Making a Killing from Hunger

Farmers around the world grow more than enough food to feed the entire world adequately.

Grain.org describes the core reasons for continuing hunger in a recent article “Making a Killing from Hunger.” It turns out that while farmers grow enough food to feed the world, commodity speculators and huge grain traders like Cargill control the global food prices and distribution.

Starvation is profitable for corporations when demands for food push the prices up.

For a family on the bottom rung of poverty a small price increase is the difference between life and death, yet neither US presidential candidate has declared a war on starvation. Instead both candidates talk about national security and the continuation of the war on terror as if this were the primary election issue. Where is the commitment to national security though unilateral starvation relief? Where is the outrage in the corporate media with pictures of dying children and an analysis of who benefits from hunger?

American people cringe at the though of starving children, often thinking that there is little they can do about it. Global hunger and massive wealth inequality is based on political policies that can be changed.

[Excerpt of an article by Peter Phillips, a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University]