the work you do with world hunger. I was
wondering if you had a location in Maryland and if there are
any projects that students could become involved in. I was
also wondering if your organization had a slogan you used to
get information about world hunger spread to others. I am
also interested to know if you have upcoming plans or
events.
Thanks for the help, KT
Dear KT,
We are not located in Maryland, but in DC, near the
Brookland metro station.
We basically provide information to people about hunger and
poverty, but do not carry out specific programs to alleviate
hunger or poverty. We do contribute to organizations that do
through our world hunger quiz.
We don't have specific projects for students, but if one or
several students wanted to do a class project or volunteer
work that would be of benefit to us, we could discuss
further. Possible projects would include an article on some
aspect of hunger, poverty, immigrants or unemployment in our
region. Also a video on world hunger or poverty, or for web
designers among you--redesigning our website.
Our slogan or motto--I don't how many adherents we have
gotten with this--is "why are people hungry?"
We have no upcoming public events except for the April 22
World Hunger Education Service Board meeting (the parent
organization for Hunger Notes), which might be of interest,
as we do discuss, on a concrete level, how our small
organization can best contribute to reducing hunger and
poverty.
Give me a call at this number during reasonably extended
normal business hours if you have any questions.
Best wishes,
Editor, Hunger Notes
April 15, 2009
Dear Hunger Notes,
Please share this video "Chicken a la Carte" to spread awareness about world hunger http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization. There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition. This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society. The people who live on the refuse of men to survive. What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left this people. Thanks! KP
Dear KP,
A very good video and one I would recommend to our readers. For our readers, I would add the following. It is a six minute film about a McDonalds in the Philippines, where a family eats what other others have thrown out. The CultureUnplugged site is a site, apparently based in India, that shows worthwhile films about Indian and other countries' topics.
Editor, Hunger Notes
March 31, 2009
Dear Hunger Notes,
I am a sixth grade student in Palm Beach, Florida. I am preparing an information workshop with my class and would like information on world hunger for my part in the workshop. I would also like to ask if Hunger Notes could organize a service to receive donations from my and other classes, purchase food and clothing in the United States, and ship it to hungry people in Africa. Thank you very much. L.D.
Dear LD,
With respect to your first request for information to
display for an exhibition project, I am enclosing links to
two fact sheets on
world hunger and hunger and
poverty in the United States.
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
http://worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm
There may be other information that would be useful to you
that can be accessed from our Learn about Hunger page
http://worldhunger.org/learn.htm Maybe some of
the information found on the
world hunger pictures link would be useful. I am
sorry that we do not have
concise fact sheets on additional key issues. We are
working on it.
With respect to your second question, "Can Hunger
Notes/World Hunger Education Service organize a service that
would receive donations from schools like yours and then
purchase food and clothing to send to
hungry people in Africa and elsewhere?," we do have
such a program. This is our hunger quiz program (see
http://worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm ) We
do not purchase food and clothing directly in the United
States, because we believe that this is not cost-effective,
but rather contribute money each month to an organization
that is working effectively to alleviate hunger and poverty.
We welcome your class' contribution to this program. For
example, the Fourth Grade
Sunday School class of the
Second Baptist Church of
Griffin,
Georgia made a contribution to the hunger quiz. Also,
if you can use a computer during your exhibition project,
you could have people take the quiz. This would be an
interesting interactive exhibit for visitors.
Many thanks for your interesting questions and your concern
about hungry people!
Editor, Hunger Notes
February 26, 2009
Dear Hunger Notes,
I am an 8th grade student in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
and I am working on a project on world hunger. I would
greatly appreciate it if you could complete this interview
and send it back to me. The questions are as follows: 1. Can world hunger realistically be fixed entirely?
2. If so, how long would it take?
3. I have read that fixing world hunger is a matter of
priority and not possibility. Do you agree?
4. What can I do to help?
5. Compared to other causes, how important would you say
world hunger is?
6. How can we prepare hungry people to get food themselves
so that they are not living off of charity for their entire
lives?
7. About what percent of hunger is from political (wars,
etc.) and not natural causes?
8. In what parts of the world do most hungry people live?
9. How much of the solution involves donating time, and how
much is donating money?
Thank you very much for your help. I look forward to
hearing from you. WM
Dear WM,
Thanks for nine great questions! Sorry for the delay in
replying!
1. Can world hunger realistically be fixed entirely?
Any complicated problem can never be fixed 'entirely,' but
giant steps could be made. World hunger could be fixed as a
straightforward
economic problem. If you take a look at our
world hunger facts in the current version you will
see that estimates are that approximately 900 million
people are malnourished. Round this up to
one billion
people.
Hunger is mainly due to poverty, so let us focus on
this principal cause. People who are hungry live in
families with $1-$2 of income per person per day. A big
dent in poverty and hunger could be made if they all had $4
of income per day. Suppose that it was necessary to
increase every hungry person's income by $3 to make this big
reduction. So $3 (necessary increase in daily income to
avoid hunger) x 365 days in the year x
1 billion<
people would be $1,095,000,000,000. In words this is one
trillion 95 billion dollars or $1095 billion.
Suppose at first that we just think of this as what
economists call 'final expenditure.' Then these poor people
would be given $3 a day. World military expenditure in
2006 was $1204 billion. See
http://yearbook2007.sipri.org/chap8. So ending
poverty is of the same magnitude as world military
expenditure, which the world makes every year. Ending
world poverty is a large, but doable expenditure for the
nations of the world.
But let us look further at what ending world hunger might
mean. 'Final expenditure' means we take money and spend it
on a specific goods and services. For military expenditure in the
United States, income of US citizens is spent on military
goods and services like planes and soldiers' pay, and the same sort of
thing would be true if income in the United States (and
elsewhere) was used to pay for food for the hungriest people
of the world. But the poorest people of the world should
not be and do not want to be passive recipients of food.
They want to earn their own living. The world and country
economic and political system(s) are far from offering an
opportunity to earn a basic income for everyone in the world
willing to work hard. This approach in the end would be
much cheaper but this approach is not part of our current
economic and political systems.
2. If so, how long would it take?
Actually thinking about and seriously reducing/ending world
hunger is very far down on the list of priorities of
everyone including developed and less
developed
countries, the people of these countries, including
ourselves, and major international institutions. From this
point of view, I think it is going to take forever/just not
going to happen. There would have to be an integrated and
low-cost approach to get this done. The most painfully
obvious important first step--increasing the production of
essential food by very poor farmers--is a very low priority
for most--not all--low income countries and the
international institutions that are supposed to be ending
poverty.
3. I have read that fixing world hunger is a matter of
priority and not possibility. Do you agree?
As what I have said above indicates in more detail, it is
fundamentally a matter of priority.
4. What can I do to help?
Learn about hunger and its causes. See where you can take
action to help reduce hunger. Keep it in your mind as you
get older as something to increasingly understand and
influence for the better.
5. Compared to other causes, how important would you say
world hunger is?
In making this judgment, which you and I will have to make
for ourselves, I would say don't so much focus on 'causes'
so much as living things and the planet itself. We all have
our own lives to live, providing for ourselves and our
families. Nonetheless, by and large, we do have energy left
over to help others. I think it is quite reasonable to
devote a reasonable amount of energy/time/money to helping
the poorest billion people in the world. Nonetheless there
are certainly other very worthwhile causes. Near at
home--people are struggling. Pets are abandoned. Other
species are in danger of extinction and our planet is in
danger of becoming something much different and worse.
6. How can we prepare
hungry people to get food themselves so that they are
not living off of charity for their entire lives?
The short answer is provide them with productive jobs. As
unbelievable as it may sound to you, as indicated in the
third paragraph of question 1), this is a key unanswered
question in terms of the response by most
developing
countries, developed countries and international
institutions.
7. About what percent of hunger is from political (wars,
etc.) and not natural causes?
I would say that 80-90 percent is political, and 20-10
percent is natural causes. But this is a first
approximation, and depends on several unclear things,
including what is political, what is natural, what is an
admixture of the two, and what might be thought of as
something else. These are certainly vast areas where there
has been substantial political oppression. Most hungry
people live in Africa and Asia. Almost all of Africa and
Asia was colonized for one hundred years and usually more.
Liberation from what is known as Western imperialism or
colonialism began in the 1950s and is far from done today.
Most new governments in Africa and Asia are in some
degree--I would say substantial--neocolonialist governments,
though they are certainly improving. The result of all this
is that the poorest people--over generations-- get squeezed
out of land, access to income, and other productive
opportunities. So it is not just conflict that should be
ranked as a political cause, but rather the ordinary
situation of society, where those at the top of society
use various types of power to allocate resources to
themselves.
8. In what parts of the world do most hungry people live?
Most hungry people live in Africa and Asia.
9.
How much of the solution involves donating time, and how
much is donating money?
Try both--I would be interested in hearing your answer!
Editor, Hunger Notes
February 26, 2009
Dear Hunger Notes,
Hello, this is K.R., I just recently contacted you to
inquire about doing an interview for my senior paper. (I go
to high school in Mt. Vernon, Ohio) My topic is Hunger as a
Result of Conflict. I had told you I needed answers by
Friday, but I just realized, I'm going to need an extra day
to make sure I can incorporate your responses into my paper.
If it is at all possible, if I could receive an email back
sometime Thursday, that would be fantastic. If not, that's
fine, it's my fault for saying Friday.
I know you said you may not be able to answer all of my
questions, which I understand completely. This is a very
complex subject as, of course, you know. I greatly
appreciate any answers you can provide me with.
1. What are the biggest contributors to world hunger?
2. Would you say that one factor causes hunger more than the
others, or do they all mainly work together to create this
epidemic?
3. Do you believe that it is possible to end world hunger?
4. Can you tell me the programs and organizations that are
already in operation to help relieve countries in conflict
of hunger? At least the largest ones?
5. Why is hunger so common in regions with conflict?
6. Who is going hungry in the United States?
7. What, if any, types of conflict in the US might be a
cause of hunger?
8. What steps need to be taken to help end, or just reduce,
world hunger?
9. Is it true that there are too many people, and not enough
food to go around? Or is that really a myth?
10. How does hunger affect people? Physically? Mentally?
11. In your opinion, what is the best thing people can do to
help this cause?
12. Do you believe that the argument - one of the greatest
causes of hunger is conflict - is plausible? Why or why not?
13. Why is hunger such a major problem in our world today?
Those are all of the questions I have. As I said, any
information and thoughts you can give me are a huge help.
Thank you so much,
K. R.
Dear K.R.,
Here are my answers to your questions.
1. What are the biggest contributors to world hunger?
I would say that 80-90 percent is political, and 20-10
percent is natural causes. But this is a first
approximation, and depends on several unclear things,
including what is political, what is natural, what is an
admixture of the two, and what might be thought of as
something else. These are certainly vast areas where there
has been substantial political oppression. Most hungry
people live in Africa and Asia. Almost all of Africa and
Asia was colonized for one hundred years and usually more.
Liberation from what is known as Western imperialism or
colonialism began in the 1950s and is far from done today.
Most new governments in Africa and Asia are in some
degree--I would say substantially--neocolonialist
governments, though they are certainly improving. The result
of all this is that the poorest people--over generations--
get squeezed out of land, access to income, and other
productive opportunities. So it is not just conflict that
should be ranked as a political cause, but rather the
ordinary situation of society, where the those at the top of
society use various types of power to allocate resources to
themselves.
2. Would you say that one factor causes hunger more than the
others, or do they all mainly work together to create this
epidemic?
See answer to 1 above. There is certainly interaction
between the two. For example, poor people, whose
ancestors may have been pushed off better land many
years/centuries ago, do tend to farm marginal lands such as
hillsides and create, for example, environmental problems
such as erosion and deforestation.
3. Do you believe that it is possible to end world hunger?
Yes. Any complicated problem can never be fixed 'entirely,'
but giant steps could be made. World hunger could be fixed
as a straightforward economic problem. If you take a look at
our world hunger facts in the current version you will see
that estimates are that approximately 900 million people are
malnourished. Round this up to one billion people. Hunger is
mainly due to poverty, so let us focus on this principal
cause. People who are hungry live in families with $1-$2 of
income per person per day. A big dent in poverty and hunger
could be made if they all had $4 of income per day. Suppose
that it was necessary to increase every hungry person's
income by $3 to make this big reduction. So $3 (necessary
increase in daily income to avoid hunger) x 365 days in the
year x 1 billion people would be $1,095,000, 000,000. In
words this is one trillion 95 billion dollars or $1095
billion. Suppose at first that we just think of this as what
economists call 'final expenditure.' Then these poor people
would be given $3 a day. World military expenditure in 2006
was $1204 billion. See
http://yearbook2007.sipri.org/chap8 . So ending poverty
is of the same magnitude as world military expenditure,
which the world makes every year. Ending world poverty is a
large, but doable expenditure for the nations of the world.
But let us look further at what ending world hunger might
mean. 'Final expenditure' means we take money and spend it
on a specific expenditure. For military expenditure in the
United States, income of US citizens is spent on military
goods like planes and services like soldiers' pay, and the
same sort of thing would be true if income in the United
States (and elsewhere) was used to pay for food for the
hungriest people of the world. But the poorest people of the
world should not be and do not want to be passive recipients
of food. They want to earn their own living. The world and
country economic and political system(s) are far from
offering an opportunity to earn a basic income for everyone
in the world willing to work hard. This approach in the end
would be much cheaper but this approach is not part of
thinking and action in our current economic and political
systems.
4. Can you tell me the programs and organizations that are
already in operation to help relieve countries in conflict
of hunger? At least the largest ones? See the World Food
Program website
http://www.wfp.org/ . Also for example for US
organizations see the Interaction website
www.interaction.org.
where you can see what individual US non-governmental
organizations are doing.
5. Why is hunger so common in regions
with conflict?
You should be able to answer this question yourself.
6. Who is going hungry in the United States? Basically very poor people. A better answer to this question would take more time. See the US hunger factsheets on our learn for more information. http://worldhunger.org/learn.htm
7. What, if any, types of conflict in
the US might be a cause of hunger?
Class conflict.
8. What steps need to be taken to help
end, or just reduce, world hunger?
This is a difficult question to answer as we are
pathetically far from actually taking the major steps needed
to end or substantially reduce world hunger (and thus it is
hard to see what actually might happen). A first step would
be establishing seriously reducing hunger (and poverty) as a
priority. Actually thinking about and seriously
reducing/ending world hunger is very far down on the list of
priorities of everyone including developed and less
developed countries, the people of these countries,
including ourselves, and major international institutions.
There would have to be an integrated and low-cost approach
to reduce hunger substantially. The most painfully obvious
important first step--increasing the production of essential
food by very poor farmers--is a very low priority for
most--not all--low income countries and the international
institutions that are supposed to be ending poverty.
9. Is it true that there are too many
people, and not enough food to go around? Or is that really
a myth?
It is a myth. The reason why people are starving is that
they do not have enough income to purchase food. If they had
more than $2-3 dollars a day, poor people would be able to
purchase enough food in all but emergency situations such as
conflict and drought.
10. How does hunger affect people?
Physically? Mentally? For one aspect of mentally please see
our hunger quiz.http://worldhunger.org/articles/quiz/hq_hunger_feeling.htm.
Physically: small weight and height, much greater chance of
sickness and death due to weakened physical state, mental
impairment due impaired brain development.
Hope this is helpful! Good luck on your paper!
Editor, Hunger Notes
February 10, 2009
Dear friends at Hunger Notes,
I am D.M. doing a 5th grade project at my school (Breakwater
school in Portland Maine) about hunger in the world.
It involves finding and writing about organizations that
help with hunger in the world. As I was researching
organizations I found your web page and I thought that you
help a lot!
I was wandering if you would be willing to answer these four
following questions:
1. Who founded Hunger Notes?
2. Are you connected with any other organizations?
3. What is your budget for a year?
4. How much money do you spend on the issue?
Dear D.M.
In response to your questions:
1. Who founded Hunger Notes?
Hunger Notes is an activity of the
World Hunger Education Service, which was founded by
a woman named Pat Kutzner, in 1975. She ran the
organization for 20 years, establishing Hunger Notes in
1976, and is now retired.
2. Are you connected with any other organizations?
We are not formally connected with any other organization.
But we are in contact with a reasonably large number of
people in various organizations who are interested in hunger
and poverty.
3. What is your budget for a year?
The World Hunger Education Service spent $3,898 last year.
Our principal activity was Hunger Notes.
4. How much money do you spend on the issue?
Strictly speaking we do not have issues, but update Hunger
Notes several times each week. So we spend about $10 a day
on Hunger Notes. It was not clear to me what you meant by
issue. In an alternative meaning of the word issue, we spent
$3,898 last year on education about world hunger and
poverty.
Editor, Hunger Notes
February 1, 2009
Dear Hunger Notes,
My church is interested in collecting seeds for world
hunger. Do you know of an organization that would like
packets of seeds? Thanks for your help! D. S.
Dear D.S.,
I do not think that collecting seeds would be a good way to contribute to ending world hunger. Seeds collected in the United States would be best planted in the United States as climate conditions, such as temperature and the amount of rain differ as between the United States--in the temperate zone, and where most hungry hungry people live, in tropical or sub-tropical zones. People in other parts of the world would in most cases not be able to use seeds selected for use here. Tomatoes, for example, would be extremely difficult to grow in arid climates. I would suggest contributing cash to an international organization that provides assistance to poor people, for example, the World Food Program (www.wfp.org). An important part of their efforts is replacing farmers seeds after a drought or other disaster.
Editor, Hunger Notes