Famine In A World Of Plenty

Last night, I went to an Oxfam dinner and fundraiser. We were separated into three groups: the wealthy, the middle-income, and the poor (the largest group, of course). The wealthy enjoyed a full meal, the middle class was fed beans and rice, and the poor only had rice. The point of this exercise was to illustrate that people who find themselves living in poverty and hunger are victims of chance. Someone born in sub-Saharan Africa is much more likely to experience hunger than someone born in the United States. I think a lot of people assume that hunger is a natural event, like an earthquake or tsunami. They assume that there simply isn’t enough food for everyone. That isn’t true. The planet produces enough food to easily meet everyone’s nutritional needs. Hunger is usually a result of neglect or abuse of power. Denying access to food is a weapon in many conflicts.
We also assume that hunger has no solution. I’ll write more about that tomorrow.