Ending the Global Food Crisis

Five Ways to End World Hunger

Nov 9, 2009

Action must be taken both internationally and in local communities to end global hunger and promote sustainable agriculture development in the places that need it most.

As reported in "The Global Food Crisis", there are now more than 1 billion people worldwide suffering from food shortages -- and more than 24,000 people die every day from hunger-related causes. It will take a concerted global effort to stop world hunger, and we must call on world leaders to address this problem. There are many things that need to change, both globally and in local communities, before we will be able to end world hunger. Here are five steps that need to be taken to alleviate the food shortage crisis and reduce the number of people starving in the world.

1. Call on world leaders to fulfill development assistance commitments agreed to in 1970.

In the recent Global Issues report, "US and Foreign Aid Assistance", by Anup Shah, the author takes an in-depth look at how well donor countries have honored their Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments. In UN General Assembly Resolution 2626 (XXV) on 24 October 1970, the ODA target agreed to by the donor countries was to be 0.7% of Gross National Income (or GNI, formerly referred to as GNP or GDP) by 1975. According to Shah's research, almost all donor countries have continually fallen short of this mark, and assistance averages have only been between 0.2% and 0.4% of GNI.

Although the United States has been the largest donor in terms of the dollar amount allocated to assistance, the country has been consistently last in terms of the percentage of GNI donated to assistance. Far from the 0.7% mark, the US has averaged about 0.18% of GNI in recent years. Only five of the roughly 22 donor countries have met or exceeded the 0.7% goal set in 1970; Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands have all been donating at least 0.8% of their GNI in recent years, according to Shah.

2. Call on world leaders to stop tying aid to commercial and strategic interests.

According to paragraph 45 of that same 1970 UN resolution, "Financial aid will, in principle, be untied. While it may not be possible to untie assistance in all cases, developed countries will rapidly and progressively take what measures they can...to reduce the extent of tying assistance..."

It is clear, based on Shah's research, that most of the DEC donor nations have failed in this goal as well. Between 1970 and 2007, only about 24% of the ODA monies available went to the least developed countries that need it the most. According to Shah, "...one of the root causes of poverty lies in the powerful nations that have formulated most of the trade and aid policies today, which are more to do with maintaining dependency on industrialized nations, providing sources of cheap labor and cheaper goods for populations back home and increasing personal wealth..." These trends must change before we will be able to end the global food crisis.

3. Stop the industrial agriculture that is contributing to global food insecurity.

Across the US, and in many other parts of the world, small family farms are being taken over by industrial corporate agriculture. As Chris Hedges reports in the TruthDig article, "Food is Power and the Powerful are Poisioning Us", corporate agriculture has estranged people from the land. As more and more people become disconnected from the source of their food, and lose the ability to provide for themselves, profit-driven corporate interests have driven the prices of food up an average of 43% globally since 2007.

Without the knowledge to grow their own food, many people have become increasingly dependent on the cheap, nutritionally-deficient foods that are mass-produced by these agri-businesses. By working together to promote sustainable, local agricultural production, people can begin to rebuild the food supply network in a way that benefits humanity long-term. Government subsidies should be shifted from the commercial production of corn and soy used for biofuels and trade, and should instead be directed toward sustainable agriculture -- including programs developed to utilize inner-city property for food production.

4. Make food aid more nutritious and easier to use.

In the Suite101 article, "The Silver Bullet", Melissa Miller explores a product called Plumpy'nut. This sticky, sweet brown paste provides a full array of nutrients, needs no water or refrigeration and has a long shelf life. At a price of around $50US per child per year, this ready-to-use therapeutic food has already been credited with saving the lives of thousands of children in the most famished parts of Africa. And according to the WHO, foods like Plumpy'nut could be made even cheaper by replacing the powdered milk with soy.

5. Get involved with organizations working to end the world food crisis.

There are many organizations around the world working to end global hunger. Here are a few:

The copyright of the article Ending the Global Food Crisis in World Hunger is owned by Angela Higbee. Permission to republish Ending the Global Food Crisis in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.