Hunger Strikes
The skyrocketing international price of grains and other foods has Christian development groups redoubling efforts to connect farmers to local markets.
The World Bank's index of food prices rose 17 percent from August to November of 2010. In Bangladesh, where 37 million people can't afford more than 1,800 calories per day, families spend nearly half of their income on food, according to a World Vision survey.
Just as rising prices led to the overthrow of Haiti's government in 2008, analysts link food prices to the recent political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.
The anger directed at politicians began in the stomach. While estimates vary, the number of hungry people around the world is nearing 1 billion.
"After decades of progress, high prices are increasing world hunger," says David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. Since 2008, the number of hungry has increased by 33 percent, or 250 million people.
No one fully understands why prices are rising, but Beckmann says most agree on four main contributors: developing countries eating more grain-fed meat; bad weather decreasing harvests; greater use of grain for ethanol; and investment banks trading in food futures contracts.
In March, Roger Thurow, author of Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, was in Kenya, where farmers are entering the hungry season—when prices double as crops are planted but not yet harvested.
The problem is that farmers' grain storage is inadequate, or there is no transportation to local markets. "When you talk to African farmers," Thurow says, "they recognize that post-harvest issues are big." Farmers, he says, are asking, "?'How do I get the best price?' But you need developed markets and communication for price discovery."
Such development is in the works, says Suzy Cheston, World Vision's senior director for agriculture. Government campaigns are successfully identifying regions where crop yields can most easily increase. However, "There's food and there's access," Cheston says. "How do we ensure people have access? It's having markets that work."
Growing more food doesn't reduce hunger on its own. For example, Ethiopia's booming harvests in 2005 collapsed prices, causing farmers to lose money and not plant the following year. Famine followed.
That's why in Bangladesh, World Vision is providing inputs, such as seed and fertilizer, to help more than 40,000 farmers grow food. But it's also linking farmers with training services in markets, microfinancing, and marketing techniques. "It's a paradigm shift," Cheston says, "that markets are part of the solution."
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Related Elsewhere:
Previous articles on food from Christianity Today include:
A God-Sized Food Bank | The Big Reach Center of Hope offers a lifeline to Ohio's rural poor. (January 24, 2011)
Let People Shop | Food pantries feed more, waste less with client choice. (November 23, 2010)
A Feast Fit for the King | Returning the growing fields and kitchen table to God. (November 5, 2010)
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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Pax Paws
There are so many levels to consider here, and do not our Christian hearts cry out: 'How can I help?' We think, the problem is so big. We think, I'm so little and what I can do will only be a drop in the bucket. We have stories about Gideon and the widow's mite, though, that remind us how big our God is! When we take one step in faith, know that He will multiple the fruit. He's chosen to work through us, though, so our steps are critical in the process. How can we help? Let's research and share who is working to build infra-structures, etc., anywhere in the globe that will help the poor. Let's give our money and time and efforts. Is this not what the Body is called to do? Is this not what the first century Church did? We help and touch and share Christ.
John Holmes
There is a problem here, as the world prices of grains are in part depressed by the subsidies by the USA, EU and others to maintain their farmers and appease local political groups. While this keeps food prices low for the cities, there is no capital for rural development in the rest of the world. Rural education by a well trained agricultural adviser net work, plus investment in infrastructure will not happen while cheap food allows cities to grow with out investing in food production. That with stupid idiological neo-con attitudes which persist in places like the IMF that do not take into account the public good which say that Government should not exist/or have a role in nation building or even subsidising local production. Basic grain storage is fairly simple stuff, but requires some knowledge to minimise losses to Pests. It is also a good local low tech metal working industry to improve the community. The same technology builds water tanks or methane producers, and sheds
caleb grayson
oh wonderful.. now American mono-crop-opolies can save the world from hunger, like is has us. it's unfortunate that so many Christians shy away from green living because of its association with 'New Age' spirituality and their impaired identification of Science salvation with an Amero-Christian world view.