Hunger Amidst the Food

With World Food Day having recently passed, a bit about the state of the global food supply seemed in order. This article from GNN sheds some light on the bleak picture facing many around the world, and the privilege that those in the U.S. continue to enjoy in the face of such brutality. The authors, Moore Lappe and Lappe, drive home the point:

Because the poor can’t exert “market demand,” 70 percent of the world’s agricultural land is devoted to grazing and crops that become feed for factory-farmed animals — all to produce meat priced beyond the affordability of the poor and hungry.

...on the concentration of the food "business" into just a few hands:

Consider that today the four largest beef processors control 81 percent of the market or that the four largest grain processors control 80 percent of the soybean market. One company — Monsanto — controls more than 90 percent of the market for genetically modified seeds and Wal-Mart collects an estimated one in four food dollars spent in the United States.

Read the rest of the article: The Right to Food Means Freedom from Dogma - see what the rest of the world is doing, and what those in the U.S. would do well to start thinking about.