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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Let them eat the Gross National Product
Message-ID: <202@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 15:15:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.202
Posted: Thu Sep 26 15:15:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 06:06:41 EDT
References: <3476@topaz.UUCP> <28200078@inmet.UUCP> <1790@psuvax1.UUCP> <192@gargoyle.UUCP> <119@oberon.UUCP>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 45

Mike Walker asks:

>There seems to a problem here, if the world produces enough food to feed
>itself why doesn't it?  There is a limit to how much food a person can
>eat.  So what happens to the food not distributed?  Why the governments
>buy it up and store it till it goes bad?  Or perhaps pay the farmers to
>let it rot in the fields?  Or refuse to let it go to the famine affected
>areas for political reasons?  

An interesting question.  The short answer is that the food is
allocated inefficiently.

1.  The world's staple food is the various kinds of grain, which are
rich in protein and calories.  Around one-third of the world's grain
production is fed to livestock, which yield much less in nutritional
value than they consume (beef cattle, in particular, are nutritional
black holes).  Most of the barley harvest, for example, is not eaten
by humans.  (Source: the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.)

2.  Some crops are used to produce alcoholic beverages, but I don't
know what proportion goes to this use.  It is probably small.

3.  Income disparities lead to inefficient use of food.  The amount
of food that regularly dies in my refrigerator could probably feed an
entire Ethiopian family.  The amount that Americans throw out could
probably (wild guess) feed the nation of Ethiopia, not to mention
Americans in need.  

4.  Some food is wasted through spoilage.  The reasons for this are
various.  

>The fact that the poor cannot afford the food is not the only limit to
>its distibution.  Government intervention is often the primary cause
>of misdistribution.

Let's discuss some specific examples.  Of course, it is not only
misdistribution that contributes to hunger; inefficient production is
also a factor.  The world is capable of producing far more food than
it now does, even with existing technologies.  In the great majority
of cases I think one will find that the root cause of hunger is
inequality in power over food-producing resources, and that hunger
can only be eliminated through political and economic changes that
redistribute this power.  Nicaragua makes an instructive case study.
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes