The united nations theUnited does nothing much to help humanitarian situations all over the world. They go home to their nice apts,drink vodka or whwhateverr and contemplate what they might ever do. They might be powerful if they gave it a try-------
1
Many commenters have mentioned population growth as a contributing factor. Please show the population pyramids for Nigeria, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia. They are among the fastest growing places in the world. You print articles about population shrinkage in some countries, but you won't touch population growth. It has become taboo. Perhaps some day climate change will become a taboo subject too, despite its obvious impacts.
3
The New York Times should be doing articles like this frequently. Compare the starving to the obese chronically overweight Americans who are smorgas-bored.
Today is the day you do something about I. Some professional theater artists are connected to life & strife. Playwright Dr Larry Myers of St John s University spent the summer writing about tent city folks in San Francisco. Now is the time to volunteer at soup kitchens or shelters. The service learning program at St John s U is admirably compelling. Myers instituted this strategy with a theater program at the old St J across from the WTC. His Playwrights Sanctuary continues this work. People must feed their spirituality & others not just satisfy their appetites. Blessed are the pure in Spirit for they shall see God.
I hate when people complain about the amount of something that goes to waste (as if the fact that capitalism produces a surplus of goods is a bad thing), or when socialists say, "In the richest country in the world, we don't even provide X." Socialists criticizing the absence of something "in the richest country in the world" is ironic. They missed the fact that the United States became the world's richest country by doing the opposite of what socialists would have us do. If we'd have adhered to their principles, we'd never have been rich in the first place.
That many go hungry should show us just how valuable political stability and efficient economic organization are. We should understand that what happened in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries did not have a preordained outcome, and that the similar conflicts across much of the Muslim world also do not have preordained "progress" at the end. Let's help shape outcomes.
We need to be clear-eyed when we intervene, but listening to Andrew Bacevich, much less Glenn Greenwald, would make the world hell. We can work to lessen hunger by helping to build up regional allies and promoting human and political rights, open markets and the rule of law. In the absence of leadership by a superpower with our values, this problem will get worse. Just because we cannot solve ALL religious and tribal conflict, doesn't mean we can't solve ANY conflict.
Regional orgs and alliances must function when the UN fails, as it often does.
2
The best birth control program, which also improves the educational achievement and health of the next generation, is education of girls and women. Given access to knowledge, women make informed decisions that benefit them and their families.
7
And as the diplomats,and their diverse staffs, from the many " have-in-access- nations, "in their embassies and consulates throughout the world " look," study, learn and report back to... in our dehumanizing, violating,hunger-promoting, nutrition-flawing, WE-THEY world, two innovative efforts might be considered."Extra"-warehoused, nutritious foods could be sent in "political pouches" to their official sites. These contributions would be distributed by a staff-nutrition-Well-Being-officer (NUWBO), in cooperation with relevant local NGOs, in order to minimize institutionalized hunger.Sights of malnutrition, described by words and images, transmuted into sites for levels and qualities of health, promoting mutual help, trust, respect and caring.Political mantras by, and of, the well fed and sated becoming actualized menschlichkeit.This editorial, clear and well written, and much needed, could have reminded the readers that in addition to a range of known,and perhaps unknown, policy makers who are responsible in various ways for both the dimensions of this complex problem,and its range of effective intervention options, are those of us who have chosen, willfully, to be blind, deaf and ignorant.WE, privileged to "fast" to detoxify our systems.To actively partake of a religious holiday.Our "hunger" is a temporary choice. "Theirs"...?
Birth control now, birth control forever, freely available and enshrined as a human right.
8
But the republicans say no.
We can all do a little something about this. We can help by sending whatever donation we can afford to effective relief organizations like CARE, Oxfam America, or the UN's World Food Program, to name a few. There are many more that efficiently deliver emergency food supplies to the suffering around the world.
2
fandrle: "There are many more that efficiently deliver emergency food supplies to the suffering around the world."
That's OK for emergencies, but you are wasting your money if you are sending it to "relief organizations" for use where there are chronic exogenous problems, such as warfare or drought. You can't fix those problems with food donations. Read the UN report:
"Conflict negatively affects almost every aspect of agriculture and food systems, from production, harvesting, processing and transport to input supply, financing and marketing."
"Problems of acute food insecurity and malnutrition tend to be magnified where natural hazards such as droughts and floods compound the consequence of conflicts."
World Hunger causes mainly wars, droughts, inequality. Where is coverage of Bernie Sanders speech yesterday. It was an amazing speech on foreign policy, inspiring, hopeful, and could be done. Not over night but you have to start somewhere. Just like healthcare, medicare for all should pass as we've been doing nothing for 40 years and finally got ACA and they want it done with another for profit medical industrial complex profits over people
2
World Hunger Haunts the U.N. Festivities As Celebrities and Other 'Big Men' Eat a Lavish Dinner That Could Feed Hundreeds
2
September 22, 2017
The nutrition of humanity is the first order of advancing / evolutionary / systematic in term of what must be a common minimum guarantee for the growth of the body, mind, and collective world contributions to what is now our interconnected earth, Let's have app and strategic safeguards for the delivery of the basics for 'our' human universal rights, all in the name of a sane and compassionate world that will produce contributors to common good, and indeed the intellectual / arts, and the purity of what is the penultimate web of being smart and generosity living gracefully and worthy in the name civilized to harmony benevolence. We are taking the Editorial to this apotheoses for the words will conquer any and all quest when in great faith and l...e!
JJA Manhattan, N. Y. Planet Earth
2
I saw no mention of birth control.
8
The Christians don't like birth control. It encourages sin.
I wonder if the editors can see the relationship between the rising number of starving Children and the number of bloated billion and millionaires .
2
There is, indeed, plenty of food. In UN speak, the problem would be called something like a “governance deficit.”
5
While we are waiting for the poor to get their act together, citizens in the United States can begin starting right now, today, to slow down climate change, groundwater depletion, loss of soil nutrients, algal blooms, coral bleaching, ocean acidification.....
Eat less food that is derived from animals. The average American eats about 190 lbs of beef, pork and chicken per year, which is 3.7 lbs per week. That's a huge amount of meat, with a huge environmental footprint. Going meatless on Mondays, or some other day of the week, is not nearly enough. Beef is the most resource-intensive animal product. Given climate change and other threats to our life-support system, limiting consumption of beef to once a month, once a year, or not at all is a reasonable thing to do. Pork and chicken consumption is also hugely resource-intensive. Replace meatless Mondays with meat on Mondays or meat on nonedays.
Park the car, permanently if at all possible. Recognize that it is impossible to build a 2500 square foot house can never be environmentally-friendly, no matter how many high-tech gadgets or solar panels it features.
Neither politicians nor corporate heads are stupid. If we want better zoning, better transit, higher fuel economy, fewer chemicals, more sustainable agriculture, and help for the world's hungry, then we must act like we do. Anything else is just talk.
5
Allow me to address the elephant in the room--- The 3rd world keeps having babies! If there is continued world hunger- Certainly we can blame the GOP for eliminating family planning funds for lesser developed nations- but we may also blame their corrupt leaders who have billions in their personal coffers and refuse to invest in their own countries. Is it just me or has this problem been around my entire life? President Trump's speeches may be an affront to the United Nations- but at least he's making noise for change and reform - what we have now isn't working.
7
Aaron, I would add to your comment that the "great" religions of the world are a leading contributor to the mess of over-population. That includes the "leaders" in the countries themselves; it includes the evangelical Christians in this nation who refuse to fund birth control let alone abortion, for these women who are often quite desperate to NOT have more babies.
2
But the republicans don't like birth control. Cuts in funding didn't help.
So, what's the solution? Feed them and they multiply so that there are even more hungry. As the population continues to expand, the capacity to feed 10 billion is dubious.
8
Actually, instead of sniping and hurting, you could support empowering women.
Empowering women, making access to birth control easy and cheap or free, and removing obstacles to their getting jobs, has been demonstrated to reduce population.
As long as men want their women hidden and subordinate, they will go on taking all the money and all too often blowing it on drink and paid sex, while their chattel women are kept down.
The US Republicans are criminally complicit in this degradation of women as they remove any foreign aid if it supports family planning other than abstinence. Bristol Palin is so typical: do as I say, not as I do.
Even the Pope had to give in when the men were bringing home venereal diseases and their wives needed protection.
16
"They" are human beings, just like you and me. Dismissing these humans as "they" is part of the problem. And the argument that feeding "them" will only make more of "them" is appalling.
Hunger is a political issue (Irish Potato Famine) and weapon of war. To stand on the sidelines and allow this to happen is wrong. Freedom Fry below has a great idea and there are many fine organizations who work to combat hunger both religious and secular.
We have the technology to feed 10 billion, unless of course our climate is altered so drastically that we can't keep up with the genetic engineering.
What the planet suffers from is an overpopulation of consumers. That's you and me. Hungry people are not ruining the planet with their hunger, the countries of plenty in the developed world are.
4
The world cannot employ 6 billion people. Yours is a false argument.
1
Almost all the areas with high malnutrition have explosively high birth rates. Republicans need to stop opposing international family planning funding.
24
It Will only get worse unless the US government wants to pay farmers to grow food for Africa.
Missing from this article is a discussion about birth control.
If we keep adding people to the planet, it will only mean the problems with hunger and specie extinction will increase.
Too many humans on the planet.
15
Republicans say no.
Posturing and brinksmanship lead to war.
War leads to famine.
Before we go thumping our chests at yet another adversary,
let's pause to consider the weight of all the displacement,
all the hunger, and all the death
such posturing can lead to.
With the crazy natural disasters befalling so many,
and most of them made worse by our failure to address climate change,
let's demand that our 'leaders' demonstrate true leadership:
Heal the sick,
feed the hungry,
shelter the homeless,
and stop the killing.
6
Americans recognize that their almost all of their presidents have been flawed. Thus for example, although Barack Obama did many things right, he seems to have had a blind spot of the most serious issue now confronting humanity---population growth.
We have been warned repeatedly. By Sir Thomas Malthus in 1798, By the excellent book, "Limits to Growth" of 1972 by Meadows, Meadows and Sanders.
This latter book described several mathematical models for the future development of resources on planet earth. Of course, detailed predictions are impossible, there are too many random events. But many models were proposed that suggested the nature of the overpopulation problem. Thus for example, among the scenarios were ones in which pollution destroyed planet earth over time.
A particularly important insight was that choosing to have a child now affects uses of resources for 70-80 years into the future. This makes possible a feedback mechanism in which population undergoes "overshoot and collapse."
I don't believe that the book by Meadows et al. explicitly singled out global warming, but the melting of the polar caps is quite consistent with the overall picture they presented.
We need a world-wide policy similar to the one-child policy of China, enacted by Chinese leaders in 1979 in response to "Limits to Growth."
Unfortunately, Obama's Vice President Joe Biden called China's one-child policy "repugnant" is a visit to China, offending his hosts.
Will America ever wake up?
9
Ah, let's go on blaming victims and enabling perpetrators. Granted, the issues people have with being told what to do, particularly when it comes to falling in loving and doing what humans have always done, wanting children, is fraught. The government of China knows that. People who can afford to bypass that law in China do so. Victims who lost children in their disasters struggle with grief over their only child, and the competitiveness is stifling.
Obama did what was in his power to help women make their own decisions. Biden does trip over his tongue, but there is nothing in his actions that comes close to the awfulness of Republican criminalization of poverty and bans on birth control and education. It seems the rights of a fetus end at birth and the baby's mother doesn't need support and access to birth control.
5
The Brazil feature was excellent. It carefully pointed out that selling the non-foods also is the ONLY source of income for a lot of the people expanding sales of the very foods that create obesity with malnutrition. The companies that came in for criticism are also of the only ones who recognize the humanity of their neighborhood sellers.
Can everyone remember how the "eco friendly" regulations requiring ethanol to be added to gas led to growing corn for ethanol, which led to higher prices and making a staple food - corn - too expensive for the low income people who relied on it?
How can the world's nations come to some rational approach to world hunger when every discussion is painted in political rhetoric, blaming and denial? When, the US a socalled leader, doesn't even have uniform NATIONAL policies to protect our own vital resources - including those which will be necessary for future food production?
World hunger is not going to be reduced drastically by charity and food giveaways. It will always accompany war, and droughts or flooding, all of which are going to be worse because of the effects of global warming. We are wreaking havoc in the oceans, basically because we refuse to pay an appropriate price for the materials we use and discard. Aside from mourning for the great variety of life that will die off, we also lose a major food supply.
10
In the early 1980s I heard Linus Pauling point out that nutrition was the most important issue globally.
1
"But the United Nations is larger than any of its members"
This is a powerful statement. It's a warning to arrogant Americans who are often under the illusory belief that the entire world relies on America's largesse. No country on this planet is an island. What surprises me today is the notion-strongly held by those currently in power-that the U.S.A., without the rest of world, would command the power that it now exerts on the world stage.
12
If the UN is really worried about climate change wouldn't a good first step be to shrink their own carbon foot print which has grown to the size of King Kong's behind? After 70 years, the United Nations has become a vast, sprawling conglomerate, overwhelmed by a frozen bureaucracy, inadequate leaders, and plain reality. Characterized by speeches, meetings, reports, resolutions, and endless ways to spend money that does nothing. Their current budget is 5.4 billion dollars. Cut it half and use 2.7 billion dollars to feed those who are starving? That would be a good start. I can't imagine why anyone at the UN would oppose that. Sure some diplomatic staff would have to be cut. But we can get by can't we? I can. Oh yeah a cacophony of white papers that no one ever sees, reads, or listens to....gone forever. We can definitely get by without that... right? Gee they might have to take the subway instead of a chauffeured driven limousine. But that's Ok...it's good to mingle with the people who's will on earth you purport to represent. Oh one last thing...no more lunches and dinners at Per Se...you'll be brown bagging it. Sacrifice builds strong character. One last thing. Kick out all the corrupt countries that are robbing their people night and day. Make an example of them. Estimates are that “corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion, cost developing countries US $1.26 trillion per year. You could feed all the world's starving people with that amount. Priorities.
8
Tu quoque logical fallacy: "tu quoque is the appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the opponent's argument by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion(s)."
Former U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Brown stated to the NYT, “There’s a huge redundancy and lack of efficiency” in the U.N. system, and the budget is “utterly opaque, untransparent and completely in shadow.”
These problems waste resources and undermine the U.N.’s ability to discharge its responsibilities. The past 60 years have seen many initiatives from governments, aimed at reforming the U.N. These reform efforts have failed due to majority opposition from U.N. member states. Indeed, the U.S. always finds itself on the losing side in U.N. votes when it proposes reforms to improve U.N. management, and accountability.
This happens because the bulk of the U.N. member states simply do not pay enough to the U.N. for inefficiency, waste, or corruption to trouble them. For instance, Sierra Leone is assessed 0.001 percent of the U.N.’s regular budget and 0.0001 percent of the peacekeeping budget. In contrast, the U.S. is assessed 22 percent and 27.1 percent, respectively. Therefore, while Sierra Leone and the dozens of other countries with the same assessments pay less than $35,000 per year to these budgets, the U.S. pays billions. With this in mind, is it surprising that the U.S. cares about how the U.N. is managed and how the funding is used, while most countries do not? Ending waste in the UN would leave plenty of money to feed the hungry. It's unconscionable that they wave the finger at us but will do nothing to get their own house in order given what is at stake.
1
“There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry,”
"Where's the money honey?"
Food without money to pay for it or means to transport it...is fertilizer.
10
You don't need to transport food that people are allowed to grow locally. Of course you can't grow food if you don't have access to land or own your land.
I think that part of your problem with comprehending the issue is that you can't imagine that agriculture can be self sufficient. Cant you think for instance of what Monsanto infertile seeds are doing to the world's food supply? People in poorer countries have been brainwashed that modernity is good, so farmers, for instance in India, have been buying those seeds. Usually, some of the seeds from one year's harvest are stored and used to plant the next harvest. So with infertile seeds, money is needed every year to keep going, so many things (droughts, floods, etc) can break the cycle. India comes to mind as an example because there is a spate of suicides among Indian farmers....
So I suspect that deep down you believe that food is grown in supermarkets instead than on the land.....
5
Times quoting UN report: '“There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry,” ...'
If that is true, there must a lot of "food" that disappears. Indeed, there must be "food" for 815 million people that disappears. Where does it all go?
2017-09-22 12:34:03 UTC
4
As the article points out, armed conflict drives frightened people from their land, leading to ruined crops and dead animals.
See, also, e.g.
" “People are hungry because they... haven’t been able to cultivate their fields. Even next season I think we will feel the effects because this is the time to plant and we aren’t able to"
https://insight.wfp.org/kasai-dr-congo-a-lethal-brew-of-conflict-and-hun...
3
How much food do you throw away in one day?
1
We waste food. The New York Times published an article with a chart where 25% of food produce in our home is binned on an annual basis. If we are less careless and more responsible there are ways in which even spoiled vegetables and fruit can be used.
1
Humanity has to transform its thinking about its monetary and financial systems to cope with the ever increasing interconnecting threats of world hunger, a looming climate catastrophe, and soil degradation, deforestation.
Such transformed thinking as presented in Verhagen 2012 "The Tierra Solution: Resolving the climate crisis through monetary transformation" (www.timun.net) can at least be entertained as a thought experiment and be compared with the conceptual, institutional, ethical and strategic dimensions of the present unjust, unsustainable and, therefore, unstable international monetary system. Observed Bill McKibben on May 17, 2011 about the changing climate which is a very substantial reason for world hunger: “The further into the global warming area we go, the more physics and politics narrows our possible paths of action. Here’s a very cogent and well-argued account of one of the remaining possibilities.”
3
GLOBAL HUNGER Is going to drive the increase in refugees worldwide, along with more emerging conflicts and great human suffering. Trump is doing precisely the opposite of what is needed to help suffering humanity with his mindless, ignorant blabbering about other countries paying their fair share. He has an atrocious history as an entrepreneur--dishonest, cheating, violating contracts, abusing employees, consultants, contractors, suppliers--just about anyone he can. Why would anybody listen to a businessman who's such an abysmal failure? Trump is contributing to just about all global problems in historic proportions. He is undoubtedly one of the most destructive world leaders around, if not the worst overall.
5
Birth control.
As the developing world's populations explode there is more conflict over resources. Climate change exacerbates these conflicts causing more geopolitical instability. Massive migration from war torn and impoverished countries of desperate young men(mostly) to the developed world activate cultural anxiety and foment fascist tinged movements.
Better access in these ravished countries to food, education, health care and BIRTH CONTROL are essential to save the planet for all of us.
37
....but but Trump just cut off programs that provided contraceptives and medical care to women in poor countries. Why are all those comments bemoaning overpopulation not mentioning this?
Also, contraception is closely linked to women's rights. Stats and studies show that when women get rights over their own bodies, then usually chose to give birth to fewer children, and those children end up getting much better fed. Remember that most of the world's human population consists in children who wont make it to adulthood.
As for using resources, please get your calculator out and figure out how much an undernourished child consumes compared to a regular diet of a person or child in a wealthy country.... Oh and also look at where the abundance enjoyed by our fellow Americans (although not even a basic survival amount distributed to a large group of the overall population) compares to the lack of food for so many other people. All the famines in the world could be eased with just the food we throw away in our country....
And please please, look up the USDA stats. Millions in the US also suffer from what is euphemistically called "food insecurity".
We are all in this together and no "holier than thou" stance can help.
4
To control population growth, prevention of unplanned births must take on the highest priority. Sterilization of men and women, both voluntary and under certain conditions involuntary must become the norm. Before and after pills and patches must become the norm. As a last resort, abortion must be considered where it is proven the additions to the population will become an endangerment to the planet and human survival on it.
1
I am for Zero Population Growth, and agree that overpopulation triggers conflicts and even civil or bilateral wars (over access to the water in a river for instance). Yet the immediate cause for starvation is war motivated by greed rather than survival, and hence started by the ruling class instead of the starving masses. That's why today's starvation is so sad.
Given the constant violence, poverty and hunger in the world, we (as united nations) must remain very humble about our achievements, a grain of salt in a sea of mal-distribution and ill-use of our energy and resources (i.e. the free availability of weapons, so we can kill each other more effective and efficiently than ever before). The road to justice is fraught with danger, is arduous and even painful, but it must be taken, so that solidarity triumphs... eventually. Having a thorn in our midst, a vengeful big-mouth demagogue seeking glory out of other's suffering, is shameful and contrary to basic decency, an institutionalized violence kept alive by a complicit republican party. Can't we recognize that strength in numbers translates in good deeds to raise all boats? The United Nations' self-congratulatory salvos seem premature and, possibly, grossly exaggerated.
1
815 million hungry people is about 11% of the world population. The hunger is not caused by food shortages, but by the economics of global food distribution.
This point is ignored by the armchair thinkers and strategists,
2
"The hunger is not caused by food shortages, but by the economics of global food distribution."
You have a point. Somebody has to pay to transport all that allegedly surplus food.
However, the UN report is not quite as simplistic as that one quote about there being "more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone" suggests.
The report refers to economics and agriculture throughout. For example:
"On average, 56 percent of the population in countries affected by conflict live in rural areas, where livelihoods largely depend on agriculture. Conflict negatively affects almost every aspect of agriculture and food systems, from production, harvesting, processing and transport to input supply, financing and marketing."
Tip: Do text searches in the report for "econ" and "agric" to find more quotes.
1
Nor are you looking at that 800 million multiplying to 2 to 4 billion more in 10 years.
2
If each one who eats correctly does something to help one undernourished person, there is no more hunger.
This I can do.
6
Thank you for presenting a Solution!
I can do also.
1
Perhaps the most significantly good thing the Trump administration has done is pledge $1.8 billion in aid to stem this crisis. I applaud the NYT for bringing attention to this, but criticizing Trump in this context is entirely misleading.
4
Ironically, the biggest fear of the planet is actually human and there are too many of them! We are dealing with a biological problem but not a moral issue. The decline of western civilization is inevitable because the fear and appreciation of mother nature is long gone. Westerners think they are conquerer of nature and they think they are above nature. They think "God" created everything else to serve them. They talk about morality and humanity instead of mother nature and human nature.
I see problems through the lens of human evolution and biology. If you put two rats in a small cage, they will fight to death. It is merely a biological instinct. It is just absurd to say the world has enough food. Industrialized farming is not sustainable and the abundance of food is not evenly distributed and it will never be. Most importantly, it comes with a huge and hidden cost.
Everything we are facing today has its biological root. If we still think otherwise, we are doomed. The number one thing which UN should focus is population control. Similarly, US should reduce immigration and population. No, I am not the last person in line. I just love this country and I am very concerned!
10
So why did your president do away with funding at least in part NGO that provide contraceptives and health care to so many people on the ground that they might or some individual in them mentioned the possibility of abortion?
And what about the imposition of abstinence only and the spreading of false information to school children?
If you're that concerned, then educate yourself as to what is actually happening. Look up stats from for instance the Guttmacher Institute and WHO and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others. That information is at your finger tips.
Some of those foundations and some countries (for instance the Netherlands) are trying to make up for the decimation of programs by Trump but all together they cant match the former amount of the US contribution.
4
Needed: "a fresh look at hunger"?
No 'looking' is necessary. Africa is riddled with tribal wars where famine is the byproduct. No, not more looking!
Pointing fingers at big corporations and climate change is a distraction. Calling for more funding to 'look' again at what has already been seen is a distraction, both from the problem, and the legitimate question of: What can/has the UN done about this already identified problem.
How can the civilized world thwart corrupt African despots, and their armed rivals, who purposely disrupt agricultural production and food distribution.
6
Third World hunger results from distribution schemes - logistics - plagued by bureaucracy, political corruption, and organized crime at every level from the national capital to city neighborhoods to rural hamlets. There is a global food surplus.
2
I certainly appreciate the NY Times highlighting this very important problem, which is only going to get worse with time. But, I take exception to your headline. I saw nothing festive about what is going on at the UN this past week. Somber and depressing would be more apt, as Trump threatens to annihilate an Asian population of 73 million people (North and South)and to tear up an agreement that has stopped Iran's nuclear program, while threatening financial support to the UN through which we might address the food problem. It is sad when you have to question the sanity of your country's own leadership.
6
Universal healthcare does not do much good if so many are perpetually hungry or wasting. This is humanity's most important crisis.
1
Humanities' crisis is that there is too much humanity.
5
Didn't the Pope proclaim the 2 biggest issues are the loneliness of elders & the confusion of troubled youth?
what about hungry, poor, starving young ones and elders?
In an opulent over civilized world people are hungry--for love, nutrition, hope, dreams, attention.......we who comprehend must feed our souls to sustain ourselves to be able to help those lacking resources. We are all desperate, we are all prisoners of war now We are all John McCain.
1
Our policies contribute to world hunger. We should be ashamed of ourselves. The UN is great at identifying issues but they need to call out those who are responsible for the issue rather than being politically correct.
3
The most obvious solution to this problem is to demand more strict population control. Poor people, with high birth rates, lead to hunger, more climate change and mass migration. It's time for the developed countries to require reductions in population growth as a condition to mitigating climate change.
16
Ray: "It's time for the developed countries to require reductions in population growth as a condition to mitigating climate change."
How exactly are "developed countries" going to "require reductions in population growth"? Would you go so far as to "require" enforced sterilizations and abortions?
Please clarify your proposal.
1
... but Trump just cut off funds for non profit organizations that provide contraceptives along with medical care to women in poor countries because they might or one individual working for them might raise the possibility of abortion.
Why isn't that on your radar?
2
Trump gave 3 reasons for cutting foreign aid: (1) he didn't think the money given reflected particularly well on the US; (2) he didn't think the taxpayers supported it; and (3) Congress had not passed an authorization bill in 30 years.
The Board discusses the issue without even mentioning Trump's statements. Apparently, the Board has effectively impeached Trump in discussing the issues. Myself, I'd rather know what Trump has said. Crazy me.
9
The Times has been criticized for keeping their high-beams on Trump's failings; In this case, I think they were right to emphasize the world nature of the problems.
Frankly, I can despise DJT, but he isn't the cause, nor is he the only - not even the main - obstacle to seeking cooperative solutions. He is unfortunately a reflection of the most selfish human instincts, and the desire to turn away from eternal problems.
2
Secretary Clinton spearheaded a major effort to focus U.S. foreign aid resources on food insecurity. I suppose Trump will dismantle that, regardless of the cost in lives and lost productivity, in his effort to erase the legacy of the Obama Administration.
2
It’s true that while the U.N.’s founding mission of facilitating global peace has been about as monumental a failure as any in history, it does immense good work through its agencies at minimizing hunger, disease and complete desperation in vulnerable populations. President Trump should have highlighted these contributions in his U.N. speech as well as the failures.
1
We are born World Citizens first. WorldCare should ensure basic Human Rights for all Individuals. I am not sure why The World Court is not enforcing what they are supposed to be enforcing. ---- I will also say, New Products are entering the Market, where does food come from... chicken or the egg, or both at once? I say both at once. The people who created World Hunger do not say both at once. Of course these people do not have much Higher Education either. Their Resume Education credentials are poor. ---- I am waiting for the day, when these poorly educated people are not allowed to have such "Leader" jobs.
"first feed the faced and then talk right and wrong" admonishes the poet bertlot brecht, as miple ntion, an easy lession, and yet...and yet..."the leaders of the world posture and sermonize for the United Nations General Assembly," performing, as it were for their hors d'oeuvres and wine.
while there may some legitimate problems getting a practical handle on some of the worlds' problems, climate change and civil conflict for examples (obvious ills wrapped in a tangles of special interest) hunger is way easier to unwind, a form of torture, it is alleviated immediately by food...and, as difficult as the effort to feed the hungry may be it is not complicated.
the food exists and the united nations (living up to the aspirations that created it) should be the ideal vehicle for establishing centers, as many as it takes, whether in stadiums or side streets, as well protected, by armed troops if need be, as necessary to ensure proper distribution of food and whatever else is required to prevent "food deprivation 'being used as a weapon of war...'"
bravery and resolve are the elements of any approach to solution, but even though the numbers of the hungry are great, the 85-90 percent of the world population that has enough to eat can surely
do what it takes to relieve the 10-15 percent who do not.
no excuses.
An inhumane euphemism like "food insecure" for the 815 million human beings who are malnourished or starving is part of the problem. Along with the notion that humble humane empathetic food and financial aid is the effective world norm.
For decades about 1% of America's annual federal budget has gone to foreign aid with the current amount equal to nearly $40 billion. But since the end of World War II Israel has been the number one recipient of American aid and that aid has been arms not food. Israel is not "food insecure". America also arms Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thus there is no surprise that 489 million of the 815 million "food insecure" are negatively directly impacted by war. America's basic role in fomenting and inflaming those conflicts from Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Gaza, Nigeria and Yemen is calculated callous clear and cynical.
Yet war is a relatively lesser problem regarding the amplification of "food insecurity" than the fact that a billion humans lack access to clean fresh drinking water and another billion do not have access to sanitary storm and sewer disposal on top of climate change. The largest democracy on Earth India is "food insecure" from factors other than war.
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... and you might add that even in the US there are millions of folks suffering from "food insecurity". Just look up the stats of the USDA....
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This deserves to be front page news. It's the kind of thing first world leaders and their electorates should be focused on. There's no easy fix for trouble spots like Yemen, but we should be trying more than we are now to address the problem. Other examples of global poverty don't face the same challenges. All that's needed is a commitment from those in wealthy first world countries to do something about it.
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I believe one of the main drivers of this increase in global conflict and hunger is related to oil. Countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Syria were once oil exporters. The wealth that oil provided caused their populations to explode, leading to increased domestic use. As the finite amount of oil declined, they turned into oil importers which caused devastating economic effects and conflict. Egypt, with over 80 million people, is running out of hard currency to pay for all the food it imports. Other countries such as Venezuela, Sudan, Nigeria, even Saudi Arabia, have been impacted in the last few years by the steep drop in oil prices.
A society built on producing a finite resource is destined to fail. The situation in the Mideast will only get worse, and we need to resign ourselves to the fact that many of these countries will be permanent charity cases, dependent on the world for food.
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Food insecurity is one of the most prescient issues of our times. It impacts lives in every community around the world, from hungry college students burdened with education debt to homeless children and families, to climate refugees to war refugees and beyond. Food insecurity is a core threat to individual, national and global security which demands action at every level. Every one of us should and can do something about this, starting with mindfulness about our food consumption and an awareness that, as global citizens, food insecurity is and will continue to impact our lives for years to come.
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The top 1 % people and corporations worldwide should give back in order to eradicate poverty world wide. This would lead to a successful ongoing worldwide economic stimulus.
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I already do ... my tax bill is in the six figures.... and my philanthropy is in the five figures.... how about you
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This otherwise fine article leaves out the elephant sitting on the UN couch: human overpopulation and the health consequences world-wide of adding 212,000 net new humans to our already over-crowded earth daily. I'm a retired physician who has discovered a neuro-endocrine population regulation mechanism operating in all of us today. I call it "population density stress" and the over-active stress response is producing high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in crowded urban and suburban population, which, by the way, is why so many of us are obese and diabetic. I have traced the root cause of ALL human "diseases of civilization" to this mechanism and I'm not the first to call it a population "density-stat". The Gates Foundation and the UN can spend trillions curing our ill health, but until they focus equally on overpopulation, our health problems and other forms of Malthus' "misery and vice" will continue to grow. A world-wide "One child-family" movement is the only way to save our species and the earth. The infertility rate in the US has increased 100% in 34 years: 8% in 1982, but 16.7% in 2016. Nature will continue turning down our reproduction in crowded populations, unless we choose to limit ourselves voluntarily. All of our climate change catastrophes result from human overpopulation as well, if we're honest with ourselves.
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I hope you conveyed this information to Trump to stop him from defunding programs that help provide contraceptives in poorer countries and at the same time provide medical care?
I you didn't, then your words are just that, words.
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Dr. Miklashek,
Humans are like rats in some ways and not in others. In particular, rich and flexible symbolic language is a uniquely human adaptation. It allows us to dynamically modify our behavior, using information obtained from anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time since the introduction of writing.
As a consequence, the global total fertility rate (number of children the average women bears in her life) has declined from a high of 5 in 1964 to 2.5 in 2015. That's not far from the replacement TFR of 2.3 (accounting for pre-menopausal female mortality), below which global population will eventually decline. The steep drop in fertility, in some cases well in advance of the prosperity effect, is widely attributed to improved female education and greater female empowerment overall.
In 2015 the US TFR was 1.8. It's lower for native born women than for immigrants, although fertility rates for US immigrant families have been found to decrease sharply in the second generation, correlating with improved education as well as higher income. Regardless, the current combined US TFR, while greater than 1, is well below national replacement rate.
To be sure, a growing population places stresses on cultural as well as natural environments, on any geographic scale. OTOH, as per-capita consumption increases, even a shrinking population will exacerbate those stresses. Global humanity's biggest challenge isn't a growing population now, but growing prosperity.
What more is there to say?
'“There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry,” the United Nations food agency summarized plaintively.'
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"What more is there to say?"
A lot more could be said about where all that allegedly disappearing food actually goes.
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The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's report on hunger in the world should not only be an eye-opener to the world leaders, policy planners and the common folk alike but should be enough to stir the conscience of the humanity in general. Isn't it an irony that on the one hand the tall claims of record food production are being made, the hungry millions are forced to sleep empty stomach. Ideally, the kind of war that was to be waged against hunger in the world is in reality being fought to deprive and displace the millions of innocents struggling hard to survive. It's time the world looks at the problem of hunger with attention it deserves, and swings into action to mitigate the menace.
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I read the UN report. There are two ways to measure under nutrition in population based studies.
Stunting (low height for age) measures chronic under nutrition.
Wasting (low weight for height) measures more acute hunger.
Stunting declined globally according to the report.
The report mentioned the percentage of wasting in 2016, but did not mentioned if this was an increase or a decline.
The biggest increase was in obesity in children and adults. This is obviously not a food access issue. It is an issue of over nutrition...too much food.
Measuring "food insecurity" is not the proper way to measure actual "hunger."
Anemia is a global problem worldwide (including developed countries) for women of childbearing age. Iron supplements can alleviate this.
So, overall, this report indicates that under nutrition is declining globally.
That is good news!
Obesity is now the real global problem.
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Jackie: "The report mentioned the percentage of wasting in 2016, but did not mentioned if this was an increase or a decline."
Good point. That inattention to detail is why the UN has its critics.
However, the report does say:
"Across the whole of Uganda, childhood wasting declined by almost one-third and the percentage of the country’s population living below the poverty line declined by over 10 percent between 2005 and 2012."
That is followed by a vague explanation for the decline in Uganda.
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How can we in the West live without shame when our government wastes our money in military build-ups and war?
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One argument that the left never bothers to address is that we live at all in a highly destabilized world that would prey upon us if we allowed them to ... BECAUSE of those military build-ups; and wars that affect us materially are kept managed and relatively few by those same investments.
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Did it ever occur to you that it IS those military build-ups that are the cause of destabilization? Man made climate change will destabilize the world in ways we've never seen before. Developing more efficient mean of decimation will make for even more chaos, until this world is a virtual hell, which it already is for vast swaths of humanity.
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Ann: "... our government wastes our money in military build-ups and war ..."
If you want to debate the amount that should be spent on national defense that would be fine, but the US Constitution specifically calls for the US government to "provide for the common defence".
And more to the point of the editorial, money that is spent on "hunger" relief is a waste if there is no plan to address the underlying causes of "hunger".
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