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10 THE RURAL VOICE
Jeffrey Carter
Foodgrains Banks' focus has improved
Jeffrey
Carter is a
freelance
journalist
based in
Dresden,
Ontario.
I had a problem with the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank when I first began
covering agricultural issues on a full-
time basis 15 years ago. There was
too much emphasis on simply
throwing food at hunger without
recognizing the deeper issues.
Sure, in emergency situations, food
aid is of crucial importance. How-
ever if that aid undermines the ability
of people to feed themselves, it can
be more of a liability than an asset.
That type of situation arises when
large shipments of food aid put
farmers living within famine -stricken
regions out of business.
Things are different today.
David Mayberry, an Ingersoll
farmer who helps co-ordinate the
Foodgrains effort in Ontario, says his
organization attempts to support
existing food -production infrastruc-
ture during a crisis situation because
local production is recognized as the
long-term answer to hunger.
The outlook of the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank has grown in other
ways. Following is an abridged
version of the organization's "Myths
About Hunger" pamphlet that was
released a couple years back. My
personal comments and elaborations
are in parentheses.
• Myth 1 — There's not enough
food to go around. (The fact is,
there's probably more than enough
food to go around. What North
Americans waste is probably more
than enough to feed the people of
several small countries. The
problem lies with distribution.)
• Myth 2 — There are too many
people. There are densely populated
countries where hunger is an issue
but there are other heavily populated
nations where abundant food resour-
ces co -exist with hunger. (While the
world might be a better place with
fewer human inhabitants, there's more
than enough resources to feed them.)
• Myth 3 — Nature is to blame for
famine. Food is always available for
those who can afford it. Human
institutions determine who eats and
who starves during hard times.
(This is a complex issue with valid
arguments both for and against. There
are sustainable efforts of production.
What's lacking is the collective will
of society to put them into practice.)
• Myth 5 — New technology is the
answer. (New technology, at least the
effort to force it on the world, prob-
ably creates more problems than it
solves. When technologies are devel-
oped, the goals should be to feed
people and support local economies,
rather than to maximize profit.)
• Myth 6 — We need large farms in
the developing world. Small farmers
often achieve four to five times
greater output per acre (in terms of
nutrient value) because of their
hands-on approach.
• Myth 7 — The free market can
end hunger. (The free market actually
promotes hunger with its winner -take -
all focus. Farmers, incidentally, are
motivated by things other than desire
to earn a profit. In Canada, they're
willing to work off -farm jobs in order
to sustain their fanning "habit.")
• Myth 8 — People are too hungry
to help themselves. (That may be true
in extreme cases of food deprivation.
People are motivated just by the idea
that they may be hungry in the future;
they don't need to feel the actual
pang of an empty belly to take action.)
• Myth 9 — There is little we can
do about hunger. The percentage of
people on the planet who are hungry
has declined substantially in the 20th
century despite the increased popul-
ation. The outcome of the war on hun-
ger will be determined by the decis-
ions and actions of nations and people.
You can learn more about the
Canadian Foodgrains Bank by calling
Dan Wiens in Manitoba at 1-800-
665-0377 or check their website at
www.foodgrainsbank.ca. There are
also numerous church -affiliated org-
anizations scattered across Ontario
that are involved with the effort.0