Hunger

Well-informed persons, and relevant food and hunger organizations, have long known that this planet already produces enough food to feed everyone on it. Hungry or otherwise ill-fed persons do not receive the food they need primarily because even food is seen as, and reduced to, a "commodity" under capitalism, and like every other such commodity, is grown, created, manufactured, processed, distributed, and sold not to feed people, but to produce profit for the tiny group of people who own food-related corporations and other businesses, from the largest agribusiness concern to the smallest corner grocery store.

In other words, under capitalism the food industry is an industry like any other. It operates by the same rules, and for the same reasons. Understand this reality, and you understand exactly why hungry people go hungry in a world of obvious abundance, in Africa, Asia, the United States, and elsewhere.

A 2002 report by Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy, states:

Regarding hunger in the United States, the Christian Science Monitor reports, in an article entitled "To combat hunger, more in US turn to soup kitchens," in its February 23, 2006 edition:

America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable food distribution network, is now providing help to more than 25 million people, an 8 percent increase over 2001, the last time the organization did a major survey of its more than 200 food banks in all 50 states.

That increase in the number of people who are hungry or "food insecure" - Washington bureaucratese for "not sure where their next meal will come from" - is reflected in data collected by the US Department of Agriculture as well. In 2005, it found more than 38 million Americans lived in "hungry or food insecure" households, an increase of 5 million since 2000.

"Even though individuals may have a job, they still are having a hard time making ends meet," says Maura Daly, a spokeswoman for Second Harvest, which is based in Chicago. "We find many people have to make choices between food and other basic necessities like paying for utilities and heat."

More than 35 percent of the people who are served by Second Harvest come from homes with at least one working adult.... ... "The fact that so many working people still have to go to a soup kitchen or a food bank to make ends meet shows there's something structurally wrong with the economy," says Doug O'Brien, vice president for public policy and research at Second Harvest.

Second Harvest also states that:

"30% of the families surveyed were forced to choose between buying food and paying for medical care or medicine."

And note that this increase in U.S. hunger occurs concomitant with the growth of the American economy of the past four years (growth for who?).

General access to food is the first order of the day for any decent and moral society. However, the year 2006 still finds this a huge and continuing problem in our "modern" capitalist global economy, making it clear that the focus and driving force behind present-day global economic activity is skewed and immoral. Indeed, there is something "structurally" wrong with the economy--it requires a new structure!

Hunger is a huge area for exploration, study, and outreach for activists and other interested persons.