Received: from netlink.com.au (merlin.netlink.com.au [203.16.172.196]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id WAA19389 for ; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:51:34 -0700 (MST) Received: from netlink.com.au (h115.mel.netlink.com.au [203.62.225.115]) by netlink.com.au (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA03316 for ; Thu, 12 Nov 1998 16:56:17 +1100 Message-ID: <364A771F.837951E4@netlink.com.au> Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 16:50:23 +1100 From: rc&am Reply-To: rcollins@netlink.com.au MIME-Version: 1.0 To: PROGRESSIVE POPULATION NETWORK Subject: [Fwd: Fw: Fw ART: New Report Exposes Myths About World Hunger] Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------DEFA796B931EF611E594ADFE" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------DEFA796B931EF611E594ADFE Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------DEFA796B931EF611E594ADFE Content-Type: message/rfc822; name="nsmailGP.TMP" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline; filename="nsmailGP.TMP" X-POP3-Rcpt: rcollins@merlin Return-Path: Received: from kryten.ipax.com.au (kryten.ipax.com.au [203.29.72.3]) by netlink.com.au (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id NAA19492 for ; Thu, 12 Nov 1998 13:50:36 +1100 Received: from server01.rie.net.au (server01.rie.net.au [203.30.170.10]) by kryten.ipax.com.au (8.6.11/8.6.9) with ESMTP id MAA28181; Thu, 12 Nov 1998 12:57:29 +1100 Received: from vucqprlj ([203.30.170.61]) by server01.rie.net.au (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id NAA10581; Thu, 12 Nov 1998 13:45:32 +1100 From: "margaret" To: , , Subject: Fw: Fw ART: New Report Exposes Myths About World Hunger Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 12:21:34 -0800 Message-ID: <01be0e7a$0b4dce40$LocalHost@vucqprlj> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 Hello there! Thought this might be usefull for further discussion on "overpopulation" myths. Margaret From: iww-news@iww.org >Date: Monday, 19 October 1998 22:47 >Subject: New Report Exposes Myths About World Hunger > >>WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (IPS) - The myth that world hunger is the unavoidable >>result of the forces of nature, coupled with a population explosion, >>prevents policy makers from understanding the real causes of starvation >>worldwide, says a new report. >> >>"The way people think about hunger is the greatest obstacle to ending it," >>says Peter Rosset, director of the California-based Institute for Food and >>Development Policy, in a report released Thursday - World Food Day. >> >>"As millions of people starve, powerful myths block our understanding of >>the true causes of hunger and prevent us from taking effective action to >>end it," Rosset says. >> >>The report - 'World Hunger: Twelve Myths' - says these notions prevent a >>true understanding of the real causes of millions of people starving >>around the world. >> >>"The true source of world hunger is not scarcity but policy; not >>inevitability but politics," says the report. "The real culprits are >>economies that fail to offer everyone opportunities, and societies that >>place economic efficiency over compassion." >> >>Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. The world >>produces enough grain and many other commonly eaten foods to provide at >>least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day, according to the report. >> >>Even as countries have excess food, people still go hungry. In 1997, for >>example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science found >>that, in the developing world, 78 percent of all malnourished children >>aged under five live in countries with food surpluses. >> >>"The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available >>food," says Twelve Myths. ''Even though 'hungry countries' have enough >>food for all their people right now, many are net exporters of food and >>other agricultural products." >> >>Believing that scarcity is the problem, many governments and international >>development institutions - like the World Bank - say the answer to solving >>the problem is increasing food production. Dramatic production advances >>of the 1970s known as the 'Green Revolution', did increase grain supplies. >> >>"But focusing narrowly on increasing production cannot alleviate hunger >>because it fails to alter the tightly concentrated distribution of economic >power that determines who can buy the additional food," says the report. >> >>This is why that in several of the biggest Green Revolution successes - >>India, Mexico, and the Philippines for example - grain production and in >>some cases exports, have climbed while hunger has persisted. >> >>That nature is to blame for famine is another popular hunger myth that >>blurs the real causes of starvation. "It's too easy to blame nature; food >>is always available for those who can afford it while starvation during >>hard times hits only the poorest," the report says. >> >>"Millions live on the brink of disaster in south Asia, Africa and >>elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in >>the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid." >> >>Natural events rarely explain deaths, they are simply the final push over >>this brink. Population growth is another mythical cause of hunger, says >>the report. >> >>"Although rapid population growth remains a serious concern in many >>countries, nowhere does population density explain hunger," it says. "For >>every Bangladesh - a densely populated and hungry country - we find a >>Nigeria, Brazil or Bolivia where abundant food resources coexist with >>hunger." >> >>Costa Rica, with only half of Honduras' cropped acres per person, boasts a >>life expectancy - 11 years longer than that of Honduras and close to that >>of developed countries, explains the report. >> >>About half of the myths listed in the report involve false assumptions >>used to develop current food, land and agriculture policy. Large farms, >>the free-market, free trade and more aid from industrialised countries, >>have all been falsely touted as the "cure" to end hunger. >> >>Large landowners who control most of the best land often leave much of it >>idle, says Twelve Myths. "By contrast, small farmers typically achieve at >>least four to five times greater output per acre, in part because they >>work their land more intensively and use integrated, and often more >>sustainable, production systems," it says. >> >>Redistribution of land would give millions of small farmers in developing >>countries the incentive to invest in land improvements, to rotate crops >>and leave land fallow for the sake of long-term soil fertility, according >>to the report. >> >>Comprehensive land reform has markedly increased production in countries >>as different at Japan, Zimbabwe, and Taiwan. A World Bank study of >>northeast Brazil estimates that redistributing farmland into smaller >>holdings would raise output by 80 percent. >> >>Free-markets and lifting tariffs on trade have also been touted as the >>solution to ending world hunger. >> >>"Such a market is good, government is bad formula can never help address >>the causes of hunger," says the report. "Such thinking misleads us into >>believing that a society can opt for one or the other, when in fact every >>economy on earth combines market and government in allocating resources >>and distributing wealth." >> >>Because the market responds to money not actual need, it can only work to >>eliminate hunger when purchasing power is widely dispersed, says the >>report. As the rural poor are increasingly pushed from land, they are less >>and less able to make their demands for food register in the market. >> >>Promoting free trade to alleviate hunger has proven to be a failure, says >>Twelve Myths. In most developing countries exports have boomed while >>hunger has continued unabated or actually worsened, its says. >> >>"While soybean exports boomed in Brazil to feed Japanese and European >>livestock - hunger spread from one-third to two-thirds of the population," >>says the report. >> >>"Where the majority of people have been made too poor to buy the food >>grown on their own country's soil, those who control productive resources >>will, not surprisingly, orient their production to more lucrative markets >>abroad." >> >>Pro-trade policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) >>and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) promotes export >>crop production and squeezes out basic food production, it says. Foreign >>aid from industrialised countries, often seen as an essential key to >>ending hunger and famine, has propped up such free trade and free market >>policies. >> >>Foreign aid, says the report, "works directly against the hungry." U.S. >>aid in particular is used to promote exports and food production - not to >>increase the poor's ability to buy food, it adds. "Even emergency, or >>humanitarian aid, which makes up five percent of the total, often ends up >>enriching U.S. grain companies while failing to reach the hungry." >> >>With different policies, says Twelve Myths, the world could feed itself. >> >>"Hunger is caused by decisions made by human beings, and can be ended by >>making different decisions," says Rosset. "Informed social movements like >>those that fought for and won landmark civil rights legislation or >>abolished slavery or helped end the war in Vietnam, can end hunger too." >> >>Following its own call to action, the Institute for Food and Development >>Policy recently launched an "Economic Human Rights" campaign in the >>United States which calls for an end to hunger and poverty in the >>wealthiest country in the world. >> >>"The scientific evidence shows it is possible to eliminate hunger," says >>Rosset. "As societies we have to decide that it is a priority." >>(END/IPS/dk/mk/98) >> >> >>** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material >>is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest >>in receiving the included information for research and educational >>purposes. ** >> >> >>***** >>"Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the >>individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. >>IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of >>the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more >>information." >>To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail >>to iww-news-request@iww.org with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as >>the subject of the message. > --------------DEFA796B931EF611E594ADFE--