Beyond the scarcity scare: reframing the discourse of hunger with an eco-mind

Abstract

Solutions to world hunger continue to be impeded by a frame – a set of assumptions – that keeps much of humanity focusing narrowly on quantitative growth. The result is greater food production and greater hunger. Yet, across the world another way of seeing, one grounded in the relational insights of ecology, is transforming food systems in ways that both enhance flora and fauna and strengthen human relationships, enabling farmers to gain a greater voice in food production and fairer access to the food produced.

Keywords:

• hunger
• food
• food prices
• scarcity
• speculation
• population
• agroecology
• agrofuel
• India
• Niger
• Andhra Pradesh

Notes

¹Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's ‘Food Supply’; then Crops Primary Equivalent. The 2007 data was found by selecting ‘World + (Total)’ in the ‘Country’ prompt, and ‘Grand Total + (Total)’ in the ‘Item’ prompt, and food supply (kcal/capita/day) in the ‘Element’ prompt.

²Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's Production, ‘Production Indices’. The data was found by selecting ‘World + (Total)’ in the ‘Country’ prompt, ‘Food (PIN) + Total’ in the ‘Item’ prompt, ‘Net per capita Production Index Number (2004–2006 = 100)’ in the ‘Element’ prompt, and selecting the years 1961–2010 in the ‘Year’ prompt.

³Statistic acquired from the United Nations Data Retrieval System: ‘World Population Prospects: Total Fertility Rate’ (2010) with the input ‘World’ under the ‘Country’ prompt and ‘1965–70’ and ‘2010–15’ under the ‘Year(s)’ prompt.

⁴Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's ‘Food Balance Sheet’. NOTE: with the inputs for ‘China’ and ‘Meat + (Total),’ the Food Supply (kcal/cap/day) rose from 397 calories in 2000 to 420 calories in 2007.

⁵See also Schneider (2011) and Yunlai and Fengying (2009).

⁶Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's ‘TradeSTAT: Crops and Livestock Products.’ Note: The average of China's cereal imports for 2000 (9,476,593 metric tonnes) and 2001 (9,933,208 metric tonnes) is 9, 704,900.5 metric tonnes. The average of China's cereal imports for 2007 (7,691,336 metric tonnes) and 2008 (6,946,884 metric tonnes) is 7,319,110 metric tonnes.

⁷The term ‘agro-fuel’ is used instead of ‘biofuel’ because ‘agro-fuel’ does not allow us to forget that producing it diverts agricultural land from food production.

⁸Statistic acquired from the USDA PSD's ‘PSD Online Custom Query’ by selecting ‘Grains’ world grain consumption figures; selecting the first nine items in the ‘Commodity’ field, omitting ‘Wheat, Durum’, as this is figure is already included in ‘Wheat’; checking the ‘summarize’ box will add all of those commodity totals together and give one aggregate figure for grains. In the next list, ‘Data Type’, choose ‘Domestic Consumption’, then choose ‘WORLD TOTAL’ from the ‘Country’ list. Finally, select the years 2005–2010 from the ‘Year’ list, and click ‘Run Query’ for totals. For figures regarding grain use for ethanol in the United States, see ‘Corn Production and Use for Fuel Ethanol in the United States, 1980–2010’, from the Earth Policy Institute's dataset, ‘Energy: Efficiency, Renewables, Fossil Fuels, and Nuclear’.

⁹For mid-decade to 2009: Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's ‘Production Indices’. The data was found by selecting ‘Zambia’ in the ‘Country’ prompt, ‘Cereals, Total + (Total)’ in the ‘Item’ prompt, ‘Net per capita Production Index Number (2004–2006 = 100)’ in the ‘Element’ prompt, and selecting the years 2005–2009 in the ‘Year’ prompt. For 2010: Statistic acquired from the FAOSTAT's ‘Production Indices’. The data was found by selecting ‘Zambia’ in the ‘Country’ prompt, ‘Cereals, Total + (Total)’ in the ‘Item’ prompt, ‘Net per capita Production Index Number (2004–2006 = 100)’ in the ‘Element’ prompt, and selecting the 2010 in the ‘Year’ prompt.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frances Moore Lappé

The author wishes to acknowledge the research assistance of Lauren Obregon and Ria Knapp.