Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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World Hunger
Picture Credit: Agence France Presse The world produces enough food to ensure every person a healthy and productive life, yet more than 800 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition, while large numbers of others suffer from obesity. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals seek to reduce the percentage of hungry people by half by the year 2015. Considering the plentiful resources available and the terrible consequences of starvation, hunger and malnutrition, it is a very modest commitment. Political leaders of virtually every country have endorsed the goal. But these same leaders are doing very little to build a strategy or to implement required change.
To solve the world hunger crisis, it’s necessary to do more than send emergency food aid to countries facing famine. Leaders must address the globalized system of agricultural production and trade that favors large corporate agriculture and export-oriented crops while discriminating against small-scale farmers and agriculture oriented to local needs. As a result of official inaction, more than thirty million people die of malnutrition and starvation every year, while large industrial farms export ever more strawberries and cut flowers to affluent consumers. Excessive meat production, again largely for the affluent, requires massive amounts of feed grains that might otherwise sustain poor families. Giant agribusiness, chemical and restaurant companies like Cargill, Monsanto and McDonalds dominate the world's food chain, building a global dependence on unhealthy and genetically dangerous products. These companies are racing to secure patents on every plant and living organism and their intensive advertising seeks to persuade the world's consumers to eat more and more sweets, snacks, burgers, and soft drinks.
Also See GPF's Pages on:
Social and Economic Policy
Lack of Hunger Relief and Other Food Aid Challenges
This page contains articles on the inadequacy of existing levels of government funding for international emergency hunger relief and other food aid challenges.Central Emergency Response Fund
This section posts articles, documents and other information on the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Launched by Secretary General Kofi Annan on March 9 of 2006, the CERF aims to deliver rapid response to humanitarian crises.General Analysis on Hunger
This section posts articles and reports analyzing world hunger.Tables and Charts on Global Food Aid
This section provides tables and charts on global food aid, with a focus on the hunger crises administered by the World Food Programme (WFP).Links and Resources
This page includes Links and Resources on world hunger.Root Causes of World Hunger
Hunger and the Globalized System of Trade and Food Production
This page provides information on how the current international economic system has increased income inequalities, poverty and hunger worldwide.AIDS and Hunger
This page posts articles, reports and other information on AIDS as a cause of hunger.Environmental Degradation and Hunger
This page provides information on how global climate change leads to an increased number of weather-related disasters such as floods and droughts, which cause food shortages and famine.Oppressive Regimes, Military Conflict and Hunger
This page provides articles on how military conflicts and oppressive regimes disrupt food production and distribution.
More Information on Social and Economic Policy
