Oct 16th was World Food Day. On this day “The World Summit on Food Security” convened in Rome and will conclude today, November 18th. Part of a three pronged series of events, these meetings are being held to address the additional burden that the global economic crisis has placed on world hunger.
The Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that the number of hungry people worldwide, will pass the 0ne billion mark this year. This means that one sixth of the world is suffering from persistent hunger.
The agenda of these meetings is to provide an action plan on how to boost agricultural productivity. The FAO states:
[The gravity of the current food crisis is the result of 20 years of under-investment in agriculture and neglect of the sector. Directly or indirectly, agriculture provides the livelihood for 70 percent of the world's poor.]
As you can see, global warming is not mentioned. Rather the world’s, and thus our failure, to provide policies, leadership, and economic development is seen as the reason for this current surge of hunger.
At the FAO’s webpage discussing the summit, is a link to sign a petition to end world hunger, HERE.
Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations issued a message stressing the need for multilateral commitment, creativity and leadership. On his page HERE, are other links, on how to get involved. There is also a Twitter link.
As it should be, the emphasis of the events is directed toward poor and developing nations. However, you ever had any doubts, the food crisis is a perfect example of how the United States is part of the global community. Take look at the Washington Post Article, HERE.
We continue to think it is acceptable to starve the brains and stunt the growth of a percentage of our children. It is okay to enfeeble and kill off some of our elderly early and we don’t want to deal with the racial inequities that are still inherent in our domestic economic policies. We still think it is ok to tell women they should get married for money rather than addressing the community practices that allow others avoid responsibility for children. We still think we should blame women when their children can’t perform in school.
In the USDA’s, 66 page .pdf report, HERE, The US has categories that define levels of food insecurity. The categories of nourishment are defined as: 1) food secure, meaning enough food at all times for a healthy active lifestyle, 2) food insecure, meaning at least some time during the year there was inadequate food in the house, and 3) very low food security, meaning that the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.
We have been running along at a general population of around 12% food insecure people for years. For children with families it’s been 15%. With the economic “recession”, our percentage of food insecure people is now around 15% and 21% respectively. This figure does not include indigent or homeless people, so the figure is likely to be higher[1]. As might be expected, low-income families are suffering the worst. By category, an astonishing 37.2% of “female head of household” with children are food insecure. However, the “male head of household” category is doing pretty badly as well at 27.6%. The third category of other “household with child”, (grandparents, other relative, etc.) is at 29.2%.
As to race, because Black, and Hispanic groups still have proportionally lower incomes and higher poverty levels, as expected the food insecurity is higher at 14.4% and 17%. Native Americans are apparently counted in the “other” category at 7.8%. Due to the lack of categorization, this is bound to be a highly deceptive figure.
Although President Obama has stated that “the solution begins with job creation” and is planning increases in food stamps and other feeding programs this cannot be the solution to the end of hunger in this country. Evidence suggests first of all, that many people in this predicament have jobs, but wages do not provide enough income. Secondly, corporate “big business” agriculture as is suggested by people like Michael Pollan[2], have streamlined, and influenced the USDA as a way to get rid of excess product, rather than toward nutrition. This results in too much corn, wheat and soybean production, at the expense of a national program employing good standards.
Finally, I want to say that during World War II, the US government mobilized the country to feed it’s self, feed the troops, and set standards for good nutrition as part of the effort to win the war. Our country has been at war for eight years now. There has been no such effort. As Ban Ki-moon says, we need a coordinated approach to fight this crisis, not the latest political maneuver.
[1] If the USDA is not counting homeless people in their report here, via their pantry programs, how will the 2010 Census find and count them? This forebodes a vast under-representation of people in trouble in our country.
[2] Michael Pollan is the author of “ In Defense of Food”, and “The Omnivores Dilemma”.
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