Hunger Banquet
Oxfam America
Text adapted from
Oxfam Hunger
Banquet materials
Introduction
• The world grows more than
enough food to feed
everyone, yet
– More people are hungry today than
ever before
– an estimated one billion,
– one in five persons worldwide
• One of every three children
is chronically malnourished
– too hungry to lead an active, healthy
life
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/470000/images/_473469_child.jpg
Introduction
• One-third of the grain
grown in the world
– and one-half of the fish
caught
– are fed to animals in rich
countries
• U.S. daily per person
calorie supply is 3,671
– almost twice that of
Sudan’s: 1,974
• fewer calories than needed
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/CA25677D007DC87D/LUbyDesc/feedlot1995/$File/fe
edlotcofp1995.jpg
to maintain a productive
life
Introduction
• Sub-Saharan Africa
– 1 in 3 people are
malnourished
– half live on less than $1 a
day
– 30 million people required
emergency food aid (2005 )
Niger
http://www.feedthechildren.org/images/niger/pic_grouppeople1.jpg
• The roots of hunger lie in
– Poverty, war, and the unequal
distribution of resources,
– Not in Overpopulation.
– Many well-fed countries have
more people than hungry ones.
• Holland
– a high-income country
– has over 1,000 people per
square mile
• Mozambique
http://www.hotelsbycity.net/images/travelguides/eur/netherlands/amsterdam-big.jpg
http://www.theworldrace.org/inc-imageresize.asp?path=/blogphotos/theworldrace/sarahbullers/sarah_044.jpg
– one of the world’s lowestincome countries
– has only 48 people per square
mile
• The roots of hunger lie in
– poverty, war,
– unequal distribution of
resources
– Not in Natural Disasters.
San Francisco
• Five years of drought in
California
– resulted in no direct loss of
human life.
• Five years of drought in
Ethiopia
– over a million people died
Ethiopia 1983
http://www.inspi.ufl.edu/fuel07/graphics/California%20-%20San%20Francisco%20Painted%20Ladies%20Hz.jpg
Oxfam Hunger Banquet
• Everyone on earth has
the same basic needs
• only our
circumstances differ
– where we live and the
culture we are born into
• Some are born into
relative prosperity and
security
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1091/1388995699_2a369f3a56.jpg?v=0
http://www.cfnpp.cornell.edu/images/razfam.jpg
– While millions are born into
poverty
• by no choice of their own
The High Income Group
• If you ended up in the
high-income group
– You represent the 15
percent of the world’s
population
• fortunate enough to
afford a nutritious daily
diet
• You live primarily in
Relative World Wealth
http://www.dba-oracle.com/images/gnp_country_map.jpg
countries like
– the United States, Australia,
France, Switzerland,
– most countries in Western
Europe
The High Income Group
• As members of this
group, you share the
following characteristics:
– Your average income is
over $9,076.
– The leading cause of death
among you is heart
disease and diabetes
• directly related to your
over-consumption of fatty
foods
– particularly red meat
http://www.jbutlersbarandgrille.com/images/menu/Steak.jpg
The High Income Group
– Health care is more readily
available to you.
– In the U.S. there is one doctor to
every 470 people
• compared with one doctor per
7,140 people in Haiti
– In general, your children are
healthy and your infant mortality
rate is low
– Though you are well-off, millions
of your fellow citizens live below
the poverty line.
• Most of them are women and
http://www.bioquell.com/Pictures/Nurse%20&%20Girl.JPG
children who lack access to
adequate services.
The High Income Group
• You could be:
– Jennifer, an attorney
• who lives in an affluent
suburb of Boston
– with her husband, an
accountant, and two
children.
– Shinji, a well-traveled
Japanese engineer
• who lives in a
comfortable onebedroom apartment in
Tokyo
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/136465405_fc192f56b8.jpg
The Middle Income Group
• Those in the middleincome group represent
roughly 25% of the
world’s population.
• There are more countries
in this group than in the
high-income group
Iranian Woman
http://shahrzaad.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/hijab2.jpg?w=385&h=296
– countries like Bolivia, the
Philippines, Turkey, Costa
Rica, and Iran
The Middle Income Group
• What are your common characteristics?
– Your average income ranges from $9129,095.
– Your children are six times more likely to
die of hunger and related diseases
• than if they lived in a high-income country
– You must use 35% of your income to feed
yourself,
• compared with the 15% people in highincome countries spend
– Your economies are crippled by foreign
debt.
• Debt payments can consume half of your
Mexico Market
governments’ earnings
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/LPIPOD01/BN1221_18~Stalls-in-Liberty-Market-Guadalajara-Mexico-Posters.jpg
The Middle Income Group
• You could be:
– Simcha, a man in his thirties, who
operates a postcard stall in the
ancient city of Jerusalem to feed
his four children
– Lucia, a schoolteacher in Prague,
in the Czech Republic
• who takes in sewing to earn extra
income to support her aging parents
and her children
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/2354495504_4a0f6f00b4.jpg?v=0
The Low Income Group
• You represent the majority
of the world’s population.
• You live in countries
where the average income
is less than $912 a year.
• Somalia, Honduras, India,
and Vietnam are among
the countries in this group
Child labor, India
http://wells086.googlepages.com/childholdingbricksinIndia.jpg/childholdingbricksinIndia-medium.jpg
The Low Income Group
• As a member of this group, you
share these characteristics:
– You are chronically
malnourished and eat only
2,205 calories a day
• less than the amount needed to
lead a healthy, hard-working life
– You cannot afford to own or
buy land
• even land farmed for centuries
by your ancestors
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/images/poverty_africa.jpg
The Low Income Group
– You may work on a hacienda or large
plantation
• that produces crops such as bananas, sugar, and
coffee
• for export to high-and middle-income countries
• yet you and your family don’t get enough to
eat.
– The combined debt owed by all of your
governments to wealthy nations totals $1.3
trillion
• more than $200 per person
• and continues to rise inexorably.
– Unemployment and hardship in the rural areas
is driving you into cities
• where you face even greater hardships
http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/BUSINESS/09/11/chiquita.terrorism/art.colombia.banana.afp.jpg
The Low Income Group
• You could be:
– Farida, who lives in India
where the forests have nearly
disappeared.
• Her people have become
nomads, wandering in search of
the water needed for sustenance.
– Pierre, a farmer in Haiti who
rents a hillside plot from his
landlord.
• In the dry season when nothing
Haiti farmer
http://lukesmission.net/farmer.jpg
will grow, he will make charcoal
to sell for the price of a few day’s
food