Transcript Myths about World Hunger

Myths about World Hunger
Food First
Myth
The Free Market will end Hunger
Free Market
• Free Market responds to
money not people
• As poor get poorer and are
pushed from land, they
have even less impact on
markets
• Their needs for food do
not register
• The market responds to
the needs of the wealthy to
produce luxury goods
The Market
• Is blind to social and
environmental costs
• Example: U.S. Ag export boom
– Loss of small farmers, rural
communities
– Soil erosion
– Aquifer depletion
– Ground water contamination
– Fossil Fuel waste, global
warming
Concentration of Wealth
• The Market leads to a
concentration of
economic power
• Those with greater
economic power
gobble up those with
less
• Food flows from the
hungry to the well fed
Inequity
Reward for Hard Work?
• Theory:
– Market rewards hard work
• Reality:
Donald Trump
– Market requires hard work and
production
– Market rewards those who have
wealth
– Wealthy can withstand market swings
– Wealthy have better access to credit
(better risk)
– Wealthy can invest in more land to
offset low grain prices
Distribution of Purchasing Power
• “The more widely
dispersed purchasing
power is,
• the more the market will
respond to actual human
preferences and needs
• and the more power the
market will have to end
hunger”
– Food First
Structural Adjustment Loans
• Loans given in 1980s-90s by
World Bank
International Monetary Fund
(IMF), World Bank
• Condition of loans = Structural
Adjustment Rules imposed on
governments
• Aimed to make developing
countries efficient, competitive
• Involved deregulation,
privatization of state institutions,
removal of trade barriers
Effect of Structural Adjustment
• Benefits of institutions and
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resources transferred from
public to private business
Gap between rich and poor
widened as economic power
concentrated
Poverty and hunger escalated
Free market increased import
of luxury goods
Cheap imported grain drove
local farmers out of business
Costa Rica
• After a decade of
Structural Adjustment:
– Trade deficit rose 100%
– 76,800 cars entered
country in 3 years
– 42,000 farmers growing
corn, beans and rice
staples went out of
business
Costa Rica Market
Need Government and Market
• Government and Market
must work together to end
hunger
• Market by itself will lead to
concentration of wealth,
increased hunger
• Government by itself
without market leads to
inefficiency, lack of
motivation, low production
Soviet Russia
Role for Government
• Government policies can
help to spread the wealth
and means of wealth so
that the market can serve
more people
• Government can help
insure that people have the
means to support
themselves and thus eat
Myth
The poor cannot help themselves
-- Too ignorant and oppressed
The poor are resourceful
• The poor
Zimbabwe land redistribution rally
– have to be very resourceful
even to survive
– Often see problems we are
blind to
– Have led successful
movements for change
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Africa
• India
Mexico
• 1994 Zapista Uprising
• Demands:
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Work
Land
A Roof
Food
Health
Education
Independence
Liberty
Democracy
Justice
Peace
Brazil
• 1985 Landless
Brazil Landless Protest, 2001
Movement
• 150,000 landless
families occupied 21
million hectares idle
farmland
• Evicted by
paramilitary gunmen,
police, army
Africa
• 1994 African Women’s
Economic Policy
Network
• Promote education
• Fight for poor
• Political voice for
women
India
• 1992 Uprising against
Cargill, KFC
• Vandalism against
crops, buildings
• Non-violent action
against institutions
that pose a threat to
their way of life and
environment
Remove Roadblocks
• Suggestion:
– Instead of “fixing”
things for the poor
– we should work to
remove roadblocks to
their progress through
social reform
Myth
We benefit from their hunger
Sacrifice our Standard of living?
• Low wages mean we
can import coffee,
bananas, computers,
clothes, etc.
• Would we have to
sacrifice our standard
of living to reduce
hunger in the world?
Injustice everywhere
• Our interests are the
same as the poor and
oppressed
• If we allow low wages
and injustice
elsewhere, it will
happen in the U.S. too
Low Wages and Injustice
• In the U.S. too
– Loss of jobs to low
wage third world
countries
– More part time jobs
without benefits
– Contracting with third
world sweat shops to
produce goods
(example: Nike)
We are all in the same boat
• People everywhere face similar
challenges
• Our society is tied to that of others
• Our security and well-being
depend on security and well-being
of others
• Can the world go on tolerating
hunger, poverty, exploitation and
discrimination?
Compassion
• Compassion, not pity required
• We do not have to do for the
poor, but work side by side with
the poor
• Goals and values same
– Fairness
– Protection of innocent lives
– Accountability of decision
makers
– Opportunity for all
– Security and stability
Jimmy Carter, Habitat
for Humanity
Myth
• Radical changes in the
world needed to end
hunger would reduce
our freedom
Freedom to unlimited wealth?
• If we define freedom as civil
liberties, ending hunger will not
lesson freedom but will increase it
• The only freedom that ending
hunger would reduce is
– the freedom to take all that
we can:
– the freedom to unlimited
accumulation of wealth
Wealth
• Wealth begets wealth, and
concentration of economic and
political power
• Wealthiest 2.7% of Americans
have as much wealth as the
other 240 million of us
• Many Americans unable to
own property.
Bill Gates
Widely Dispersed Wealth
• Our founding
fathers understood
the value of widely
dispersed property
ownership as the
foundation of
freedom
Widely Dispersed Wealth
Who Said it?
• “We want more people
owning their own home.
• It is in our national
interest that more
people own their own
home.
• After all, if you own
your own home, you
have a vital stake in the
future of our country."
George W. Bush George
Washington