Though overshadowed by In-N-Out and the long-awaited Veritas Forum another event shook up the hearts and minds of Pepperdine students last Thursday night: a presentation from MANA Mother Administered Nutritive Aid. Amid startling statistics of worldwide hunger and deaths from childhood malnutrition and details on their inspiring non-profit aimed at changing these statistics a brief introduction video caught my eye. It simply declared that my generation has found its great battle: eradicating hunger.
During the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 189 countries agreed upon the Millennium Development Goals a set of eight ambitious targets to tackle the world’s biggest development challenges by 2015. The very first goal is stated simply: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger. Part C of this goal declares the intention to halve the number of people who suffer from hunger by the stated time.
Yet despite the unanimous ratification of the Millennium Development Goals we remain as far away as ever from accomplishing the goal of eradicating hunger. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization the number of undernourished people has actually been increasing reaching an unprecedented 1.02 billion this year. According to Bread for the World almost 16000 children die every day from hunger-related causes. That is one child every five seconds. Every 5 seconds.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that these deaths are easily preventable. We don’t lack the resources to change this scenario only the willpower. The notion that the earth cannot produce enough food for all of its inhabitants is false. Though the world population has doubled in the past 50 years world food production has exceeded this pace and sufficient resources exist to feed our current population. So why is hunger so prevalent? It is the result of a dysfunctional world societal structure of many cumulative factors among them uneven distribution waste and unfair economic practices.
The American population eats approximately 815 billion calories a day 200 billion more than necessary. These extra calories could feed as many as 80 million people. That is enough food to make a sizeable dent in the number of people suffering from hunger. And that is just the excess consumption in the United States. Other Western countries are big offenders as well when it comes to overeating; imagine how many mouths could be fed if the Western world could reign in its caloric intake and channel this excess food to places that really need it.
Another factor compounding the hunger problem is waste. According to a recent article in The New York Times the U.S. wastes approximately 27 percent of food available for consumption. This food is often thrown out due to minor defects or spoilage. So that we Americans can have perfect fresh food available at our fingertips wherever and whenever we want it tons of food is wasted while people all over the world— mostly children— die of starvation.
These first two problems point to the third: that the U.S. and other developed nations have a sufficient and unfair advantage on the world market. Farm subsidies in the developed world devastate the agriculture of developing countries. So does the exploitation of the unfair trade negotiation advantage developed countries often hold because of their resources technology and stability. In addition investment in agriculture in poorer countries has not kept pace with need because for nations it often does not carry enough political incentive and for private investors it doesn’t turn a big enough profit. Much of the West simply continues to turn a blind eye to world hunger in its quest for cheaper products and bigger revenues.
Fortunately for the billion starving people around the world inspiring organizations working to end hunger— like MANA— do exist and are poised to make a significant dent in the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Yet this alone will not be enough to make a permanent sweeping change and eradicate hunger. Our generation must rise up to our great battle challenge the very structures that perpetuate inequality poverty and hunger and effectively achieve this Millennium Development Goal.