End World Hunger Now

October 16 has been designated as World Food Day Day by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. This is a day designated to promote awareness of global food issues.

This is an important issue. Hunger is on the rise, both in the developed world and here in Canada. Food bank usage is growing, but there isn't always enough to meet demand. Hunger has also persisted despite advances in genetic engineering, which ironically was supposed to be an important aspect in combatting hunger. There is enough food to feed every person in the world (much less every Canadian, and Canada is one of the richest countries in the world) , so something is wrong with the distribution. This little pamphlet from Oxfam does a good job explaining why food is inacessable to poor people. It describes how entrenched institutional structures like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund allow hunger to persist and how they benefit from so doing. It also touches on the prices farmers are paid for their produce, which is particularly pertinent here, as one of the major economic issues in southwestern Manitoba is farmers struggling and in many cases being driven off their land.

So, should we just give food go hungry people? No. The problem doesn't revolve around whether or not people have food, it's about their means to either produce or acquire it. Sure, you can give money to people or donate to foodbanks, but neither action changes the fact that whoever benefits from your generosity will still need help tomorrow. The entrenched systems need to be changed to allow small communities more direct influence over their own affairs as it comes to food. More on how that's done can be found here.

What this issue boils down to is values. As a global community, do we value the right of a few people to be well off while many are not, or do we value the right of everyone to have the basic essentials of life?