Agriculture, Ethics, and the Environment 2010

There are more than 852 million people starving daily in the world, that is more than 13% of the worlds population and we want to help- but how?

Food aid is the most common answer to this question.

The average daily serving of food aid consists of:

Ingredients

400g of cereal flour/rice/bulgur
60g of pulses
25 g of oil (vitamin A fortified)
50 g of fortified blended foods (Corn Soya Blend)
15g of sugar
15g of iodized salt

Nutritional Value

Energy 2,100 Kcal
Protein 58 g
Fat 43g

Is food aid helpful or harmful?

This is a question that we cannot answer for you but can help to provide you with all the facts based on our research in the form of text, videos, and links.

FOOD AID PROS

• Helps to avoid a severe famine in the short run.
• Quick immediate help to recover after a crisis.
  • Most recently in after the earthquake in Haiti, the people were starving and had no means of obtaining food. Read more about Haiti’s food aid efforts here.
• Provides people with the daily needed nutrients and calories (1,200 Kcal).
• Helps to form allies between nations politically.
• Can lead to other programs that educate individuals on how to help themselves survive.
• Educates individuals on nutritional information.
• Lowers cost of food for the buyers.
• Inexpensive for countries to donate.
  • They often just send excess crops that would go to waste otherwise.

FOOD AID CONS

• Due to corruption the food gets redirected away from those who need it.
  • Somalia is a prime example of this- their lack of government allowed for rampant misuse of their aid. Read more about the conflict in Somalia here.
• Individuals grow dependent on the inflow of food from food aid.
  • In Zimbabwe, they used food aid to help quicken their recovery. The efforts by the government started out well, but the people became so dependent on food aid that the nation actually regressed into a complete dependence on food aid.
• They stop growing their own food and wait for more aid.
  • This video explains a little of how this can happen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziPvZCTOJ3A

• Food aid can stop quickly at any time.
• The shipments can be destroyed or contaminated in route.
• Farmers produce less food since no one is buying it in order to avoid waste.
• Decreased spending on food hinders the economic growth of the nation.
  • Which also hinders the agricultural growth.

Would it be more beneficial to the economy and government if we send money to the nations rather than food?

One way that you can help from home is by going to www.freerice.com and answering questions on the subjects of your choice.  For every question that you answer correctly,  they will donate 10 grains of rice to a starving person on your behalf.

References

Braun, Joachim Von. 1999. Famine in Africa Causes, Responses, and Prevention. Johns Hopkins UP: Baltimore, Md.

Little, Peter D. 2008. Food Aid Dependency in Northeastern Ethiopia: Myth or Reality? World Development 36: 860-874.

Lucas Jr., George R. and Thomas W. Ogletree (eds). 1976. Lifeboat Ethics the Moral Dilemmas of World Hunger. Harper & Row: New York, NY

Maguwu, Farai. 2008. Land reform, famine and environmental degradation in Zimbabwe.  Journal of Human Security 3: 32-46.

The Christian Century Foundation. 2003. Ethiopia crisis severe, say aid units. Christian Century 19: 120.

United Nations World Food Program. 2010. Our Work: WFP’s Food Basket. http://www.wfp.org/. Accessed 20 March 2010.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am and is filed under Case Studies, Ethics, Human Population, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.