When my kids were hungry, I couldn’t stand it; I did everything possible to feed them with a healthy snack. When they were hungry, they’d act out; they’d fight; they’d be disagreeable and downright obnoxious. All moms know what I’m talking about.
I’m sitting here today writing this article knowing full well that almost 820 million people, mostly children, went to bed hungry last night. And I’m saddened to think that tonight nearly 820 million people, primarily children, will go to bed hungry. I’ll finish this article tomorrow, and sadly know that almost 820 million people, mostly children, will go to bed hungry tomorrow night. I know their moms are desperate, and their hopes and dreams for their children are no different from mine when my children were little: happy and healthy kids, good schools, a stable home, food on the table, opportunity, and bright futures.
The big difference is these mothers can do precious little to change their situation. Whatever the reason for their plight: natural disaster, climate change, conflict, disease, overpopulation, lack of education, inequality, no jobs, or weak government, these moms don’t have access to nutritious food. Also, they happen to live in countries where the economic institutions block their incentives and opportunities preventing them from improving their lives and their children’s lives. This is a scandal.
If there is enough food to go around, why aren’t we aren’t making the right decisions about its distribution? When we think about the number of people who go to bed hungry each night and realize most of them are children, it’s a terrible feeling. It’s horrific to think about what these children could have been, but will never be because of the permanent cognitive and physical damages due to prolonged childhood hunger. This is potential talent, thrown away. Their society suffers.
So can we really end world hunger?
image from United NationsAccording to Sustainable Development Goal #2, ZERO HUNGER, we can. But, at the rate we’re going, on the track we’re on, it’s not possible. The issue is multi-faceted, and to look at every angle would fill a book.
I want to go back to the first global effort to prevent hunger that I learned about when I was young. It was called the Green Revolution and it changed agriculture worldwide. Although it started in Mexico, its massive funding aided its movement to India and Asia where people were malnourished. The purpose was to supply farmers with higher yield seeds that would increase rice and wheat production. These farmers were encouraged to change their agricultural methods and use these seeds to help feed the starving people of their country. These seeds required chemical pesticides and fertilizers, enormous amounts of water, and being sterile, they could not be replanted. Farmers became dependent on these higher yield seeds and had to purchase them year after year instead of participating in seed saving and sharing with nearby farmers. Sixty years down the line, we can see that the Green Revolution has wreaked havoc on the environment by depleting the nutrient-rich organic matter in the soil and destroying biodiversity. Farmers also became dependent on these modified seeds and on the multinational corporations which owned them. The small-scale farmers in these countries found themselves in a cycle of dependency. Despite the intentions of the Green Revolution, there were still hungry people, mostly children going to bed with empty stomachs.
For me, the significant problem is that we haven’t learned from past mistakes. Now, since 2006, a new alliance targeting Africa called the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), funded by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, risks repeating the same thing causing similar problems without reducing hunger. According to critics, it does little for food security, and small farmers become dependent on costly seeds, it’s terrible for the environment, it promotes mono-crops, poor people can't afford the produce, and…, and…., and….. Monsanto is a big funder of AGRA.
The solutions to ending hunger are intertwined, and we can see from the sheer numbers of people who go to bed hungry every night that money and increasing crop yields are not solutions. If they were, the lives of poor people would improve, and hunger would be at ZERO, forever! It doesn’t look like foreign aid will end poverty in Africa, and since many Africans arguably are worse off than they were in the 1960s, perhaps foreign assistance has the opposite of its intended effect.
What can we/you do to help?
The picture looks grim, but if we get off the fast track we are on now, and concentrate on people, not multinationals, and listen to their voices, I believe we can reduce hunger, and leave a small footprint at the same time.
There are several ways we can help, even from the coziness of our homes. Together, we must be the powerful voice for loving and taking care of children.
- First and foremost, our efforts should focus on innovative, holistic approaches that focus on women.
- We should stop looking at poor, hungry people as "beneficiaries" and concentrate on projects that improve institutions that enable people to participate actively.
- Human dignity is fundamental, and we need to understand people want to be self-reliant.
- We should support projects where local governments work with people in community-based partnerships and not multinationals, and this includes moving away from top-down projects.
- Programs we support should also respect nature and her rhythms and cycles.
Thirty years ago while living in NYC I learned about The Hunger Project - it was a relatively new organization and was based right in NYC! I was a returned Peace Corps Volunteer fresh out of Africa with first-hand experience in childhood malnutrition. I had ideas about the best way for Africa, and was looking for something specific. The Hunger Project fit what I was looking for, and still does. While there are several international aid organizations for emergencies that result from war or drought, the Hunger Project espouses my ideas about ending hunger. It has three key aspects: empowering women, mobilizing communities and creating partnerships with local governments.
Too many people are trapped in a cycle of poverty and hunger with little they can do about it. I believe the key to ending hunger is to encourage multi-faceted approaches that include making local and national governments more accountable, and create inclusive policies that provide access to resources that benefit a greater number of people including women. Together we can make a difference!
Sarah Wallace - AIWC Genoa
Environment Team Member
