Hunger: How do we fight it?

[Dumuzi]

What ideas do you have to solve the problem of hunger? I am more interested in what we as individuals can do. What are the realistic things that we can do to take care of the hungry around us and in our communities. But also on a larger scale, what should communities and even governments do to fight hunger?

One of the main and basic tenets of religion, in my opinion, is to take care of each other. We often discuss and debate religions on a theological level, but I think we should put our minds together for a change in order to help other people.

So what can YOU do to solve this problem?

[Medusa]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

I'd take a look at this wonderful documentary on solving world hunger on a local community basis:
Seeds of Hope with Hugh Jackman and his wife

[TaiganPagan]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

Urbanize agriculture... If we can make people live in skyscrapers, why not animals of plants?

[Dez]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

Encourage people to eat less meat, particularly beef, since it is so cost ineffective.

And, because I'm in a rather callous mood, stop shipping so much food to certain locations that we artificially raise the population beyond what the local agriculture can support.

[Gwen]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

I'll have to watch the documentary sometime not at 2 AM, but...

I've been volunteering with a homeless shelter for a year now, and studying about poverty and the interconnected systems that support it. There is no quick fix. Finding your local shelters and donating food and time helps. Educating yourself about the interconnections of poverty, homelessness, racism, the dramatic loss of low-income housing in the US (go read http://www.wraphome.org/index.php/ca...ithout-housing now, no really, if you're interested in this--the report is linked halfway down the intro page), substance abuse, healthcare systems, and the prison-industrial complex will help. Thinking hard about those connections and spending time and energy educating others and informing lawmakers that you're paying attention will help. Working to slow the rampant consumptive habits of the West, including energy use and heavy meat eating (props to Deseret), will help. But there will be no fix until we do a massive overhaul of the way we take care of each other in this country. And I'm only talking about the USA, because when we take a global picture it gets so much more complicated with centuries of colonial scars and ingrained damaging habits to deal with.

This doesn't mean do nothing.

It means, act with all your heart and know that there's only so much you can do.

[Ophidia]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

Personally and locally, there is no reason for anyone here in Vegas to go hungry aside from pride and ignorance. We have numerous homeless shelters that hand out free food, we have people that go into communities of indigent, elderly and homeless people sharing food and hope. Many of the casinos contribute volunteer projects to feed people. Hunger is not a big issue in Vegas, which is a good thing, especially with all the food that's wasted in the buffets.

Globally is a different story, and I as an individual can't do much of anything besides preach to choirs. We are extremely talented at creating food here in the US. We are so good at it, in fact, that the government pays farmers to not grow anything at all for years at a time.

Imagine that - people in Africa are literally starving to death and we've got idle farmland, just sitting there, growing nothing.

It isn't so much that there isn't enough food to go around, it's that there are governments out there preventing their people from getting access to food. Very little of our 'food drops' actually make it to the folks who need it most. It sits in government storehouses, getting stale and rotting.

If we really want to fight hunger in places like Darfur, we have to fight the totalitarian governments that starve their people into submission. Of course, we're already fighting other wars, so stamping out some foreign government that only hurts its own people probably isn't too high on the list of priorities.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

We can strive to fight corruption in the developing world and support better education (especially regarding proper farming techniques).

[DanieMarie]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

[quote author=perzephone link=topic=403.msg5524#msg5524 date=1287676947]

It isn't so much that there isn't enough food to go around, it's that there are governments out there preventing their people from getting access to food. Very little of our 'food drops' actually make it to the folks who need it most. It sits in government storehouses, getting stale and rotting.

[/quote]

Exactly

[Shahaku]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

One thing I like to do when I can...

Since I cater, I have access to a lot of food that would just get thrown away. I try to box up whatever extra I can and take it to the homeless in the parks, when I don't take it home cause we need food too with three incomes (mine barely counting as I can only provide about one meal a month) and five-seven people at any one time. One of us does get food stamps.. but she hasn't been around much, only just moved back.

But going to restraunts and catering facilities and asking them for food that they are about the throw out at the end of the night, or even throughout the day saves a lot of food that can go to homeless. It just takes being active.

Another thing, though I can't afford to give out ramen.. Ramen is extremely cheap and very filling. Seriously, ramen and rice can sustain people for some time. Like one bag of rice got me through on almost a month of lunches last year. If you can afford it, by it and dump it at a shelter. The homeless on the streets can't cook it, but a shelter can.

[Raphaeline]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

[quote author=Deseret link=topic=403.msg5444#msg5444 date=1287637921]
stop shipping so much food to certain locations that we artificially raise the population beyond what the local agriculture can support.
[/quote]

This.

[ChainLightning]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

Er... fight it? Why?

Left to run it's course, the hunger epidemic (if one wants to call it that) will solve itself. Just give it time.

[Gwen]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

[quote author=ChainLightning link=topic=403.msg7164#msg7164 date=1288154680]
Er... fight it? Why?

Left to run it's course, the hunger epidemic (if one wants to call it that) will solve itself. Just give it time.
[/quote]

...if by solve itself you mean some combination of technological advance and starvation, causing our food-producing capacities and population to meet somewhere in the middle...?

[quote author=Shahaku link=topic=403.msg7105#msg7105 date=1288136523]
Since I cater, I have access to a lot of food that would just get thrown away. I try to box up whatever extra I can and take it to the homeless in the parks, when I don't take it home cause we need food too with three incomes (mine barely counting as I can only provide about one meal a month) and five-seven people at any one time...

Another thing, though I can't afford to give out ramen.. Ramen is extremely cheap and very filling. Seriously, ramen and rice can sustain people for some time. Like one bag of rice got me through on almost a month of lunches last year. ..
[/quote]

Donating food to individuals is great, for sure, especially when it comes with a few minutes of chatting/listening to the recipients--being homeless in this society is often an exercise in dehumanization, and a bit of human interaction can be refreshing.

I've heard that you can actually starve on ramen because of its lack of nutritional content...? Snopes doesn't address it directly but says probably not. Huh. I'll have to take a closer look at that nutrition label.

[Shahaku]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

I imagine the lack of vitamins, protiens, and things like iron would eventually be deadly if you only ate ramen, not to mention the high salt content. But the point is that ramen (and rice) is better than nothing. A person can die from lack of food in a couple weeks (if there's no food at all, right?) but with something like rice or ramen they can hold on much longer..

For me the question then becomes which is better? That they die quickly of pure starvation or slowly from illnesses associated with lack of proper nutrition?

[Ophidia]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

[quote author=Gwen link=topic=403.msg7193#msg7193 date=1288171132]
I've heard that you can actually starve on ramen because of its lack of nutritional content...? Snopes doesn't address it directly but says probably not. Huh. I'll have to take a closer look at that nutrition label.
[/quote]

Well, the brand name 'Top Ramen' uses fortified flour, meaning it's got added vitamins & minerals, and there is protein lurking in that 'seasoning packet'.

I can attest to the fact that a steady diet of it may cause constipation.

[ChainLightning]

Re: Hunger: How do we fight it?

[quote author=Gwen link=topic=403.msg7193#msg7193 date=1288171132]
...if by solve itself you mean some combination of technological advance and starvation, causing our food-producing capacities and population to meet somewhere in the middle...?
[/quote]

Kind of. I'll apologize for sounding cold-blooded, right now.

I will donate my time and, if possible, I'll donate some of my excesses to the less fortunate. I will not, however, bend over backwards to support those that cannot, in some way, even support themselves. I've been in dire straights, repeatedly, in my life (some would say that I'm in that predicament, now) and have yet to cry for public aid more than once. And, in fact, that once? That wasn't so much public as it was asking my friends for financial aid. To buy my daughter's head stone.

Because of my history, my cynicism and my contempt for the human race (if you haven't read it before, I root for the comet in an extinction level impact with the Earth) I do not see the sense or the practicality in artificially supporting, in totality, the food sources, medication and just plain sustenance of those that can't bring anything to the table. Or refuse to. Seriously! If the land you live on doesn't support farming? You can't farm it. If your region doesn't support industry, at all, you can't earn a living. Neither of these examples are MY decision, for the person living there actually living there. I'm not their life support system, simply because they can't support their own.

That is not to say I am totally apathetic. Just mostly. I DO, actually, believe in technology, altruism and responsibility. I just have limits.