Mercy Global Concern - 2003

Ten Myths about World Hunger

As the world watches, a war that could cost upwards of $600 billion unfold,it is estimated that chronic hunger could be cut in half for the comparatively modest sum of $24 billion!

Diane Spearman of the United Nations-sponsored World Food Programme told a recent conference that that the number of chronically malnourished people in the world today is 840 million and 799 million are in the developing countries.

The United Nations' 1996 World Food Summit adopted a commitment to cut the number of hungry people in half by 2015, an aim which could be achieved for roughly $24 billion, split between direct food aid and investments in agriculture and rural infrastructure.

"This is a scandal," Spearman said. "Starvation in a world of plenty is morally unacceptable."

At least 840 million people do not have enough to eat. Hunger is not a myth - but myths keep us from ending HUNGER.

Myth 1: There's not enough food to go around.

Reality: There's enough food in the world to make most people fat!

Enough food is available to provide at least two kilos per person a day worldwide: a kilo of grain, beans and nuts, about a half-kilo of fruits and vegetables and nearly a half-kilo of meat, milk and eggs! Even most 'hungry countries' have enough food for all their people - many are net exporters of food.

Myth 2: Nature's to blame.

Reality: Food is always available for those who can afford it -starvation in hard times hits only the poorest, when natural events are the final push over the brink. Millions live on the brink of disaster in South Asia, Africa and elsewhere because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in the grip of debt, or miserably paid. Human institutions and policies determine who eats and who starves. In the West many homeless people die from the cold every winter, yet responsibility doesn't lie with the weather.

Myth 3: There are too many people.

Reality: Birth rates are falling rapidly worldwide; nowhere does population density explain hunger. In the global south many regions are beginning the demographic transition - when birth rates drop in response to an earlier decline in death rates. Rapid population growth is a serious concern for many countries. But for every Bangladesh - a densely populated and hungry country - we find a Nigeria, Brazil or Bolivia where abundant food coexists with hunger. Rapid population growth is not the root cause of hunger. Like hunger itself, it results from inequities that deprive people, especially poor women, of economic opportunity and security. Rapid population growth and hunger are endemic to societies where land ownership, jobs, education, healthcare and old-age security are beyond the reach of most people.

Myth 4: It's a trade of: the environment or food

Reality: Industrial agriculture is degrading soil and undercutting our food production sources. Environmentally sound alternatives can be more productive than destructive ones. Large corporations are responsible for deforestation - creating and profiting from developed-country consumer demand for tropical hardwoods and exotic or out of season food items. Most pesticides used in the developing world are applied to export crops, playing little role in feeding the hungry, while in the West they are used to give blemish free cosmetic appearance to produce, with no improvement in nutritional value.

Myth 5: The Green Revolution is the answer.

Reality: The Green Revolution did increase productivity in the 1960's and 1970's. But technology cannot challenge inequality as the root cause of hunger. The Green Revolution led to increased production of some grains, mainly by large farms, but at the cost of long-term soil degradation and the loss of crop diversity. Increasing the production of a few crops on larger farms cannot alleviate hunger because the concentration of economic power determines who can buy the additional grain. In several of the Green Revolution's biggest successes - India, Mexico, and the Philippines - grain production and exports have climbed, while hunger has persisted. A 'New Green Revolution' based on biotechnology could further accentuate this inequality.

Myth 6: We need large farms.

Reality: Small farmers achieve four-five times more output per acre; land reform can increase production. Without secure tenure, tenant farmers in the developing world have little incentive to invest in improvements, rotate crops or leave land fallow for the sake of long-term fertility. Redistribution of land can increase production. A World Bank study of northeast Brazil estimates that redistributing farmland into smaller holdings would raise output by an astonishing 80 percent.

Myth 7: The Free market can end Hunger

Reality: The market only works when poor people have money to buy food.

Every economy on earth combines the economy with government to allocate resources and distribute goods. Governments have a vital role to play n countering the tendency toward economic concentration, through genuine tax, credit and land reforms to disperse buying power to the poor. Recent trends towards privatization and deregulation are taking us in the opposite direction.

Myth 8: Free Trade is the answer

Reality: In many poor countries exports of food crops have boomed, squeezing out food for local production, while hunger has continued. The trade-promotion formula has proven an abject failure at alleviating hunger.

While soyabean exports boomed in Brazil - to feed Japanese and European livestock - hunger spread from one-third to two-thirds of the population. Where the majority of the people have been made too poor to buy the food grown in their own country's soil, those who control agricultural resources orient production to lucrative markets abroad.

Myth 9: The victims are too hungry to fight for their rights.

Reality: Wherever poor people suffer needlessly they are also fighting for their rights. People in the rich world can help to remove the obstacles to those rights. If poor people were truly passive, few of them could even survive. Around the world, from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, to the farmers' movement in India, movements for change are underway. People will feed themselves if allowed to do so. Large corporations, Western governments, and World Bank and IMF policies often create obstacles.

Myth 10: All we need is more aid.

Reality: Foreign aid reinforces the status quo and undercuts local food production in the recipient country. Where governments answer only to elites, aid not only fails reach hungry people, it shores up the very forces working against them. It is used to impose free trade and free market policies, to promote exports at the expense of food production and to provide the armaments that repressive governments use to stay in power. Even emergency aid-which makes up only five percent of the total - often ends up enriching multinational grain companies while failing to reach the hungry. Local food production is undermined.

Source: World Hunger: 12 myths, by F.M.Lappe, J. Collins and P. Rosset, with L. Esparze

Website: www. foodfirst.org