Hunger and Poverty Facts

 

1. The average person in the United States consumes 3,600 calories each day. The recommended calories for people to have each day to meet minimum needs are 2,350(1). World production of grain alone is over 1.5 billion tons, enough to supply the entire world population with two pounds a day. This, with the current production of vegetables, fruits, nuts and meat is enough to supply each man, woman and child with 3000 calories a day. There is enough food: the problem is that some people cannot afford to pay the price of available food. World hunger and malnutrition is a matter of poverty and accessibility, not production (2). One-third of the grain grown in the world and one-half of the fish caught are fed to animals in wealthy countries. Hunger continues to plague an estimated one billion peoples -- one in five persons--around the globe. Yet the world produces more than enough food to feed everyone(3), 9 out of 10 hungry people suffer, not because of food scarcity but as a result of people being deprived of food producing resources. Hence, food is a question of rights, the right to have access to means of production and distribution of food. The Right to Food is about respecting protecting and fulfilling access to food producing resource and work. Therefore, the Right to Food doesn't make people lazy but busy, enabling them to be fed through adequate food producing resources (4) . More than 34 million Americans are threatened by hunger. Eleven million Americans go hungry each year (5) . Approximately 4 million children under age 12 in the United States are hungry and an additional 9.6 million are at risk of hunger. This means 29% -- more than one in four - are hungry or at risk of hunger (6) .

2. Each day 40,000 people (1,700 each hour) die from poverty-related diseases, including starvation (1) . [Starvation occurs when the body does not receive enough calories to maintain itself, causing the body to feed on itself] (7) . Population of Apple Valley, MN is 40,000. Each year 12.4 million children under the age of five die from malnutrition and preventable diseases. This means 34,000 children die each day, or the equivalent of three 747 airliners with 430 young passengers crashing every hour of every day' That equals the number of all of the children under age five in 31 of the eastern United States (?) . No famine, flood or earthquake has ever claimed the lives of 250,000 children in a single week. But malnutrition does just that every week (3) . Each year, an estimated 10,000 American children die from poverty's effects (22) .

3. The highest mortality rate among children is in Niger, where nearly one in three children dies before the age of five (8) . I have 3 children; chances are if I lived in Niger 1 of them would have died. In 1989, 39,655 infants died in the United States before their first birthday. In 1989, the infant mortality rate was 9.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. 12,400,00 children under age five died in developing countries in 1990. This is equivalent to all of the children under five in 31 eastern United States dying in a single year. If developing countries faced the same mortality risks as developed countries, only 1.1 million children would have died in 1990 (one twelfth as many) (?)

4. Nearly a quarter of the world's inhabitants -- 1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty with incomes equivalent to less than a dollar a day (9) . Three billion people live on less than the equivalent of two dollars a day. Meanwhile, the world's 358 billionaires have more money combined than the annual incomes of countries with 45% of the world's people. There are l.2 billion people in the world that lives in absolute poverty: which is defined as the income level below which a minimally adequate diet plus essential non-food requirements are not possible to afford 1. In 1991, the United States had approximately 35.7 million people living below the poverty level. This represents 14.2% of the Nation's population. (?)

5. The United States spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance. Of this, only $802 million goes to the continent of Africa through the Development Fund for Africa. Twenty-two percent of the U.S. budget is for military and defense spending (10) . The U.S. is one of five countries who together provide 86% of arms sales worldwide. The result is tragic for many, as landmines claim at least 800 lives each month (11) . The United States is 2lst, which is last, in the amount of money it gives in foreign assistance as compared to its gross national product (10) .

6. One billion people in the world live with unsafe water. 80% of the sickness and disease in the world, results from water pollution or unsafe water and poor sanitation (12) .

 

7. As of June 1995, the World refugee population had reached an all-time high of 23 million people (13) . Of the world's total 100 million migrants, which includes legal immigrants, illegal Immigrants and refugees. Only 1% comes to the United States (14) . 80% of all refugees worldwide are women and children (11) .'

8. Each year, 1.7 million children die from preventable diseases. The cost to eradicate polio worldwide is $100 million, or 2% of the current U.S. military budget (12) .

9. UNICEF estimates that within a decade, it should be possible to bring an end to child malnutrition, preventable disease, and a' widespread illiteracy The estimated cost: $25-billion per year. This amount is significantly less than the $31-billion Americans will spend this year on beer (3) .

10. Developing nations now owe the world's wealthiest countries $1.3 trillion. An estimated half-million children die each year because of the international debt crisis (3) . The Pope is suggesting that the rich nations cancel the debts of the poor nations in 2000.

[International Labor Organization]

11. Microcredit--business loans as small as $5O--has allowed 8 million poor people, mostly women, to become entrepreneurs. Repayment rates for micro-loans exceed 90 percent. Yet microcredit currently accounts for just 2 percent of global development aid [RESULTS Educational Fund]

12. Hunger is not caused by a shortage of food. Though rapid population growth and topsoil loss might soon cause shortages, global food supplies have so far outpaced rising demand. Bread for the World Institute has identified five things that do cause most of the world's hunger:

  • A. Poverty. Although there is enough food for everyone, not everyone has the resources -- whether money or land or tools -- needed to grow or buy it. Hungry people are almost always poor.

    B. Violence. Because war disrupts agricultural production, and governments often spend more on arms than on social programs, violence often leads to hunger -- which leads to more violence.

    C. Environmental Overload. Over consumption by wealthy nations, and rapid population growth in poor nations, strain natural resources and make it harder for the poor to feed themselves.

    D. Discrimination. Lack of access to education, credit and employment -- a recipe for poverty and hunger -- is often the result of racial, gender or ethnic discrimination.

    E. Lack of clout. In the final analysis, hunger is caused by powerlessness: many people are hungry because they don't have the political or economic power to protect their own interests. (15)

  • 13. With the economic growth of $100 the rich 20% of the population pocket $83 and the poorest 20% get $1.40. This is how economic growth can further marginalize the poor. Eradication of hunger is not defined in the rules for economic growth. Economic growth devours non-renewable resources, causing the environment to be destroyed and the rural communities, which depend on it to be victims of economic growth, all because of the absence of Human Rights in the economy. (4)

    14. In less developed countries people who are poor work for long hours at low wages, sometimes only pennies a day. In order to survive m these circumstances, they must be hard working, innovative, and resourceful. Poverty lending in Latin America, Asia and Africa has proven that by giving destitute people access to credit (loans averaging $50) they are able to successfully start a small business and work their own way out of poverty. (4)

    15. Most hunger is not the result of famine or disaster. These recurring conditions are devastating, but they are the cause of only a small portion (10%) of the hunger problem, even though they tend to be the most publicized portion. People could still eat when famine and natural disaster occur if they had enough food in storage nearby. Furthermore, some famines are in fact man-made. For example, wars and revolutions often produce famine and mass migration of refugees. Primarily, hunger results from chronic under-nutrition; people lack access to enough food lack the resources to purchase or grow their own food, or the food they eat lacks sufficient nutritional value. (4)

    16. Contrary to popular belief, overpopulation is not the cause of hunger. It is usually the other way around, hunger is one of the real causes of overpopulation. The more children a poor family has, the more likely some will survive to work in the fields or in the city to add to the family's small income and, later, to care for the parents in their old age. High birth rates are symptoms of the failures of a social system - inadequate family income, nutrition, education, health care and old-age security. (4)

    17. There is no reason that we have to choose between helping people in the U.S. and people in other countries. Both domestic and global hunger and poverty are blights upon humanity; both cause immense and unnecessary suffering and both must be tackled simultaneously if the world is to prosper. The resources are ample, if we decide to put people who are hungry - wherever they are to be found - first. In an interdependent world the good done for any part will benefit the whole. (4)

    18. Individual citizens collectively hold public power. In countries that adhere to democratic principles, it is much easier for that power to be expressed. This ability to influence and participate in public policy-making gives each of us the responsibility to act. Not only do we have the power to influence the course of events, but the moral obligation to exercise that power. Recent history shows what individuals working collectively can do to affect policy (Civil Rights, Environmental, and Eastern Europe Democratic movements, for example). Changing government policies and achieving sufficient funding of programs that work to empower poor people are essential. Each of us can help create that change. (4)

    19. In the US Teenage women who are poor and who have below average basic skills, regardless of their race, are five and a half times more likely to have children than non-poor teenage women with average or better basic skills. (16)

    20. Poor families are less likely to have nutritionally adequate diets than non-poor families. Children who have inadequate diets lag in growth and have more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting infectious diseases. Inadequate nutrition, including iron deficiency (with or without anemia) may also affect cognitive development and social behavior, with undernourished children being more apathetic. (17) Even short periods of undernutrition can affect children's behavior, cognitive development and future productivity. (18)

    21. In the US the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) reduces infant mortality, low birth weight and anemia. The government saves $3.50 in future Medicaid and special education costs for each dollar spent on WIC for pregnant women. (19)

    22. In 1991, in 5.8 % of all poor families, at least one person worked, and in 1.3 million poor families (16.8 % of all poor families) there were two or more workers in 1991 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). The educational level of parents is closely associated with child poverty. Parents who have not completed high school are less likely to be employed steadily than parents with more education are. The former also tend to earn less when employed (19)

    23. In the US full-time minimum wage work pays only $10,920 annually ... still $2,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In 60 % of households with children under 12 experiencing hunger, at least one member is employed, and in almost half of hungry households there is at least one full-time worker. (20)

    Factoid: By the year 2000, the estimated world population will be 6.22 billion. Of these, 1.93 billion will be from E. Asia-Pacific, 1.392 billion from S. Asia, 713 million from sub Saharan Africa, 520 million from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 38-1 million from the Middle East and North Africa (21) .

     

    References:

    1. Bread for the World
    2. Institute for Food and Development Policy
    3. http://garnet.berkeley.ed
    4. http://www.brown.edu/Departments/World_Hunger_Program/hungerweb/intro/6_myths_and_facts.html Page created by David Bodnick and Daniel Zalik, 1993 based on documents from Food First - The Institute for Food And Development Policy
    5. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Census Bureau
    6. Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project
    7. Christian Justice, St. Mary's Press, 1995
    8. UNICEF State of the Worlds Children
    9. World Bank
    10. United States Agency for International Development
    11. Trocaire
    12. Bread for the World, 1993
    13. World Watch Institute
    14. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
    15. Interaction
    16. National Longitudinal Survey, 1981 calculation by Center for Labor Market Studies, Northwestern University, Johnson,C.M., Miranda,L., Sherman,A and Weill, J.D., 1991.
    17. Kotch, J., And Shackelford, J 1989
    18. Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, Tufts University
    19. Johnson,C.M., Miranda,L., Sherman,A and Weill, J.D., 1991
    20. U.S. Census Bureau
    21. Hunger 1994, Bread for the World
    22. The State of American Children

    Thanks to the 11 who have visited me here