World hunger has reached crisis proportions because of a confluence of agricultural and economic factors. The situation is so bad – with shortages, rocketing prices and political unrest – that Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, has called it “a silent tsunami.”
As governments and organizations scramble to respond, the debate has widened to include the possibilities and concerns raised by genetically modified foods and the movement for sustainable agriculture. Many blame the rush for corn-based ethanol for inflating the prices of that staple to a level that is devastating for the most needy. Journalists in the U.S. have many avenues into this story. Dozens of U.S. organizations provide food to the hungry globally, and experts and think tanks are working to find innovative ways to reduce hunger. Many Americans donate money and time to this cause. Bread for the World began a Recipe for Hope campaign to give Americans ways to respond to the crisis.
Food-related violence has been reported in 14 countries, and in Haiti, the prime minister had to step down in April in the wake of hunger-driven riots in Port-au-Prince. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of “a cascade” of social and political problems worldwide if the crisis continues to deepen.
According to the World Hunger Education Service, nearly one-third of children in the developing world suffer from malnutrition. And in the past year, the average worldwide price of rice – a staple in many areas already desperately poor – has risen 96 percent, the BBC reports.
Compounding the trouble, spiraling expenses and unmet commitments from donors are forcing some aid groups, such as the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision, to reduce food assistance to those they usually serve. President Bush has released $200 million in emergency U.S. aid and is asking Congress to approve an additional $770 million in response to the crisis.
For more interview sources and background, see ReligionLink’s issues on:
• Hunger in America
• U.S. farm policy (which includes resources on sustainable agriculture)
• Genetically modified food
Organizations
• The Global Policy Forum posts links to organizations working on world hunger issues.
• Bread for the World posts links to anti-hunger organizations.
SECULAR
• The United Nations World Food Program provides detailed information about the global food situation, including an interactive hunger map. Jennifer Parmelee is the organization’s U.S. spokeswoman. Contact her in Washington, D.C., 202-653-0010, jennifer.parmelee@wfp.org.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations works to eliminate world hunger. Its headquarters are in Rome, but it has a liaison office with North America in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-653-2400, FAO-LOWA@fao.org.
• The Alliance to End Hunger is a coalition of groups across cultures and faiths to end hunger in the world. It was begun by David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. Max Finberg is director. Contact 202-639-9400 ext. 178.
• The World Hunger Education Service in Washington, D.C., posts definitions and data on global hunger and provides links to news stories on the topic. Daniel E. Shaughnessy is chairman. Contact 202-269-6322.
• World Hunger Year is a New York-based organization that focuses on hunger and poverty nationally and internationally. Among its programs is the National Hunger Clearinghouse, which maintains a directory of organizations that work on hunger and poverty issues. The directory is searchable by state. Bill Ayres is executive director; contact 212-629-8850.
RELIGIOUS
• Bread for the World is a Christian lobby group calling for both charity and justice in its advocacy efforts. Its president, David Beckmann, a clergyman and economist, is one of the leading spokesmen in the religious community on hunger issues. Its Recipe for Hope campaign, created to help address the world food crisis, runs through June 15, 2008. It also has a Web page on international hunger.
• Catholic Charities asked Congress to improve food and nutrition assistance contained in farm bill legislation. Hunger is a key issue for the agency. It reported a 12 percent increase in the number of clients using food services in 2006. Media contact is Shelley Borysiewicz, 703-236-6218, sborysiewicz@catholiccharitiesusa.org.
• The ELCA World Hunger program helps alleviate hunger through advocacy, education, relief and sustainable development. Contact 773-380-2764, hunger@elca.org.
• Foods Resource Bank is made up of 15 Christian denominations that work at the grass roots with farmers and communities to develop local food security. Modeled after a Canadian program, it has both overseas and U.S. projects. Contact Marv Baldwin, president and CEO of the Kalamazoo, Mich.,-based group, 269-349-3467.
• MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is a Los Angeles-based program that funds advocacy and food distribution. H. Eric Schockman is president. Contact 310-442-0020 ext. 101, eschockman@mazon.org.
• Presbyterian Hunger Program is a Presbyterian ministry responding to hunger and poverty domestically and abroad. Lionel Derenoncourt is the program associate for international hunger concerns. The church’s Food and Faith initiative includes a blog. Contact Derenoncourt, 888-728-7228 ext. 5834, or email him through the Web site.
• World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization that addresses global poverty issues, including hunger. To arrange expert interviews, contact Cynthia Colin, 202-436-1266, ccolin@worldvision.org; Amy Parodi, 253-709-3190; or Casey Calamusa, 206-310-5476.
National sources
• Norman E. Borlaug is Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M University in College Station. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work increasing wheat production in Mexico – which resulted in increasing food supply for millions of starving people. The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture was created to carry forward his work; its current director is Edwin C. Price. Contact Borlaug at 979-845-4164, jborlaug@ag.tamu.edu. Contact Price at 979-862-4551, eprice@ag.tamu.edu.
• Joseph A. Grassi is professor emeritus of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California and author of Broken Bread and Broken Bodies: The Lord’s Supper and World Hunger. Contact 408-554-4547, jgrassi@scu.edu.
• Eric Holt-Gimenez is executive director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First), which works to eliminate the injustices that cause hunger. It’s based in Oakland, Calif. Contact 510-654-4400 ext. 227, eholtgim@foodfirst.org.
• Shannon Jung is professor of town and country ministries at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. He is author of World Hunger and the Complicity of the Affluent (forthcoming in 2008), as well as Sharing Food: Christian Practices for Enjoyment and Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating. Contact 816-245-4862, shannon.jung@spst.edu.
• Frances Moore Lappé is author of Diet for a Small Planet and co-author of World Hunger: Twelve Myths. She is co-leader of the Small Planet Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and was a co-founder of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First). Contact through Rod Meade Sperry, outreach and operations director, 617-441-6300 ext. 115, rod@smallplanet.org.
• Donald E. Messer is executive director of the Center for the Church and Global AIDS. He co-wrote Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith with George McGovern and Bob Dole and wrote Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis. He is professor emeritus and former president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He lives in Denver, Colo., and travels internationally. Contact 303-877-1955, dmesser@iliff.edu.
• Per Pinstrup-Andersen is the H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell University. He is co-editor of Ethics, Hunger and Globalization: In Search of Appropriate Policies (2007). He was director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute for 10 years. He is also the J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and professor of applied economics at Cornell. Contact 607-255-9429, pp94@cornell.edu.
• Peter Rosset is a food rights activist, agroecologist and rural development specialist. He is based in Oaxaca, Mexico, as a researcher at the Centro de Estudios Para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano (Center of Studies for Rural Change in Mexico) and co-coordinator of the Land Research Action Network. He is also global alternatives associate of the Center for the Study of the Americas and an affiliated scholar of the University of California, both in Berkeley, Calif. He is the former co-director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) in Oakland, Calif. Contact rosset@globalalternatives.org.
• C. Ford Runge is director of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy and Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law at the University of Minnesota. He is co-author of Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization. Contact 612-625-9208, runge001@umn.edu.
• Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is the author of The End of Poverty. Contact 212-854-8704, sachs@columbia.edu.
• Benjamin Senauer is professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota and co-author of Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization. Contact 612-625-5724, bsenauer@umn.edu.
• James Vernon is a history professor at the University of California-Berkeley and author of Hunger: A Modern History. He teaches courses on food and hunger. Contact 510-642-2362, jvernon@berkeley.edu.
• Joachim von Braun is director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, whose mission is to seek sustainable solutions to end hunger and poverty. Based in Washington, D.C., it is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations. Contact 202-862-5600, j.vonbraun@cgiar.org.
Background
• Cornell University posts the Web site Food Policy for Developing Countries – The Role of Government in Global, National and Local Food Systems.
REPORTS AND STATISTICS
• The International Food Policy Research Institute published a December 2007 report, “The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions,” and an October 2007 report, “The World’s Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Hunger and Poverty.”
• The United Nations World Food Program issues hunger reports yearly.The International Food Policy Research Institute, in conjunction with German Agro-Action and Concern Worldwide, released a “global hunger index” in October 2007.
• Bread for the World posts world hunger facts and figures, as does the humanitarian group CARE.
ARTICLES
• Read the article “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor,” in the May/June 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs.
• Read a May 2, 2008, Wall Street Journal article about President Bush asking Congress to approve an additional $770 million in global food aid.
• Read an April 28, 2008, Christian NewsWire story about cutbacks in global food aid that World Vision is having to make due to its own financial challenges.
• Read an April 27, 2008, Washington Post story (the first in a five-part series) about the factors pushing food prices sky-high and the resulting effects on the world’s poorest populations. An accompanying slide show includes a graphic detailing the countries hardest-hit.
• Read an April 26, 2008, Philadelphia Inquirer editorial exhorting the U.S. government to do more to alleviate the crisis.
• Read an April 25, 2008, analysis of the global food crisis posted by the BBC. Cornell University economics professor Kaushik Basu is the author.
• Read an April 25, 2008, Columbus Dispatch “Faith & Values” feature about Tony Hall, a former congressman who serves as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s envoy to religious groups in the Middle East. Hall has worked for decades on the problem of world hunger and has said that his advocacy on that and related issues is driven by his Christian faith.
• Read an April 23, 2008, Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about signs that some Americans are stockpiling food in light of the global problems. An accompanying timeline lists developments in the world food crisis since September 2007.
• Read an April 18, 2008, International Herald Tribune article, “Across globe, hunger brings rising anger.”
