How to End World Hunger

Those who study food and distribution issues understand that hunger is not related to a shortfall in food production, but in the ability to pay for it. What can be done to ensure that all people around the globe can enjoy a suitable diet?

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Share existing food, production technology, and water and land resources with developing countries. Pressure your political leaders to pursue policies that promote global cooperation.
2. Promote economic development of developing nations to allow its residents to earn more money and afford more food.
3. Support equal rights for all people. Promoting access to health care, education and jobs for women and minorities encourages economic development for the country as a whole. Birth rates are reduced with even basic education, further reducing the strain on the food supply. See 404 Build a School in a Third World Country.
4. Lobby the U.S. government to remove agriculture subsidies. Designed to help U.S. farmers with globally traded crops like wheat and corn, subsidies depress global prices, holding down the incomes of farmers in developing countries or even driving them out of business. Poor countries can make a strong argument that the developed world is intentionally preventing the creation of a level playing field.
5. Support increased funding of global-assistance programs. The United States uses only a tiny fraction of its money (less than one-half of one percent of the gross domestic product) for overseas food assistance. The nation could easily double or triple this figure without suffering economic harm.
6. Understand the impact that meat consumption has on the world food supply. Meat production is a biologically inefficient process; the amount of meat produced is infinitely smaller than the amount of feed grain the animals consume. Eating meat elevates consumption of scarce resources and increases pressure on the world food supply. The majority of meat is consumed by developed nations.
7. Contribute to private global assistance programs such as CARE (care.org) and the International Red Cross (icrc.org). Many churches and civic organizations also conduct hunger relief programs.

Tips & Warnings

• See 383 Plan a Toy Drive and 403 Set Up a Nongovernmental Organization.
• Check out many of the Web sites targeting world hunger, including the Hunger Project (thp.org) and the World Hunger Education Service (worldhunger.org).
• Heifer International (heifer.org) aims to promote long-term financial prosperity. Livestock are given to subsistence farmers to develop a consistent source of income and food for their families and communities.
• Famine and warfare frequently go hand in hand. If you're involved in hunger relief efforts, keep a lookout for armed conflicts around the globe. Focus your efforts on these spots.