Social and political causes of hunger 231
Social and Political Causes of Hunger
Hunger may be caused by many things, such as poor soil, changes in climate,
lack of access to water, and so on. But in most communities, hunger is also
caused by poverty. When there is little or no income
for farmers, or little money to buy food,
people go hungry. To understand the
root causes of poverty and hunger in
one community, it helps to look at
the problems with food security
that affect every community.
The social and political causes of hunger
Corporate control harms food security
When food is treated as just another product to be bought and sold instead of
something all people need and have a right to, profit from selling food becomes
more important than feeding people, and community health suffers. Many
people now shop for food in stores owned by large corporations. They buy foods
made by large corporations, grown on land owned by large corporations, using
seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides produced by large corporations.
Corporate control of all parts of food security forces farmers out of business
and off their land. When corporations use land to grow food to sell outside the
region, people living and working in those communities must eat food brought
in from elsewhere, if they can afford to buy it.
Corporations profit from this food “insecurity” as communities, and whole
countries, become dependent on the global market for food. When the market
fails to meet people’s food needs, people go hungry and corporations profit
further by selling food to governments to be distributed as food aid.
Until people have control of their food security, hunger will be the biggest
product of the corporations that control the production and distribution of food.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012