sbc IMPACT!

A Cascade of Hunger

May 20th, 2008 by Roger Ferrell
Posted in Missional, Roger Ferrell |

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.

The food situation was as bad as the famine that hit the country in the mid-1990s, which left as many as 2 million people dead, Seoul-based Good Friends — a Buddhist-affiliated group that sends food and other aid to the North — cited an unidentified North Korean official Friday as saying. “So far, mass deaths have not occurred as people have become more used to starvation than in the 1990s, but famine is a matter of time,” the official was quoted as saying by the aid group. Good Friends also quoted Kim Ki-nam, 39, a resident of Sariwon, south of Pyongyang, as saying one or two deaths were happening every day in rural areas around the city. - CNN

The bitter winter weather sweeping much of China has dealt a “catastrophic” blow to farm crops, a top official has warned, raising the possibility of food shortages driving up already-high inflation. - Al Jazeera

Zimbabwe’s food crisis will worsen this year because of a drought that has decimated maize and other key crops, the country’s state-run media have said… The US Foreign Agricultural Service has estimated that Zimbabwe’s maize harvest will be 850,000 tonnes this year, less than half of the amount needed to meet domestic consumption. - Telegraph UK

In Bosnia, the price of basic foodstuffs is putting a terrible strain on the population. Especially affected are milk, bread and cooking oil, the staples that are crucial for vulnerable groups. -Catholic Relief Services

In Burkina Faso, a middle-class family of seven now spends 75 percent of its monthly revenue on food costs alone, and still needs extra money to pay for other household costs like rent, medical expenses and utilities. - World Press

The number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing at the rate of 4 million people a year. The World Bank estimates that already this year 100 million people have been pushed into poverty due to increasing food prices. And the problem is compounding because many poor people in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean are selling their tools, tin roofs or shoes for food. Without these, they cannot sustain their work or means of living. -Asia Times

Shortages are real. The Financial Times reports that rice stocks have fallen this year to about 70 million tons, the lowest level in 25 years and less than half the total held in global inventories in 2000. Wheat inventories, called “carry-overs” in the trade, are at 30-year lows even though world wheat production was actually up 1% last year. In the past year, reports show, wheat inventories in the European Union have plunged to 1 million tons from 14 million tons. A leading Canadian fertilizer executive told analysts recently that according to his company’s calculations, global grain reserves are “precarious,” at just 1.7 months of consumption, down from 3.5 months of reserves as recently as 2000. - MSN Money, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks. At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. “Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.” - New York Sun

The “silent tsunami” of the world food crisis threatens millions of vulnerable children and families in poor communities on every continent. The combination of rising fuel and food prices, lower than normal food production and the increasing demand for grain by the bio-fuel industry, has resulted in food shortages around the globe, and it is the poor who are suffering the most. In many countries where Food for the Hungry currently works, food insecurity is growing rapidly and many households are unable to feed their families.” - Food For The Hungry website

What we are seeing is unprecendented,” says Catholic Relief Services food aid expert Lisa Kuennen-Asfaw. “If immediate needs are not met, and if resources and policies supporting increased agricultural production are not put in place soon, we are heading for a cascade of hunger the world over.” -Catholic Relief Services website

It may be hard for us in the calorie-rich USA to comprehend, but many people in the world are running out of food. The news stories above tell the tale, but it is easy to miss this crisis since the aisles at Ingles, Publix and Kroger are stocked full. Yes, milk and eggs and restaurant meals are more expensive than they were a year ago, (and the prices will go higher as gas prices do) and yes, Costco is rationing rice to (gasp) one bag per family per week. But most of us here cannot even remember a time when we went hungry. Hunger, for most of us, happens when we smell food that we like, but most of us don’t eat because we are hungry. We eat because we want to, because it is part of our schedule, for the social time with friends or family, or even because we are bored. Fasting, for USA Christians, is a spiritual discipline and a rarity. Fasting, for most of the world, is a physical and economic necessity and happens all too frequently. So can we even motivate folks here to do something about the world food crisis and hungry people, especially when much of our extra income is spent on higher-priced food and fuel?

I think the church here can, and should, do something about this problem. There are many fine organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, Food for the Hungry and others that would welcome your prayers and giving. Praying daily for the hungry in the world and for those who might relieve them is time well spent. Giving to relieve the hunger is money well spent. But my family and I are also planting a huge garden and growing much of the food we eat. We will put some up for the winter as well, give some away and sell some at a farmstand I am building with scrap materials. We have planted a children’s garden at the church which is tended by our kids at both the church, a local homeschool group, and at Woodland Creek Academy, our preschool. Much of this produce will be given away to “Plant A Row For The Hungry.” We are also offering space for those in the community who want a garden but do not have room for one, with the stipulation that they tithe their yield to provide food for the poor. We regularly take up collections of food for those who do not have enough. And I am getting trained in agriculture (most recently, through the University of Georgia’s Master Gardener Program) enough to be able to help others here and as we go on mission know how to grow their own food.

Is your church taking action to solve the hunger problem?  What are you doing?