To commemorate World Food Day the United Nations is releasing a report claiming the world is not doing enough to meet commitments made in 1996 to cut in half the number of hungry people by the year 2010. According to latest Food and Agriculture Organization figures, there are currently 800 million people without enough food to eat and the world is only reducing that figure by about 8 million people a year rather than the 25 million it would need to cut the level of hunger in half by 2010.
According to FAO’s head Jacques Diouf, the nations of the world aren’t investing enough in agriculture. “If you look at the level of national budgets going to agriculture in relation to populations in the rural sector, you will see that there is no consistency.” As an example Diouf pointed to the Horn of Africa area nothing that although 19 million people in that area need food relief, investment in agriculture in that area of the world is so low that only 1% of the arable land has any sort of irrigation. “How can you have a serious development in an area where 99% of the land has no water control and is entirely dependent on the vagaries of the climate?”
On the other hand after hearing Diouf and assistant FAO director Hartwig de Haen go on about how there is no need for hunger since world food production is more than adequate to feed every person on the planet, one has to wonder if the FAO isn’t missing the forest for the trees.
What can the world do, for example, to prevent hunger in areas that are marked by chronic wars and/or authoritarian government? Diouf cites the horror of North Korea’s ongoing famine, for example, but North Korea is easily the most closed society on Earth. It is one of the few totalitarian regimes left, dedicates vast amounts of its gross domestic product to its military, and allows very few foreigners to even enter the country. It recently threatened to cut off renewed visits between relatives in South Korea because after visiting North Korea one relative wrote in a SoutH Korean newspaper that North Koreans have very little freedom.
How is the world possibly supposed to solve North Korea’s hunger problems short of military occupation of North Korea?
The same thing goes for the Horn of Africa. In Ethiopia a Marxist regime that took power in the late 1970s ran the country into the ground with its collectivized farming efforts which led to one of the worst famines in the last quarter of the 20th century. The resulting civil war that led to the ouster of that government led to border disputes with the breakaway state of Eritrea which continue today. Exactly how is increased agricultural investment going to stop the cycle of violence and oppression there?
Contrary to the FAO’s claims, the major cause of hunger today is not technical issues such as irrigation or investment in certain sectors, but rather ongoing political problems with authoritarian governments and/or inter and intrastate wars.
UN warns on world food. The BBC, October 16, 2000.