POLS 2100: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
World Hunger: “A Social Creation”
Insight into Global Supermarkets and the „Invisible Food Revolution‟
Suzanne Sammann
12/1/2011
“For over twenty years we have sought to understand why there is hunger in a world of plenty.
For us, learning had to begin with unlearning. Cutting through the simplistic and scary clichés
about hunger, we arrived at some surprising findings...” – Authors of World Hunger
Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
An Introduction.
By not exposing the root causes of the hunger epidemic, the people suffering from it are being deprived of the power
to fight hunger and overcome starvation. (p.255)
In their book World Hunger: Twelve Myths, authors Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph
Collins, and Peter Rosset, with geographer Luis Esparza, offer a socialist perspective of world
hunger. What they refer to as „myths‟ regarding the causes of world hunger include ideas like:
“There‟s simply not enough food,” “The free market can end hunger,” and “Free trade is the
answer.” The authors give strong arguments explaining why these are myths and expose deeper
causes such as resource misuse and degradation, governmental allocation of resources, „food
flight‟ and „supermarket redlining,‟ and the onset of globalization. The book explains world
hunger as a social and governmentally created epidemic which is an unnecessary and escapable
problem, not without hope of solving.
Myth 1: “There’s Simply Not Enough Food” – Or, the Myth of Scarcity.
“...Hunger is an outrage precisely because it is profoundly needless...Only when we free ourselves from the myth of
scarcity can we begin to look for hunger’s real causes.”(1. p. 14)
In the book, World Hunger, scarcity is addressed in terms of there being an insufficient
availability of food and social resources and that this is one of the common myths as to why
there exist so many starving populations, like those of India, Africa, and South Asia. According
to the statistics presented in the book, “The world today produces enough grain alone to provide
every human being on the planet with 3500 calories a day…”(1. p. 8) Yet still there are over 800
million people suffering from hunger around the world.(1. p. 255) Scarcity not only encompasses
the myth of there being a lack of food and the complaint of overpopulation, but also that draughts
and famines – climate and environment – are to blame.
The authors counter these arguments – or the „myths of hunger‟ – by saying that “scarcity
and overpopulation…are instead symptoms of the ever increasing concentration of control over
food-producing resources in the hands of the few.”(1. p. 255) They argue that exportation of
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Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
resources is a more likely contributor to hunger than scarcity and give examples of countries, like
India and Brazil, which export more food than what they use to feed their own populations:
“While at least 200 million Indians go hungry, in 1995 India exported $625 million worth of
wheat and flour and $1.3 billion worth of rice...” and “While Brazil exported more than $13
billion worth of food in 1994, 70 million Brazilians cannot afford enough to eat.” (1. p. 9-10)
These statistics may be nearly twenty years old, yet they are still currently relevant as the
„famines‟ in Africa rage on – famines which the book argues are caused more by social actions
than by environmental droughts. Another statistic given states: “78% of all malnourished
children under five in the developing world live in countries with food surpluses.”(1. p. 9)
Resource misuse and the degradation of resources is revealed in the devaluing of „food
crops‟ versus the high value the international market places on „cash crops‟ and the “unequal
terms of trade” imposed by first world countries upon third world countries. Resource
degradation is evident in the example that the U.S. government subsidizes agricultural producers
by use of tax payer dollars, allowing the sale of agricultural goods for much cheaper than what
third world economies can produce.(2) The book states this of U.S. agriculture: “Today 20% of
all farms are responsible for more than 80% of total production. Less than 4 percent of the largest
farms (with more than $1 million or more in sales) produce 66% of vegetables…and the U.S.
beef industry is dominated by just three transnational corporations.”(1. p. 101)
Resource degradation can further be seen within the international market with the
saturation of agricultural goods – or „food crop‟ items such as coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sorghum,
crop roots and many others. This saturation means that the cost of these goods is significantly
reduced and ultimately undervalued by first world countries. There is a monopoly sustained by
first world countries upon „cash crops‟ – items like cars, computers, and legal and bank services,
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Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
which are virtually only distributed by first world countries and for which tariffs do not apply. In
these ways the first world countries dominate over the third world, exacting structural violence
against the third world economy.(2)
Myth 7: “The Free Market Can End Hunger”
“…The market simply mirrors inequalities in wealth and income and should be seen for what it is: a useful tool for
distribution and nothing else. We must not delude ourselves into thinking that it registers the needs or wishes of all
people.”(1. p. 100)
The authors of World Hunger allocate three major flaws to the free market: “The market
responds to money,” “The market is blind” and, “The market leads to concentration.” They
illustrate the inequality in the allocation of resources by arguing that the market does not fairly
distribute goods necessary to the survival of a country‟s population, but rather it distributes the
items that will sell at the highest price – cash crops, not food crops. The statement “The market is
blind” refers to the unresponsiveness to evident destruction like production energy waste, the
irreversible depletion of fossil-fuels, “increased rural landlessness, the decline of whole rural
communities, and the shocking sight of farmers on food stamps.”(1. p. 100-101)
The description given of „concentration‟ described in the third flaw backs up the idea of
structural violence against third world countries. It also indirectly describes structural violence
further by saying, “Concentration of economic power directly contributes to hunger and
seriously compromises political democracy.”(1. p. 100) Contributing to the free market myth is
that the market “rewards hard work” when really it “requires hard work and production but
rewards only those who have considerable…wealth.”(1. p. 101)
The protest march which started on Wall Street in New York City in 2011, and rapidly
spread across the world can be viewed as a current example of this imbalance in wealth.
Protesters shed light on the differences between the “1%” – wealthy – and the “99%” of the U.S.
population who feel that they do not – and cannot – share in that wealth. It can be argued that the
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Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
U.S. government has been „selling out‟ its population for years and that the margin between rich
and poor has vastly increased. The protests could be seen as one of the ways the civil population
is retaliating against this gap. The first edition of World Hunger was written in 1986 at a time
when food chains – like McDonalds – were spotting the U.S. and now we see them across the
globe. The book has since then been updated and revised for a second 1998 edition, tracking the
increases in economic inequalities and this ever-flowing growth.
“Food Flight” and “Supermarket Redlining,” by definition, sum up both the mass closure
of small businesses in response to being muscled out by larger corporations and supermarket
closures within poorer neighborhoods so as to reduce loss of sales from lower class incomes who
can‟t afford to buy as much. The authors back these statements with the statistics that over the
span of a decade Boston lost 34 of its 50 supermarkets while L.A. lost 374 and Chicago lost over
500.(1. p. 102) Similarly this can be seen in the local communities of Salt Lake City. The „East
Side‟ of salt lake is flourished with large, remodeled Smiths Marketplaces which have resulted in
the dissolution of Albertsons, a smaller chain of supermarket, while the Smiths Market on the
west side of the freeway – a known „poorer‟ area of the city – remains small and
underdeveloped.
Myth 8: “Free Trade is the Answer”
“Globalization is the buzzword…always seeking the lowest wages, the most lenient regulations, and the cheapest
resources.”(1. p. 113)
Free trade regimes – such as NAFTA, the EU, and MERCOSUR – have rules and
procedures on tariffs which do not apply to agricultural goods but only to industrial and service
based goods. This grants richer economies the freedom to exploit workers, import and export
goods at lower costs and in greater quantities, and to monopolize the international market. Free
trade is part of the liberal theory of I.R. and works to maintain the unequal terms of trade for
third world countries and instead most benefits the first world economies.(2)
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Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
According to World Hunger, when NAFTA was formed in 1994 the number of jobs it
created was nowhere near the number of jobs lost – for the U.S. job loss totaled 250,000 but for
Mexico there were 2 million jobs lost. The book continues to say that in Mexico average salaries
fell by 40% as 28,000 local companies were forced to fold. “Before NAFTA 32% of Mexicans
lived at or below the poverty line; that figure is now 51%.”(1. p. 116) Explanations for these
statistics are the integration of a smaller economy (Mexico‟s) with a larger one (the U.S.) and the
incorporation of mass-production companies. “The domestic industry [of Mexico] was largely
medium and small scale and could not compete with a flood of mass-produced goods...”(1. p. 116)
This is to say nothing of the outrage the U.S. nonetheless has for immigrants moving from
Mexico into the U.S., seemingly due to a problem the U.S. itself created.
Conclusion.
“Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that of the path not taken, for the postwar period has offered us relatively
successful examples of countries that have climbed out of poverty. But they have not so through free trade. They
have done it through inward-oriented development.”(1. p.119)
So rooted are the socialist beliefs of Moore Lappé, Collins, Rossett, and Esparza that they
began the Food First Organization in 1975, spreading the mission to “Eliminate the injustices
that cause hunger.” Resource misuse and degradation, governmental allocation of resources,
„food flight‟ and „supermarket redlining‟ are just a few of the root causes of those „injustices,‟
becoming increasingly problematic by the onset of globalization. The authors turn against free
trade and instead embrace fair trade, they send out a call for the market to start responding to
human needs and preferences through improved and reformed government policies. “...Their
message swiftly demolishes the myths and powerfully arms us for the political task of ending
hunger...”(3)
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Suzanne Sammann
POLS 2100: I.R.
December 1, 2011
Bibliography
1. Moore Lappé, F., Collins, J., Rosset, P., Esparza, L (1998). World Hunger: 12 Myths New York. Grove Press
2. Class Discussion (2011). POLS 2100: I.R.
3. Commoner, B. (2011). Food First; Retrieved 28 Nov. 2011 from
http://www.foodfirst.org/en/store/book/World_Hunger
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