Message of the Day: Hunger, War

World Hunger 2022, (c) Planet Earth Foundation

Forty-five years ago this month, the last strategic plan for a global solution to world hunger led by the US began to be worked on.

We refer to a kind of Marshall Plan scope of project, or a Great Depression scope of project, or World War Two scope of project that hasn’t been part of the political and social landscape since.

The result was a brilliant success as a half measure, and a tragic missed opportunity.

Hundreds of millions of lives have been saved. Child death rates have dropped dramatically. Out of control birth rates have been lowered.

And the yet the basic horror of hunger, starvation, child deaths, stunting, and food insecurity for one third of all humanity goes on.

In the meantime there is a clinging to the old mechanisms of economic development that have increased inequality everywhere, destroyed the environment and ironically depends in part on the very things that helped create all the problems. We have commented on all this for years. We will at greater length again soon.

Tremendous efforts have been made by many over the years. However, they simply can’t do what global political policy can.

For the moment, however, we focus on the clear and present danger of a global crisis beyond the usual. The Russian aggression against Ukraine has caused many global crises and risks unlike any since World War Two. One is an exponential increase in world hunger.

Ukraine is a major source of food for the world. Russia is blockading all shipments.

Josep Borrell, Foreign Policy Chief of the European Union, has just called this a “real war crime”.

We have created a new public service campaign on the issue of world hunger generally and specifically on the crisis caused by the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Here it is: