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The World Food Situation: Glut and Starvation
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14556 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
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3 / 1988 |
5,994 Words |
| Author
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Alexander King
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There is no need to convince any audience of the importance of food. Striving for food sufficiency is the primary urge of all humans and of all species. Certainly "man does not live by bread alone," but it is the energy generated by food that makes all his other activities possible. Without sufficient food, the individual is unable to live a life of human dignity or develop his or her higher qualities, yet the deprivations wrought by undernourishment bring misery, illness, lethargy, and early death to millions of people in the world today.
The world food situation has changed greatly during the last decade. In 1977 many questioned whether the world could increase food production sufficiently to nourish the six billion or more people who are expected to inhabit the planet by the next century. Today we are faced with great cereal surpluses in North America and mountains of butter and lakes of milk and wine in Europe.
Hunger and malnutrition in the Southern Hemisphere contrast with the overfilled bellies of the North. It is amply clear that production of sufficient food to feed the world is not by itself the answer to the problem of world hunger.
The world public is more aware of these anomalies than ever before. The famines in Ethiopia and the Sahel, given global visibility by the media, evoked a generous response in the provision of food. Droughts in these regions are periodic and inevitable, but we must conclude that famines are to a large extent man-made. Early-warning signs of serious drought in the Sahel went largely unheeded, and it was not until the tragedy of famine was dramatized on television screens that the world conscience was aroused and a response was generated. Many factors operate in the transition from drought to famine. Lack of infrastructure and inadequate local organizations are obvious; but still more important are social conditions, neglect of rural needs, and inequity of income distribution. In many recent cases, wars and civil strife have greatly aggravated the situation.
The key issue today is how to reconcile the coexistence of the overproduction of food and the persistence of hunger. The simplistic view is that continuing and augmenting food aid and the provision of cheap cereals would lessen both hunger and the surplus. This approach, as we shall see later, could greatly worsen the situation, although emergency food aid will certainly be frequently necessary. The abolition of hunger is essentially a question of politics, economics, and logistics, to which technological factors are only marginally relevant. Technological advances can greatly increase the quantity, quality, and variety of food, but they cannot ensure that it reaches the hungry. For decades there has been sufficient food to feed everyone in the world, but millions have lacked the minimum nutritional requirements for a decent existence. This disparity shows no signs of shrinking as world food production grows. The estimates of the Food and Agricultural Organization indicate that by the year 2000 the proportion of undernourished people should decrease, but that because of population growth in some of the most severely affected countries, the actual number of malnourished will increase.
Even in India, which has moved dramatically from shortage to surplus, there is little evidence of major improvement in meeting basic needs of the masses. The hungry are the poor, who have little means of buying the food that is produced.
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