the #1 myth about hunger

Bittman is one of America’s leading food writers and thinkers, so his circle is a bit broader than mine. But our message is the same: To feed the world’s growing population, we need to change the way we think about hunger.

In Bittman’s recent piece in The New York Times, “Don’t Ask How to Feed the 9 Billion”, he debunks a very common misconception — that hunger is caused by a scarcity of food. He writes:

The difference between you and the hungry is not production levels; it’s money. There are no hungry people with money; there isn’t a shortage of food, nor is there a distribution problem. There is an I-don’t-have-the-land-and-resources-to-produce-my-own-food, nor-can-I-afford-to-buy-food problem. …

So we should not be asking, “How will we feed the world?” but “How can we help end poverty?” Claiming that increasing yield would feed the poor is like saying that producing more cars or private jets would guarantee that everyone had one.

When I read that, I thought of some other words from the script for the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet®, words which I’ve heard so many times I can almost recite them by heart:

You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. That is not the case. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child on earth. Hunger is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to resources.