Ecumenical Reflexions on Political Economy. A summary of ten years
of deliberations on issues of development by an informed group of
economists, sociologists, political scientists and theologians. Compiled
by Catherine Mulholland. First published by WCC Publications,
World Council of Churches, 1988. Internet edition by Dr. Robinson Rojas

4. World Hunger

Why this issue?

For many the answer to that question is perhaps more immediately obvious than for other issues which the AGEM has dealt with. The issue of world hunger has always been a Christian concern since our biblical heritage teaches us that in a just world the fortunate should never sit down to a laden table without first making sure that their less fortunate brothers and sisters have eaten their fill. In recent years global hunger as an acute problem captured the attention of the world in the early 1970s with the famines in Africa and Asia and led to the convening of the World Food Conference in the autumn of 1974. Its importance in academic and policy discussion has not diminished in the slightest and, if anything, has become even greater as we are faced with the spectre of the recent famine situation in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

The concern expressed by both developed and developing countries at the 1974 World Food Conference and many of the resolutions which were adopted at that meeting were backed by the World Council of Church's Fifth Assembly in 1975. As the WCC prepared for the Sixth Assembly in Vancouver in 1983 where the theme was to be "Jesus Christ - the Life of the World", the AGEM felt that it was urgent to discuss how churches and nations could deal in appropriate ways with the complexities of the issue of food economics, and the situation of worldwide hunger, a situation so complicated that it demanded more than charity and compassion.

This chapter will present the process of the AGEM's reflection on the

problem of world hunger and the concern of the ecumenical movement.

The AGEM's reflection and critique involved:

1) an identification of the hungry;

2) an identification of the processes which contribute to their hunger and keep them in a state of constant dearth;

32 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

3) an identification of possible actions which could lead to a more just, participatory and sustainable food system.

The particular themes and concepts which are developed in the course of

the AGEM's 'reflection are:

1) food as a basic human right;

2) the necessity of increased participation of the poor and the powerless in order to effect changes in the food system at all levels.

The problem of hunger

Who are the hungry?

Believing that a true understanding of the problem of hunger requires not only concern but deep reflection, the AGEM started its investigation from the perspective of the hungry themselves by identifying who the hungry are and why they are hungry.

The hungry are the poor. The statistics are imprecise, and the number of underfed people in the world and the minimum necessary level of caloric consumption are open to debate. But it is only too clear that thousands die of diseases they would not have had, or which would not have been so serious, had they been better nourished. Thousands of children die (up to 40,000 a day by UNICEF estimates) - some in infancy, some later - partly because they are not given enough food, and hundreds of millions of people in the world are living below any definition of an adequate human diet, in developed and developing countries alike.

Why are they hungry?

Many people see the problem of world hunger, particularly in the third world, as one of production', and the simple solution to the problem is to get people to produce more food to feed themselves. But the problem is infinitely more complex than that and defies simplistic technical and rational solutions. There have been useful innovations such as high-yielding varieties; they led to the so-called "green revolution", but they have not solved and by themselves can never solve the problem of world hunger. Mrica in the 1980s is a poignant testimony. The problem is that global food production can meet the needs of the hungry and the present consumption levels of the rich if quantitative physical existence of food were the only necessary condition. But on national and local levels, where hunger makes itself felt, food production differs so much that the world as a whole does not have the food self-sufficiency and security that itso desperately needs.

World Hunger 33

The causes of hunger can be divided roughly into micro and macro causes. The micro causes are those which directly touch the poor and the powerless at local level. These causes stem from social processes which develop through time. The hungry have not appeared out of nowhere just as they will not some day miraculously disappear into the ranks of the well-fed. The micro causes are wide-ranging and often include a combination of the following:

- Inability to produce. A majority of the hungry are rural. Outside Asia a minority have some land and primarily grow food. But most either do not have enough land or enough of other inputs to grow enough to fi~ed their households.

- Inability to purchase. As social systems become monetized, access to food is increasingly determined by the ability to buy food, which is in turn dependent on access to wealth, productive factors and work.

- Food crops/cash crops competition. Because of export of agricultural products as a major source of foreign exchange earnings for many countries, large-scale production of export crops may compete with production of staple food crops.

- Depletion of agricultural base. As land passes into private hands and becomes consolidated for large-scale production, the agricultural base may suffer through erosion, overgrazing, reduced fallows or increased pollution levels from the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. But equally poverty and need have just as grim consequences. if the alternative to using the land destructively is to starve now, the poor peasant household cannot put sustainability first.

- Transformation of agrarian structures. With increased concentration of land-holdings and modern technology and production patterns, small-scale peasant production may suffer and the numbers of landless peasants unable to produce their own food may increase.

- Problems with input provision and access to markets. This is a longstanding problem in developing countries and it' is often aggravated by inefficient state organizations, urban or rich farmer biases and inadequate infrastructure.

- Crop loss due to shortage and transportation problems, weather, diseases, pest, war, etc.

The macro causes of hunger stem from the institutionalization of hunger. These macro elements are intimately linked with micro causes in that the social processes which lead to the exclusion of people from the use of resources for the satisfaction of their needs is not accidental. People starve because the interests of those holding power do not give

34 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

priority to the poor having enough to eat. The many are hungry because the few own the land, control trade and determine crucial policies pertaining to the production of food. The poverty of the hungry, therefore, stems from their powerlessness and their inability to participate in decision-making and influence the policies that ultimately affect them.

The hungry are the powerless but they are also the poor. It is their inadequate entitlements resulting from lack of resources and employment opportunities that expose them to hunger and to chronic malnutrition. The result is that people may go hungry even where food is available in plenty; some sectors of the people in the USA, for example, are as helpless against hunger as are people of many poor countries. In these cases, it is the consumption pattern of the "affluent society", with the high cost of processed foods, which conditions the choices open to the poor. Hunger can be effectively eradicated only with the eradication of mass poverty and unemployment.

Food Systems

It is the interaction of these micro and macro causes of hunger which leads to the complexity of the problem of world hunger. But to attempt to understand the entire problem by looking at it from just one aspect would be a serious mistake, and one often committed in the past. This is the reason why the AGEM adopted the food systems approach which allows us to look at the whole as a result of its many component parts. Food systems are the chains of institutions and actors, activities and transactions, priorities and policies through which food is produced, harvested, processed, distributed, consumed and wasted. Food systems occur at all levels and each level interacts with the others. Therefore, a systemic understanding of the international economic dimensions which shape food systems is required for a full picture of the dynamics of hunger at the national and local levels.

Some of the critical economic dimensions at the global level which require specific consideration include the following:

The international economic situation and hunger: The current global economic crisis has an impact on developing econonnes, export earnings, food production and food availability. When these impacts are negafive or are aggravated by demand-restrictionist policies, it is often the poor and hungry who suffer disproportionately (see chapter five for an analysis of the impact of the global economic crisis on developing countries and poor people).

World Hunger 35

- The industrialization and globalization of agriculture: Transnational corporations are one of the main actors in an emerging global system of control over agricultural production, food processing and distribution. This process has resulted in changes in production and consumption patterns which tend to reduce opportunities for peasants and raise effective food costs for consumers.

- International agricultural trade: Agricultural trade in both food and non-food products has a substantial impact on domestic food production and hunger for many poor countries through the competition between export crops and staple food crops, "dumped" exports from industrialized countries, and dependence on world market supplies of grain rather than self-sufficiency in basic foods.

- Food security: Many factors bear on present world food insecurity from both the supply and demand side. An effective food security system must begin at household and local levels and progress through national and global levels taking into account differences in production and consumption patterns, application of technology, availability of inputs and markets and participation in social structures.

- Food aid: Food aid has global significance, both in respect of meeting crisis needs for food and - more problematically - of increasing, in the medium term, food availability and alternative resources for development.

- Technological change: Technological change affects food production and its organization, peasant incomes and hunger, both negatively and positively. Some of the negative aspects result from the extreme dependence and lack of capacity for technological choice, adaptation and development characterizing most poor countries.

From these critical aspects of food systems we understand that the root of the food problem is to be found not so much in insufficient production, lack of technology, economic inefficiency or inadequacy of relief systems, but in the failings of social and economic organization at all levels to respond to the real needs of the poor and hungry.

Eradicating hunger

Food, life and values

Basic Christian convictions, the reading of the Bible, and the ecumenical vision of a just, participatory and sustainable society coalesce in the affirmation that adequate food is a universal human

36 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

right. In Geneva in 1980 the WCC Central Committee issued a statement affuming that food is an essential human right and urging member churches

to set up appropriate machinery to monitor the food policies of both their countries' governments and of intergovernmental organizations, as well as the role of TNCs in agribusiness; to compare their findings, and consider suitable action, either singly or in harmony; and to analyze their own role in promoting or protecting people's rights to food as the most basic of all human physical needs.

If food is a universal human right, then those who are hungry have a claim to that right. The claims of the hungry are not just that they be given food, but that they be given the opportunity to provide themselves with food. Except in absolute destitution, the hungry do not appeal for food, but claim for themselves the dignity of work and an identity as valued members of the community. It is no accident that land reform (the power to produce food) is central to the concept of the Jubilee Year, the "acceptable year of the Lord". These claims of the hungry lead us as Christians to examine present-day social political and economic organization which allows, and in many cases encourages,- the co-existence of plenty for the few and poverty for the many.

When the political economic organization of the present order does not reflect the will of the people most affected by the political problems, then profound structural changes are needed to put right the wrongs being done in this institutional rubric. The right to food and the fact that many are denied that basic human right call for changes in the structures of the world. It may demand a re-examination of laws, tariffs, and treaties. It will mean a new look at the insfitutions which have been the principal actors in the production and distribution of food. Changes in these areas are both necessary and possible for economic structures are not sacred, and the right to food is sacred.

A just, participatory and sustainable food system

What are the marks of a food system which will assure this fundamental human right for all?'

A just food system ensures adequate nutrition for all. It provides it in ways that respect human dignity and enhance human fulfilment. Justice demands a society in which all have equal opporunity to earn their daily

World Hunger 37

food and equitable access to resources needed for productive human activity. Justice also requires that food not be used as a weapon or for manipulation.

A participatory food system requires broad enough involvement -especially by the poor - in the processes of decision4aking, resource allocation, production, pricing and distribution to achieve both adequacy of supply and justice in distribution. if the needs of the poor are to be considered first, then the poor must have the voice, organization and power to take and to influence decisions and to produce and be supplied from the production of others, whether by purchase or 'through non-requited transfers.

A sustainable food system must take seriously the fragility and finite character of the eco-system and the limits to natural resources. It is important to recognize that "the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it", held in stewardship by the present generation for each other and for future generations. This means that we must resolve the conflicting claims between respect for the environment and meeting basic human needs.

Because achieving a just, participatory and sustainable food 'system will require reallocation of scarce resources, of incomes, of production and of distribution, it is a political and a power question. Structural changes are necessary to achieve a solution to the problem and churches can play an important role in the process. For the problem of hunger is deeper than the well-thought technical and rational policy goals formulated in terms of, for example, increased investments in the agricultural sector, construction of storage facilities or better pricing systems for agricultural products.

Hunger cannot 'be banished merely through charitable gifts of food. The structural changes we seek must enable and facilitate the hungry in their efforts to assure themselves a continuing supply. This means that economic and social systems as well as political structures must allow all people the assurance of the right to live and the entitlement to food and the role through which they can help eradicate hunger.

To do this requires participation because solutions to political problems are practicable only if they are seen as having priority, by those with power to influence and control political decisions. As pointed out in identifying who the hungry are and why they are, hungry, their poverty and hunger stem from their powerlessness. When people do not participate in the political and the production processes, or are barred from participation, either directly or indirectly, they have no influence on, or

38 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

say as to which policies are adopted. In the case of policies that affect food production, distribution and consumption this means that policies can be manipulated either willingly or unconsciously so that some have food or access to food while others go hungry. Change requires increased participation by those who currently suffer from lack of food in addition to a general opening up in the political process of choices for the poor and powerless.

Policy recommendations

In order to adopt policies that will lead to change, it is necessary to understand first why present policies are adopted and who supports such policies. Present policies are adopted because they benefit, directly or indirectly, those who participate in policy decisions. The present dynamic of increased production by larger units, increased subordination of agriculture to input provision, processing and marketing has the support of the most powerful global actors. This is because either they clearly benefit directly or because they do not seriously examine the alternatives. If this dynamic is to be modified we need significant changes in priorities, resource allocations, policies and power relations. To achieve such changes requires social mobilization for political change because all power relations are primarily political and economic.

At what level must changes take place? For structural changes to be effective, they must take place at all levels. However, it is at the local level that the hungry suffer most, and therefore changes are most pressingly needed in local and nafional power relations and dynamics. This must go along with changes in the international setting for we must remember that national food systems exist within the international context and are shaped and constrained by the international economic environment. The AGEM has identified the following major areas in which changes should be made:

At the national level:

- greater focus on national food strategies linking more directly consumption needs and objectives with production policies as a basis on which effective actions can be devised;

- priority to rural development and small producers to increase peasant productivity, production and income;

increased access of small farmers to land, inp'uts and fmancing necessary for production; reforms should include land reform where necessary;

World Hunger 39

- encouragement of peasant organization which is critical to self-reliant initiatives and to building up power to influence the political system;

- balance of food crop/export crop production so that export and industrial crop production vital for export earnings is maintained but does not endanger staple food production needed for the domestic market;

- development of appropriate technologies for local conditions taking into account balance of payments constraints on imported production inputs, fuel, vehicles and machinery as well as social impacts of technology;

- complementary agro-industrial policy to promote agro-industries that produce agricultural inputs, together with basic food processing and distribution industries;

- careful study of foreign investment and activities of TNCs and large national companies in order to identify and control potential distortions in price and resource allocations which may be damaging to peasant production and incomes;

- proper use of food aid and national food aid schemes to enhance their short-term uses and to guard against their being used as tools of political coercion or as a way of building up a commercial market; the long-term solution should always revolve around helping the poor to become self-reliant by increasing either their production of food or their command over earned income from which to buy it.

At the regional level:

- regional and sub-regional trade and cooperation agreements to develop ties of exchange and aid among regional food surplus and food deficit countries;

- adoption of regional and sub-regional development strategies, joint activities in research and training, food storage, marketing, distribution, transportation, and monitoring of regional activities of transnational firms and banks in order to build up national and regional self-sufficiency and not external dependency.

At the international level:

- continuation and increase in food' aid to deal with the immediate problem of feeding those persons and countries who have no immediate prospect of producing or commercially obtaining their own food;

IMF Compensatory Financing Facility to provide balance of payments financing to countries with crop shortfall or abrupt rises in purchase prices of imported food;

40 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

- more financial support for emergency relief and social and economic development programmes such as those of the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

NOTE

Minutes of the 32nd meeting of the Central Committee, Geneva, WCC, 1981, p.74

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