Editorials and commentary

'We are workers, not criminals!'  David Bacon May 14, 2008

Both Rumsfeld and the current Defense Secretary Gates share the long war fallacy. Iraq has shown the limits of U.S. power. We must change America, not the world. Andrew J. Bacevich Los Angeles Times May 13, 2008

Sweetheart deal: the latest farm bill outrage is a plan to prop up sugar producers Washington Post May 6, 2008 (You will leave this site, be required to register once with the Post, and thereafter sign in using your email address.)

Time to renegotiate NAFTA, not expand it Representative Marcy Kaptur (United States),  Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky (Mexico), and Peter Julian, Member of Parliament (Canada) May 2, 2008

The World Bank, IMF, and the US and other developed country governments are 'shocked, shocked' by the global food and hunger crisis: is this cluelessness or dishonesty? Lane Vanderslice Hunger Notes April 18, 2008  See also world food and hunger crisis stories

Presidential candidates on trade Americas Policy Program April 7, 2008

Can capitalism survive climate change? Walden Bello Foreign Policy In Focus April 5, 2008

Would the United States government pass the ‘good Samaritan’ test? Lane Vanderslice World Hunger Education Service April 5, 2008

Rev. Wright in a different light William A. Von Hoene Jr. Chicago Tribune March 26,2007 (A white member of Rev. Wright's congregation gives his understanding of the preaching of Sen. Obama's minister)

'A More Perfect Union'  Barak Obama March 18, 2008

Militarizing Africa (again) Daniel Volman and Beth Tuckey Foreign Policy In Focus February 21, 2007

The militarization of the world's urban peripheries  Raúl Zibechi Center for International Policy February 9, 2007

The truth about illegal immigration and crime: immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are substantially less likely to commit crimes or to be incarcerated than U.S. citizens Tom Barry Center for International Policy February 6, 2007

Making sense of Chad Alex de Waal Justice Africa February 7, 2007

AFRICOM threatens the sovereignty, independence and stability of the African continent  Mark P. Fancher, Jeffrey L. Edison & Ajamu Sankofa National Conference of Black Lawyers January 31, 2008

The violence in Kenya must stop now! Firoze Manji and Mukoma Wa Ngugi   Pambazuka News January 30, 2008

Proposed tax cut gives partial or no help to 77 million low and moderate income families  Robert Greenstein The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities January 22, 2008

2008: Latin America's hope and challenge Laura Carlsen Center for International Policy  January 18, 2008

'Suitcase Scandal' is another US foreign policy blunder Mark Weisbrot  Center for Economic and Policy Research January 12, 2008

Kenya: holding a nation hostage to a bankrupt political class Paul T. Zeleza The Zeleza Post January 12, 2008

Why Bolivia matters Laura Carlsen Center for International Policy  January 7, 2008

What's your consumption factor? Jared Diamond New York Times January 2, 2008 (You will leave this site.) 

Letters to the Editor

Dear Hunger Notes,
My name is S. H. and I go to Menlo School in Atherton, California. As a school project in seventh grade we get to research a compelling world problem and try to come up with some practical solutions to solve it. For my topic I have chosen global hunger and food shortages. Part of our investigation involves interviewing an expert on the issue. Would you be willing and able to answer a few questions that I have about this topic?

1.    Which population subgroup (infants, children, teenagers, adults) does hunger most predominantly impact?
2.    What is the leading cause of malnutrition in most countries?
3.   What are some of the current, most effective efforts to address the situation of hunger?
4.    What are the societal effects of hunger?
5.    Do malnourished people predominantly die of starvation or disease?

Thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions.


                            Sincerely,
                            S. H.

Dear S.H.
Thank you for asking these important questions!

1. Which population subgroup (infants, children, teenagers, adults) does hunger most predominantly impact? 

First, it is important to note that, when faced with severe hunger and even starvation, everyone feels it acutely.  See our hunger quiz "what does long term hunger feel like," which is based on (then Congressman) Tony Hall's description of his fast.  Adults are able to bear up better under acute hunger than infants and children. Secondly and importantly is the impact of acute hunger on various age groups.  No doubt, the group that suffers the greatest mortality and if they survive, long-term negative physical and mental impacts, are infants and young children.

2.  What is the leading cause of malnutrition in most countries. 

The leading cause of malnutrition is poverty, typically extreme poverty--people living on $2 or even $1 a day and less in income.  The second principal cause of malnutrition is conflict.

3. What are some of the current, most effective efforts to address the situation of hunger?

I would name three: the millennium development goals and the efforts made by countries to meet those goals; the international relief 'apparatus' to deal with crisis situations; and the efforts by quite a few countries, including but not limited to  China, India and Brazil, to adopt a range of economic and political policies that have enabled their countries to grow economically and with some mandate to reduce poverty.

4. What are the societal effects of hunger? 

Before answering this I would like to say that it is not just hunger, but also poverty and exclusion from participation and power in society.  All these are related, and to a real extent, hunger is the result of poverty and the exclusion of many people from participation and power in society.  Hunger is really the result of a societal system based to a significant extent on the appropriation of the benefits of society by a relative few.  We have called this harmful economic systems in our website and have a page devoted to this issue. So in some sense I would modify the question you ask to: what are the societal effects of a social system that creates hunger?  I think that the reaction to a desperate situation on the part of poor people is a significant factor leading to rebellion against the government, and crime and violence.  Poverty and hunger, if not addressed in a robust manner, can have very corrosive effects on society.

5. Do malnourished people predominantly die of starvation or disease? 

A tough call, since they typically die of both.  Hunger is the underlying cause that weakens people, especially infants and children, so that they die of a specific disease such as measles.  If people had more food, and were thus more robust, they would typically not die of measles or other diseases.  So a specific diseases is often listed as the cause of death, but in reality it is hunger that has caused the death. 
 

April 3, 2008

Dear Hunger Notes

I am a student doing a research project on world hunger and would be delighted if you could help me.  There are some questions that I need help answering.  I was wondering why so many people die from starvation if in America we have so much food.  I would also like to know how I and some other peers of mind could help the hunger situation.  Do you know the countries with the most hunger issues?  Thank you for your time!  Sincerely, M.O

Dear M.O,
To respond to your questions.

Why do so many die from starvation if in America we have so much food?

This is because the world runs on a market economy. People purchase things, including food depending on how much purchasing power they have. How much purchasing power you have principally depends on your income (and also on savings and other assets). Poor people in developing countries have much less income than we and other people do. So they lose out big time in the competition for food. The main point is that we have the income to eat very well and we do.

Three important ways that we 'use up' food resources:

--meat products use up a lot of food resources. Grain is purchased as livestock feed and we then eat the animals. This uses up many times more grain than if the grain was directly used for human consumption.
--increasingly we use food resources for fuel. Corn for ethanol, for example.
--also we tend to overeat.

But even if we ate meat in extreme moderation, did not use food resources for fuel, and watched our diets, the basic point would still be there that we have vastly more purchasing power than poor people in developing countries.

There are almost 1 billion people in the world living on $1 a day or less. How much do members of your family live on per day? Perhaps the easiest way to calculate it is to take total family income for the year, divide this by the number of family members and then divide by 365, the number of days in the year. What do you come out with? With median family income in the United States as approximately $60,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States and with the average family size as approximately 3 (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts), the daily income per person is $54.79--over 50 times that of the poorest 1 billion.

How can I and my peers help the hunger situation?

Do one or more of the following:
1. Learn more about hunger.
2. Contribute to organizations who are trying to reduce hunger.
3. Volunteer with an organization such as a food bank that is trying to reduce hunger or other aspect of poverty.
4. Join an organization such as Bread for the World that is trying to influence United States government policy to assist hungry people
See the Hunger Notes section on 'you can help reduce hunger' for more details (http://www.worldhunger.org/reduce.htm).

What are the countries with the most hunger issues?

The World Food Program World Hunger Map is a good place to see this (http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/hunger_map/map/hungermap_popup/map_popup.html)

Thanks for some interesting questions. Good luck with your paper!

Editor, Hunger Notes

Dear Hunger Notes,
I am a high school student and am currently involved in a project to raise awareness about the crisis in Africa in regards to hunger and HIV/AIDS. I would greatly appreciate if you would be able to assist me with data. I need data for hunger and HIV/AIDS, data tables, statistics, graphs, etc. I would be willing to state the name of the website on my presentation which will clearly increase awareness of the website and talk about what you do. Thank you, U. M.

Dear U.M.,
To the best of my knowledge there is no statistical source that estimates hunger due to HIV/AIDS. The standard source for estimates of food insecurity is the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's State of the World's Food Insecurity report with the latest being from 2006. It is available beginning on http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0750e/a0750e00.htm. However when I tried to access the actual PDF report I was unable to do so, due to some sort of technical difficulty. Perhaps you will have better luck. The source for HIV/AIDS statistics is UNAIDS and its 2006 report can be accessed beginning at http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/2006GlobalReport/default.asp.  See Annex 2. Another good source for Africa is Avert http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm . Also see the article 'SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV-induced famine's impact on agriculture' on Hunger Notes PHN page. Not statistical, but useful I think. The book cited there 'Silent Hunger..' is also very helpful and can be accessed at http://www.fanrpan.org/documents/d00351/ . I hope your report on this important question turns out well.
Editor, Hunger Notes

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