Hunger's Not an Accident

Following the recently completed World Food Summit, Ashfak Bokhari has penned an interesting piece in Dawn on the politics of food and hunger:

The hard fact is that hunger, like poverty, is essentially a man-made problem, not even dependent on vagaries of weather. Incredible though it may look, it is abundance not scarcity that describes world's food supply situation. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are available each year to easily feed every human being with 3,500 calories a day.

The US grows 40% more food every year than it needs. But it would not rush surplus food to famine areas simply because it won't bring profits. Providing food to the hungry is not a humanitarian act; it is an ideological issue which demands that a sizable population in the impoverished countries must remain hungry, poor and malnourished. So, it is the big powers, the multinational corporations and the institutions run by them such as the IMF and the World Bank that collectively decide as to who should eat and who should starve.

This article echoes much of what John Vidal said in the Guardian at the beginning of the summit. Peter Rosset of Food First reached similar conclusions, as well.