Extreme World Poverty: Hunger in the Age of the Plenty

This post is a book review of "Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty" by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman.  This is the first book review blog in a series exploring extreme world poverty.  My purpose in writing these book reviews is not to give a comprehensive synopsis or critique of the book, but to try to pass along the information that is most relevant to those wanting to help with these issues.  But if the issue of world hunger really grabs your heartt, then I would highly recommend reading this book.  

What's the book about?  

For several decades, the world has grown more than enough food to feed all of its people, even as the population continues to grow.  Yet 9 million people each year continue to die from hunger, most of them children in Africa.  This is a complicated issue with many causes, including those that many of us have heard of (drought / natural disaster, war zones, corrupt dictators), but also those that many of us have not heard of:  how the richest countries in the world have enacted policies, or failed to institute and support economic systems, and this has resulted in hungry people not being able to afford food that would otherwise be available.

There's a lot of dense content in this book, especially regarding agricultural practices and economic policy.  The book gives a history of different things that wealthier countries have tried in aiding hungry countries, explaining which policies have worked well and which policies have caused more harm than good.  

What are things that have historically helped?

• Provide money that goes back into the African economy
• Some examples of this are 1) western countries granting debt relief to African governments, and 2) sending money for Africans to purchase food from African farmers rather than sending over American food while African farmers can't sell the food they produce.
• "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
  
  lifetime." (Lest this suggestion come off as too paternalistic -- African farmers are well aware of what they need, but the daily struggle to survive makes it too difficult for them to implement these things for themselves.  When they are given a little bit of breathing room (their family has enough food, they have regular access to water, etc.), they DO start implementing these things for themselves.  These are tips for us westerners as to how we can best help in a sustainable, rather than short-sighted, way.)
• Establish markets so that farmers have access to fair price discovery, uniform quality standards, and futures contracts.
• Infrastructure - roads, electricity, irrigation, farming tools.
• Extension offices that provide information to farmers on the newest and best farming techniques.
• Access to better seeds, fertilizer, etc.
• Private citizens, religious groups, and private corporations mobilizing to help raise money and awareness for these issues.  (It is especially helpful if you are a big name like Bono or Bill Gates :), but everyone's efforts help.)

What are the policy solutions that would most help with world hunger now?
(Note:  If you are wondering why these particular ideas, or what has been the harmful consequences of going a different direction on some of these suggestions - that's the bulk of the content of this book.)

• Wealthier countries should keep promises to expand development aid - $9 billion is currently given by all sources (public and private worldwide), and that amount needs to be doubled to reach everyone.
• Create a global fund to aid small farmers in Africa - help small farmers get the tools and information they need to grow enough food for their own families, and this will eventually lead to them making extra food and becoming self supporting.
• Invest in infrastructure - Support projects that provide roads, electricity, and irrigation.
• Africa takes responsibility - African governments need to keep their promise to dedicate 10% of spending to agriculture.  (Some are, some are not.)
• Plant new seed technology - (controversy alert!) - it would be helpful to the farmers of Africa to use genetically modified seed technology that is engineered to be most productive given the various agricultural conditions of their countries, but this seed is more difficult to obtain while there is controversy about GMOs in America and Europe.
• Find an alternative to turning food into fuel - Research other types of green energy that don't take away from the food supply (including making energy from the parts of food that we don't actually eat).  
• Create an international grain reserve - When emergency drought conditions arise anywhere in the world, it would be helpful to have a ready-to-go store of food available.  
• "Level the plowing fields" - (controversy alert) - provide subsidies to African farmers, and consider the effect of subsidies in western countries and think about whether there are ways to make them less harmful to African farmers (for example, by linking subsidies to better environmental practices rather than production).  (You could also just cut subsidies to western farmers, but i feel REALLY squeamish making this recommendation, both because I was raised in Nebraska and know some farmers, and also because fairness - if Americans should help with world hunger as a justice issue (and i think we should), this should be spread equally and not all heaped on the back of farmers.)
• Give U.S. food aid the flexibility for local purchases - Right now, the United States sends the vast majority of food aid in the form of actual bags of food.  It would be helpful to African farmers if the U.S. sent half of this in the form of money for Africans to purchase food from African farmers (or, if cutting the food amount sent would be too detrimental to American farmers, increase the aid budget and send the entire increase in the form of cash to purchase from African farmers).

Which Organizations Are Helping?
(Note - neither of these are formally endorsed by the authors of this book, but they both come up multiple times as organizations that are helping make positive change):

• Bread for the World - this is a group to check out if you want to learn more about policy changes and justice issues related to world hunger.  They have an email list, tips for how to contact your elected representatives, tips for how your church can get involved, etc.
• World Vision - this is a group to check out if you want to provide a financial donation to a group providing direct aid to hungry people.