The war on hunger declared after World War II has been largely abandoned. Not because hunger is no longer with us, but largely because the “market fixes all” philosophy of recent decades has subsumed concerns about hunger into market solutions. Hunger and famine exist on every continent. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 850 million people lack adequate food and 13% of the world's population are “food insecure”—meaning they don't know if they will be able to eat tomorrow. The logical place to start in renewing the campaign against hunger is with those who have traditionally produced the food of nations—the small farmers.
1. Structural Causes Ignored
The structural causes of hunger have been ignored in favor of free market philosophy, technological fixes, and charity-based interventions.
2. Breakdown in Communities and Production
International trade in food products is both inevitable and to some degree desirable, but the drastic deregulation of a distorted market has led to a breakdown in communities, productive chains, and ecosystems.
3. Farmers Need Help
That 70% of the world's hungry live in rural areas is proof that the world's farmers need help—and fast.
4. Unsustainable Production Methods
Monocropping, chemical use, and intensive exploitation of natural resources do produce food and profits but create an unsustainable agricultural system that generates debilitating environmental and human costs.
5. Dual Crisis: Malnutrition and Obesity
The world faces a dual crisis of malnutrition and obesity, which has resulted from economic polarization, cultural changes, and a decline in the quality of our food supply.
6. Food Security Requires Food Sovereignty
A concept of “food security” that posits that it doesn't matter if food is imported or grown at home is highly compatible with globalization but it ignores both the plight and potential of small farmers.
7. Beginning with Small Farmers
Hunger is a disease whose “cure” is in prevention. It's time for governments and international agencies to restore the emphasis where it should be—on the small farmers.
These Talking Points on Food and Farmers reflect the principles of the Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations, especially Principle Six:
“The U.S. government should support equitable and sustainable development, at home and abroad, through its macroeconomic, trade, investment, and foreign assistance policies.”
See IRC's A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations online at: http://ggn.irc-online.org/neighbor/142.
These Talking Points were prepared by Laura Carlsen, the director of the IRC Americas Program. Carlsen is the author of numerous reports and books on food and farm issues.
