25-2
The following discussion is based largely on our experience in Latin America,
where unfair distribution (of land, resources, and power) is a main cause of
malnutrition. Of course, the situation is different in each country and each village.
Let your students decide how much or how little of this discussion applies to their
own communities.
Poor nutrition and poverty
In most parts of the world, poor nutrition is closely linked with poverty. This
is so obvious that it might not seem necessary to say. Yet a surprising number
of programs do not look directly at poverty and its causes when they teach
about health and nutrition. If health workers are to help people get at the root of
their problems, however, the causes of hunger and poverty need to be carefully
explored.
The rich man’s explanation of hunger:
too many people,
too little land and resources.
The common explanation for the
increasing amount of hunger in the
world is that the population is growing
too fast: there are too many people
and not enough land, food, and resources to go around. Therefore, efforts
to overcome hunger have focused on 1) population control, 2) increasing the
productivity of existing farmland by using irrigation, high-yield crops, fertilizers,
and other Green Revolution methods, 3) opening up new farmland by using dams
and irrigation systems, and 4) massive foreign aid and food supplements in times
of famine.
All these activities combined, however, have not led to less hunger in the world.
Each has failed for a variety of reasons—but mainly because none combats the
underlying social causes of hunger.
1. Population control efforts have not had much success
because people with little economic security often cannot afford to
have small families (see p. 23-2).
2. The Green Revolution actually made the problem of
malnutrition worse in many areas. High-yield hybrids (artificially
bred varieties of grain) require expensive fertilizers, insecticides, and
irrigation. Persons who ended up growing these hybrids were mostly
the more fortunate farmers who could afford the extra expenses, or
who qualified for loans. Their increased production with hybrids gave
them an even greater advantage over the poorest farmers. Also,
it temporarily pushed down grain prices. This forced the poorest
farmers to sell their land to those growing the hybrids. The result:
more landless, underpaid farmworkers and more hungry families.
More food may have been produced through the Green Revolution,
but it was not available to those who needed it most. World hunger
increased.