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The President’s Corner
Tom Miller

Ban Ki-moon Fasted for a Day. Will You?

Nov. 18 -- While the UN World Summit on Food Security ends in Rome today, more than one billion people around the world – one-sixth of the population, primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – will go to sleep hungry, if not die hungry. It is not surprising that the UN, an organization committed to alleviating suffering in the world’s poorest places, is taking the lead in dealing with the crisis.

Last year, Ban Ki-moon set up a high-level task force to find solutions to the global food disaster. (He also went on a fast last weekend in solidarity with all who starve.) The task force outlined a strategy to provide safety nets and help for small-scale farmers and to support long-term agricultural productivity and resilience, social services, market access and fair trade.

Ban did not stop there. He convinced the Group of 8 and the Group of 20 leaders who have been meeting in the last year to address the global financial crisis to not only save banks but also the poor. He put food security and climate change -- invariably linked, as droughts and floods reduce agricultural output -- on their agenda, too. (To read more about climate change effects and the coming conference in Copenhagen, check out the other articles in this issue of the World Bulletin.)

One result of Ban’s efforts was an agreement in July by the G8, meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, to commit to a $20 billion food security program.

The food security initiative is the right move. It targets the development of agriculture in poor countries by enabling small-time farmers to grow and sell their own food as opposed to waiting for food to be handed to them. But the aid agencies are skeptical of such commitments, given that the world’s top economic leaders often make bold promises in their media-friendly forums, complete with handshakes and smiles for the cameras, and then fly home and put the vows aside. (A case in point: only one country of the G8 – Italy, not surprisingly – attended the food summit.)

Moreover, skeptics wonder how much of the $20 billion will actually be new money? In 2005, the G8 pledged $50 billion in development aid by 2010. Yet according ActionAid, an international antipoverty group, most countries, including the United States, have been falling behind in honoring their commitments. We know for sure, however, that Ban remains dedicated to the cause.

What exactly is food security and why does it matter? Food security ensures that people get the nutrients and calories they need to get through the day. It matters to you and me in America, where food may be plentiful but not necessarily within reach of all household budgets. This week, the US Department of Agriculture reported that hunger in America reached a 14-year high last year, totaling 49 million people, since the government began tracking “food insecurity” 14 years ago.
We have already witnessed the effects of large-scale food insecurity in regions that many of us have never set foot in.

Indeed, when a human’s basic needs are not met, a country or region can become politically unstable because hungry people are often angry, desperate people, justifiably so. (A Greek proverb comes to mind: you cannot reason with a hungry belly; it has no ears.) So when a country becomes pocked with instability, as in Somalia and Haiti, that situation can lead to bigger conflicts. All this means more displaced people and refugees migrating to wealthy countries or subsisting in tented camps in the middle of nowhere, sometimes turning the inhabitants away from hope and toward terrorism.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, recently acknowledged the fact, saying: “Massive hunger poses a threat to the stability of governments, societies and borders. Food security is not just about food. But it is all about security – economic security, environmental security, even national security.”

Between 2007 and 2008, the IMF said that global food prices increased at an average of 43 percent, contributing to food insecurity in poorer populations. FAO/Giulio Napolitano.

The UN food security summit in Rome is meant to address this issue as urgently as possible A few positive notes have been sounded. The Food and Agriculture Organization and the Islamic Development Bank announced a $1 billion agreement to finance agricultural development in poor countries that belong to both organizations. The summit also approved a declaration in which countries pledged to substantially increase aid to agriculture in developing nations, though no commitments were made to reach the $44 billion a year for agricultural aid that the UN says is needed in the coming decades. The agency also hoped that countries would adopt 2025 as a deadline to wipe out hunger. Instead, the declaration focused on a pledge set nine years ago in the Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.

One billion may be an abstract figure for many of us in the West, yet as we celebrate one of America’s most cherished holidays, Thanksgiving, next week, remember that one billion is far too large a number to let slip from your consciousness. So is one million; and a thousand, for that matter. The only number we can all live with is zero.

What can you do? Organize an educational event on food security in your local UNA chapter or division. Check out John Teton’s proposal for an international food treaty (www.treaty.org.) Visit the UN’s antihunger campaign at www.1billionhungry.org. Send an e-mail message to your Congressional representative and ask if the US is fulfilling its development aid pledges.

Or try fasting for a day, as Secretary-General Ban did.

To share your views, send your e-mail to yourviewsmatter@unausa.org.