Where's the Food?

Did you know there are more than one billion hungry people in the world? I didn’t’. But why is hunger so common when in the United States, for example, where we are producing more calories than we as a country can consume. The authors of “The Scarcity Fallacy” claim that “world hunger has less to do with the shortage of food than with a shortage of affordable or accessible food.” They explain further that this has been caused by the production of food moving from small local farms to large corporate chains. Also, developing countries house most of the hungry population (about a quarter of them children). This is largely due to widespread poverty and continuous civil wars so no gains in human rights issues can be dealt with, because, after all, “food…[is] a human right.”

Again the theme is brought up that people pay for everything else before food because that is where the greatest aid is provided. However, some aid programs like one established by the US government to “remove surplus grain from domestic markets and assist military allies- has long been ineffective and misdirected.” In the end, it is not the hungry that benefit from these programs- it is the shipping and producing companies that profit.

The authors provide a solution of giving money to the hungry to use in their own regions, thus stimulating local economy. Solving world hunger would not only benefit those directly in need, but also help stabilize politics in many countries.

After reading this article it is difficult to believe that we have the means to end the pandemic of world hunger and we have not implemented them. It is our job as global citizens to help one another because everyone’s success is truly key to our own. I agree that giving assistance to local economies is better than feeding big business, but there would have to be a way to control what the money is used for, which is close to impossible. But we can each do our part, at least in our own communities, to stop people from going hungry. I will leave you with a quote from the article which I found astounding: “The same amount of grain needed to fill an SUV’s 25-gallon gas tank with ethanol could feed a single person for a whole year.”

Should we restrict our luxuries (cars, for example) in order to feed the hungry?
Is it feasible to control aid given to other countries? Or is there a better alternative?