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A billion hungry people
FAITH IN ACTION
By Katherine Marshall
On October 16, as millions of people were riveted to video of a runaway balloon thought to be carrying a 6-year-old boy named Falcon, a statistic was released on a problem that affects millions of children around the world: hunger. A billion people today are chronically hungry or malnourished, more than ever before in human history.
Bloomberg News made the story its "chart of the day". Comedian Sarah Silverman came up with a tongue-in-cheek answer - sell the Vatican - that had been viewed on YouTube a half million times when I last checked.
But the disturbing number, which came on World Food Day, is deadly serious. As Eleanor Roosevelt remarked, "The first great human right to most of the people of the world is the right to eat." And that's a right and a goal that is ingrained in many religious traditions. Feeding the hungry is right up there with loving God and caring for one's neighbor.
The one billion number is the tragic result of two facts. The financial and economic crisis has combined with sharp increases in food prices, so many more people can't afford to buy enough to feed their families. And many have lost jobs, so the estimates of hungry and malnourished people have shot up. But there are deeper problems at work that demand financial resources (the G20 promised $22 billion), intellectual investment and some true moral leadership.
Investments in African agriculture collapsed, I believe, because problem-ridden programs led to a collective cynicism and depression. So there's a huge catch-up needed all around. Money is needed for research, for on-the-ground programs, and for training.
Intellectual input is needed because these are tough problems that have defeated many dedicated people in the past. I worked on agriculture in Africa for two decades and can attest to how heartbreaking it can be when Murphy's Law creeps in and everything that can go wrong - including locusts, plagues, drought, corruption and so on - does. The chronic difficulty of implementing programs is already more difficult because climate change is upon us. Droughts and floods are early but unmistakable signs of things to come.
Even when funds are available, debates rage around the right course of action to help agriculture, which results in no action being taken at all.
One source many look to is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a speech last week, Bill Gates called small-holder farmers, especially in Africa, "the world's single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty." And, he promised, "the world's attention is back on your cause". He acknowledged one of the raging debates: "this global effort to help small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two. On one side is a technological approach that increases productivity. On the other side is an environmental approach that promotes sustainability.
Productivity or sustainability - they say you have to choose."
Gates regards the choice - benefit from science by using improved farming methods or seek safety from genetically modified crops by "going natural" - as far too simplistic. And in related debates about large farm versus small farm, local versus multinational, his foundation is clearly steering towards small farmers and respect for local tradition and knowledge. He's right on both points. But that does not mean dialogue is unnecessary. Respected religious leaders all over Africa, supported by many in richer countries, preach fervent sermons about the evils of the recipes for reviving agriculture and see devious motives behind much of the aid and the solutions that are on the table. They deserve a hearing and we need to engage them if they are to be part of the solution, as they must be.
These are ancient problems with a modern face. With the great strides made in agricultural research, there was real hope some years ago that hunger could be conquered. It didn't happen, but the hope is still alive. And Sarah Silverman is absolutely right to point out that the resources are there. Eleanor Roosevelt hit the moral imperatives hard: "This should be one of the aims- to show that our conception of freedom and the rights of men includes the responsibility of their government to see that no man, woman or child starves and that, as far as we are able, we extend that guarantee to the nations of the world because of the greatness and generosity of our spirit." She added that "We have been blessed by the Almighty with a land that provides us with a surplus of food and yet we have not learned how to share this surplus with the people of the world."
This is a ferociously complex problem. I don't agree with Roosevelt's suggestion that only when people have enough to eat -"only after that is gratified can we offer cultural and spiritual leadership." We need that spiritual leadership now. Hopefully, with collective outrage at the reality that a billion people are hungry, we can focus at least as much concern and attention on the world's hungry that we lavished on little Falcon, the balloon boy.
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, a Visiting Professor, and a senior advisor for the World Bank.
By Katherine Marshall |
October 19, 2009; 12:48 AM ET
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Faith in Action
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Posted by: ccnl1 | October 19, 2009 12:39 PM
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On the media last week, it was said that food prodution must increase 70% in 40 years for the people of the world. With world weather change, where is the growth in food to come from? How about the cost factor that is being over looked? Does birth control enter this picture? It is time to come to face the whole picture of food by all.
Posted by: usapdx | October 19, 2009 12:35 PM
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FAO's world hunger map is posted at http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/food-security-statistics/fao-hunger-map/en/
It is obvious that the hunger issue, based on the map, is located in equatorial Africa, a region beset by civil wars and Isalamic warlords. One wonders, however, as to how hunger statistics are gathered in such dangerous, non-governed areas??
Posted by: ccnl1 | October 19, 2009 12:25 PM
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Bloomberg News' reporters got their information from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Hmmm, so what do we know about the FAO??
"UN agency whose purpose is to improve nutrition and eliminate hunger by coordinating the efforts of governments in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. It also assists countries through research, training, development, and field missions, and it has helped with disaster and emergency relief. The FAO was established in 1945. Beginning in the 1960s, it concentrated on developing high-yield grain, eliminating protein deficiencies, supporting rural development, and encouraging agricultural exports. In the 1980s and '90s, the FAO emphasized strategies for sustainable agriculture and rural development that were economically feasible, environmentally sound, and technologically appropriate to the skill level of the host country. The organization, which has more than 180 members, is governed by the biennial FAO conference, in which each member country, as well as the European Union, is represented. Its headquarters are in Rome."
Hmmm, looks like we need new management at the FAO as they are failing in their mission if indeed their data are correct. Does anyone know how the FAO came up with their hunger data??
Posted by: ccnl1 | October 19, 2009 11:46 AM
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The annual questionaires sent out by the FAO:
"Data Collection
The Statistics Division sends out four major questionnaires annually to countries to collect statistical data to be included in the FAOSTAT databases. The questionnaires used for data collection in 2006 were:
"Crop and Livestock Production (xls)
Prices received by Farmers - Primary Crop and Livestock Products (xls)
Agricultural Resources – Land and Irrigation (xls)
Agricultural Resources – Fertilizers (xls"
But nothing about the number of citizens going hungary?? So again, how does the FAO go about getting their estimates of those going hungry every day???????