Food Surpluses and Starvation

Abstract

The contrast between too much food produced in one part of the world and massive hunger in another strikes many people as wrong to the point of obscenity. Yet starvation is really a consequence of poverty rather than overall food shortage and could be cured by a redistribution of wealth – probably more efficiently than by a redistribution of food. Of course, food aid is needed at times of crisis, and current crises are so widespread and so severe that they are neither unusual nor short-term. The long-term solutions, nevertheless, must be based on hungry people being able either to produce their own food or to find employment that will allow them to buy what they need. There is neither a shortage of food – worldwide – nor an inability to produce it. There are, however, severe difficulties in producing it where it is most wanted, mainly because of the poverty of the small-scale farmers on whom food production largely depends in developing countries. Developed countries should direct their aid to strengthening small-scale agriculture and helping small farmers to raise their levels of productivity. Appropriate research and development are needed, and developed countries' research capacities could be oriented to the task of helping developing countries to raise agricultural productivity and to create their own R and D capability.