Hunger and the Right to Food
Peter Henriot
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
Lusaka, Zambia
AFJN Conference Washington, DC
18 April 2010
Right to Food
Is there a “right to food”?
• What does such a right mean?
• On what is it grounded?
• What are its implications for agriculture and
global economies, for Scottish Government
responses?
• What does it mean for all of us here?
Right to Food
Begin with a few simple questions
• How many of you had breakfast this morning?
• How many of you had three meals yesterday?
• Have any of you ever felt really hungry and
why?
• So is this topic about “us” or about “them”?
Right to Food
I come from Zambia, “the real Africa”!
• This morning, most people in Zambia did not
have breakfast and do not, cannot, look forward
to three meals
• In a country of rich agricultural lands, plentiful
water, abundant potential
• In a world of enormous plenty but immense
deprivation, impoverishment
• One billion malnourished; 40,000 die a day
• Pictures, facts, realities – so what?
Right to Food
Indignity, injustice, irreparability,
unsustainability of hunger
• Violates basic need of person to survive
• Occurs amidst plenty and waste, and could be
stopped
• Causes permanent damage to individual
development and community cohesion
• Unsustainable -- dignity and peace cannot last….
Right to Food
Is there a “right to food”?
• A few years ago, the Vice President of Zambia
made the following statement: “Let’s be clear
about all this: no Zambian citizen has the right
to food!”
• Correct – it is not a “right” guaranteed in the
Bill of Rights of the Republican Constitution of
Zambia
Right to Food
But should we not speak of it in a much wider
sense?
• Ethical sense of common humanity and right
to life
• African sense of ubuntu and solidarity
• Biblical sense of “feeding the hungry”
• Legal sense of international agreements of
Covenants and Declarations
Right to Food
Ethical Foundations
• Foundational ethical sense of respect for life and
hence for the basic requirements of life
• Corresponding duty of society and of individual
to work to provide food for survival
• African wisdom of ubuntu – but with hunger and
malnutrition, solidarity is broken and personhood
of all is diminished
• Corresponding duty to provide food – even for a
stranger – hence, hospitality
Right to Food
Biblical foundations
• Old Testament – manna – God feeds the
community in need -- Exodus 16
• New Testament – Jesus feeds the hungry -Matthew 14; instructs feeding of hungry
Matthew 25; “faith and deeds” of James 2
• Place of meals in community – Acts 2;
Eucharist
Right to Food
International covenants and agreements
• State parties to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have a
legally binding obligation to take steps to
respect, protect, facilitate and fulfil the right
to food
• Article 11(1) states clearly that the "right to an
adequate standard of living includes food,
housing, clothing." Moreover, article 11(2)
recognizes the "fundamental right of everyone
to be free from hunger."
Right to Food
Rome Declaration on World Food Security 1996
• Article1: "We the Heads of State and
Government, or our representatives, gathered
at the World Food Summit at the invitation of
the FAO, reaffirm the right of everyone to
have access to safe and nutritious food,
consistent with the right to adequate food and
the fundamental right of everyone to be free
from hunger."
Right to Food
Millennium Development Goals – by 2015
• MDG #1 eradicate poverty and hunger
• Target #2: halve between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Right to Food
“Right to food”
• Right to adequate food – quantity and quality
-- nutrients, calories and proteins
• Right to accessible food – ability to produce,
ability to purchase -- land, income
• Right to acceptable food – culturally/locally
satisfactory
Right to Food
“Right to Food” opens many wider issues
• Agricultural policies – for whom? Smallholder
peasant or Multinational agribusiness
• Land – tenure, “use” for what purposes and by
whom
• Education – extension services, local wisdom
• Health – proper foods (HIV and AIDs; obesity)
• Trade – internal and external, subsidies
• Environment – care of nature, water needs
• Sustainability – for this generation and future
Right to Food
“Right to food” and gender issues
• Food is largely a women’s issue in developing
countries like Zambia
• In most families it is women who work in the
fields and who prepare the meals
• At the same time, it is often the women who
eat last and eat only what is left over
• Land tenure issues – titles for women? (WB
“equity” study)
Right to Food
Central to Church’s Social Teaching (CST)
• “The available data show that the
nonfulfillment of the right to food is not only
due to natural causes, but also and above all,
to situations provoked by the conduct of men
and women that lead to a general
deterioration of social, economic and human
standards.”
Benedict XVI, Message to FAO, October 2007
Right to Food
Why the recent rise in world hunger?
• Global economic crisis – slowdown of
economies, unemployment, etc.
• Increase of prices of grains worldwide
• Fuel price increases – cost to energy-intensive
inputs, shifts to bio-fuel production
• Greater demands for meat, dairy products
from new middle classes of China, India
Right to Food
What about Genetically Modified
Organisms – GMOs?
• Highly controversial, highly political and profitdriven discussions
• Zambia rejected in 1992 and continues to
reject GMOs
• Reasons: impact on agricultural infrastructure
(smallholders), cautions about health
(Cartagena Protocol), ethical concerns
Right to Food
But aren’t GMOs needed to fight hunger?
• Local farmers need infrastructures – e.g.,
irrigation, roads, storage sheds
• Need extension services for training, market
advice
• Need local seed enhancements
• Need sustainable agricultural techniques
• Don’t need MNC capture!
Jacques Diouf, FAO
Right to Food
Argument at high levels
• International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for
Development (IAASTD) emphasises small-scale
farmers as key to food security
• UN Special Rapporteur on right to food, Olivier
De Schutter, emphasises need to protect
smallholders against agribusiness companies
Right to Food
SCIAF and Food Policy Initiative in Zambia
• Not simply a matter of charity, but of
development, of justice….
• Challenge to make best use of abundant
resources
• With financial support of Scottish
Government, a creative effort to produce
more food in a sustainable fashion
Right to Food
Consortium of four partners
• Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) –
small scale farmers trained for “conservation
farming” and organic agriculture
• Diocese of Livingstone – southwestern Zambia
• Catholic Relief Service – western Zambia
• JCTR – advocacy work to promote
Government and public policies
Right to Food
Hunger and the Right to Food -- so what can
you do?
• Political level – lobby around international
policies – AFJN and other campaigns
• Economic level – where do you shop and for
what?
• Personal level – vegetarianism makes sense!
• Spiritual level – enjoy good food, but
remember “give US our daily bread”!
Right to Food
Can we make a difference?
Yes –
–that is our hope!
–that is our task!
–that is our prayer!
Right to Food
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
JESUIT CENTRE FOR
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
www.jctr.org.zm