HUNGRY WORLD

"It is a fact that all the world's farms currently produce enough food to make every person on the planet fat. Even though 800 million people are chronically underfed (6 will die of hunger related causes while you read this article), it's because they lack money and opportunity, not because food is unavailable in their countries. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that current food production can sustain world food needs even for the 800 billion people who are projected to inhabit the planet by 2030. This will hold even with anticipated increases in meat consumption, and without adding genetically modified crops.

Is this the reliable bounty of industrial production? Yes and no--with the "no" being more of a problem in the near future. Industrial farming methods, wherever they are practiced, promote soil erosion, salinization, desertification, and loss of soil fertility. The FAO estimate that over 25% of the world's arable land is already compromised by one or more of these problems. The worst affected areas are those with more arid climates or sloped terrain. Numerous field trials in both the US and the UK have shown that organic practices can produce commodity crop yields (corn, soybeans, wheat) comparable to industrial farms. By using cover-crops or animal manures for fertilizer, these practices improve soil fertility and moisture holding capacity over seasons, with cumulative benefits. These techniques are particularly advantageous in regions that lack the money and the technology for industrial approaches.

Conventional methods are producing huge quantities of corn, wheat and soybeans, but not to feed the poor. Most of it becomes animal feed for meat production, or the ingredients of processed foods for wealthier consumers who are already getting plenty of calories. Food sellers prefer to market more food to people who have money, rather than those who have little. World food trade policies most often favor developed countries at the expense of developing countries; distributors, processors, and shipperss reap most of the benefits. Even direct food aid for disasters (a small percentage of all the world's hunger) is most profitable for grain companies and shippers. By law, 75% of such aid, sent from the US to other nations, must be grown, packaged, and shipped by US companies. This practice, called "tied aid," delays shipments of food by as much as six months, increases the costs of the food by over 50%, and directs over two-thirds of the aid money to the distributors.

If efficiency is the issue, resources go furthest when people produce their own food near to where it is consumed. Many Hunger-relief organizations provide assistance, not in the form of bags of food, but in programs that teach and provide support technology for locally appropriate, sustainable farming. These programs do more than alleviate hunger for a day and send a paycheck to a multinational. They provide a livelihood to the person in need, addressing the real root of hunger, which is not about food production, but about poverty."

This article is an excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver's book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." For more information, visit www.journeytoforever.org, or www.heifer.org

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Every year many of us shell out donations to world charities which we believe are addressing issues in other nations that concern us enough to offer our help in the only way that we can.... or is that true? Maybe we can better help by educating ourselves about some of these organizations. If they just truck in food supplies and set up a check point where they can distribute them to famine victims and leave again, calling it a job done, then that's not good enough. We need organizations that go the extra mile with the money people are donating. We want sustainable action so that the problem does not recur over and over again.

WE MUST BE MORE CAREFUL ABOUT THE CHARITIES WE SUPPORT.

It is not enough anymore to put your hand in your pocket and pull out some change to drop in a can. With our populations every increasing, charities are pulling in more and more dollars. They can afford to do more for the recipients of this charity than enrich the suppliers and shippers of the world. Check where the money goes before you send your contribution on it's way. Don't JUST GIVE on impulse, look into the pros and cons first. That is ONE thing we ALL can do to help organizations which are TRULY MAKING A DIFFERENCE to carry out their programs.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Strzalko on September 4, 2009 at 8:55am

Fantastic article. Thanks for posting it.

Permalink Reply by MommaToldMeNotToCome on September 4, 2009 at 9:27am

I'm glad you found it interesting, Robert. I will be posting more discussions on this particular topic as time goes on. It disgusts me that the world's plenty is not distributed more fairly and equally among the people. "The God of the Bottom Line" on Big Business ledger sheets is running the show, if you ask me. Thanks for commenting.:D --Christie