In the second half of the 20th century, famine no longer is a scourge of nature but results from war, politics and other misdeeds of man.

Thanks to breakthroughs in science and agriculture, the world now produces enough food to feed every man, woman and child on the planet. But hunger and starvation persist. And in many places, they appear to be worsening.

Despite a worldwide glut of food, 18 million people die of starvation, malnutrition and related causes every year, according to a newly released Johns Hopkins University study. And more than 800 million people are chronically undernourished, U.N. statistics show.

More often than not, the reasons for this cruel paradox--hunger in the midst of global plenty--have little to do with natural causes. Of the millions who go hungry every day, "we estimate that only 10% are victims of disaster," said World Food Program Executive Director Catherine Bertini.

At last year's World Food Summit in Rome, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report identified some of the forces that create hunger: war and civil strife, misguided national policies, trade barriers such as crop subsidies, technology, environmental degradation, poverty, and gender inequality.

The most dramatic moment at the Summit came when Cuba's aging revolutionary Fidel Castro rose and asked the audience, "If the world has more than enough food to feed all its people, why should even one person starve? Why should even one child go hungry?

"Hunger, the inseparable companion of the poor, is the offspring of the unequal distribution of the wealth and the injustices in this world. The rich do not know hunger" said Castro. "What kind of cosmetic solutions are we going to provide so that in 20 years from now there will only be 400 million instead of 800 million starving people?"

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Famine

Since you've started this CD at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year. However, the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other so-called natural disasters, children are more likely to be starving because of man's inhumanity to man--war, embargoes, government corruption and economic oppression. Such as the insurmountable debt many developing countries' owe to international creditors who enticed them to take out huge loans and are now holding the debtor nations in economic slavery, extracting exorbitant interest rates that ensure that the poor grow poorer and the rich lenders grow richer.

While these children die of hunger, rich Western nations burn millions of tons of food a year to keep prices high. Famines are largely a result of Man's corruption and greed and unwillingness to care for others.

Former U.S. president General Dwight D. Eisenhower put the true cost of war in simple terms when he said,

The Gulf War alone cost the Allies a half billion dollars a day, or about $350,000 a minute.

A fighter plane costs around $25 million each.
A Tomahawk missile: about $1.3 million.
An air-to-air missile: $800,000 each.
Tank shells range from $2,000 to $36,000 each.

Translated into more everyday expenses, for the price of this one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.

Throughout the 2010's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!

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28. In spite of record high food production, more people go hungry than ever before. The UN Food & Agricultural Organisation reported that 460 million people are at the brink of starvation daily. Some 200 million children yearly slip into some form of mental retardation & blindness due to lack of food.

29. The WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates that about 4 million people a year die of starvation, or about 30 people every minute.

30. 12,000 square miles in Africa becomes desert each year due to over-deforestation & lack of fertilisers.

31. In 1980 the U.S. Presidential Commission on World Hunger said, "Food shortages may be more serious than shortages of energy within the next 20 years. Millions of human beings live on the edge of starvation. The most potentially explosive force in the World today is a frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair & often hatred that result represent a real & persistent threat to international order."

32. The EEC stores an estimated 800,000 metric surplus tons of butter, as well as 1,000,000 tons of surplus skimmed milk powder and 400,000 tons of beef, rather than sell or give it away.

33. The EEC spends about 14 billion dollars a year to help farmers produce unused farm surplus goods.

34. In the early 1980's the U.S. government spent 6.1 billion dollars over 3 years to buy & store surplus U.S. dairy products.

35. At the beginning of 1985, the U.S. Agricultural Dept. was storing 24 million metric tons of edible farm commodities. Farmers store about 7 million more tons of surplus grains.

36. The U.S. government stores in limestone mines in Missouri, about 61 million pounds of unused surplus dairy products. This would fill a train stretching from N.Y. city to Toledo.

37. U.S. taxpayers pay 275,000 dollars an hour to buy more surplus, and it costs 5,000,000 dollars a month to store it.

38. In 18 black African countries 20 million people face starvation. 60% of all Africans eat less than what the UN considers a daily survival diet.

"And there shall be famines …"

Are we living in a time of increased famine? The World Bank reported in September 1996 that more than 800 million people go hungry every day, and more than 500 million children do not get enough food to fully develop mentally and physically. "Some 40,000 hunger-related deaths occur every day, mostly in rural regions," bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin said. [7]

Lester Brown, president of Worldwatch Institute, a Washington think-tank, said, "Ironically, in an era of high technology, of space exploration, the World Wide Web, and organ transplants, humanity was suddenly struggling in 1996 with one of the most ancient of challenges--how to make it to the next harvest." Noting crop failures in 1995 and the current fragile state of world food reserves, he told a news conference, "We have definitely turned a corner." [8]

Like many experts, Worldwatch blames global warming for much of the hunger in the world. Its 169-page "Vital Signs 1996" report notes that insurance industry payouts for weather-related crop damage during the first half of the 1990s reached $48 billion, compared with $16 billion for all of the 1980s. [9]

Sir John Houghton, a climate expert and chairman of Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, warns that we have yet to see the ravages that global warming will wreak on the planet: "Forests will die, diseases like malaria will spread and starving refugees will wander across borders as weather becomes more extreme." [10]

If you read at an average speed, since you picked up this booklet at least 200 people have died of starvation. Conservative estimates say unless things drastically improve, over 4 million will die this year.

While it took all of human history to reach a world population of one billion people by the year 1830, it only took 100 years to add a second billion (1930), 30 years for the third billion (1960), 16 years for the fourth billion (1976), and 11 years for the fifth billion (1987). The world's population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by the year 2030. As the number of people increases, per capita availability of arable land decreases.

However, the fact of the matter is that the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other natural disasters, most starvation today could be avoided were it not for man's selfishness and inhumanity. War, embargoes, government corruption and economic oppression are all to blame. While innocent children starve, some rich nations destroy millions of tons of food in order to keep prices artificially high.

An article from the Associated Press tells us that the Bread for the World Institute expressed such sentiments in its fifth annual report:

"World hunger is rooted in a breakdown of humanitarian values," according to the organization, which lobbies for bigger anti-poverty programs.

Its report identified violence, political powerlessness, poverty, racial discrimination and environmental strains as the main causes of malnutrition. [11]

Famines are frequently war-related, so an increase in war will inevitably raise the specter of famine. Former U.S. President General Dwight D. Eisenhower highlighted the wanton wastefulness of war when he said,

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired is, in a sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." [12]

Here are some recent facts that put what Eisenhower said in perspective:

The Gulf War alone cost the Allies a half billion dollars a day, or about $350,000 a minute.

One fighter plane costs about $25 million.

One Tomahawk cruise missile: about $1.3 million.

One air-to-air missile: about $800,000.

Tank shells range from $2,000 to $36,000 each.

Translated into more everyday expenses, for the price of one Sparrow radar-guided missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years. Just two machine gun bullets cost about $1.50, or the price of a school lunch. On a typical Gulf War bombing run, a fighter bomber carried about $1 million in bombs and missiles. The cost of a routine patrol for one fighter plane, even if it didn't fire its guns, was about $10,000, just for fuel and maintenance.

These millions are peanuts, however, compared to worldwide spending on war. The authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that world military expenditures are averaging between $900 billion and $1 trillion a year. Using the $1 trillion figure, that means 2 million dollars are spent worldwide on the military every minute! A $30 billion, 10-year plan to provide clean water to the poor of the developing world would cost just 10 days of military spending. Eighteen days of military spending yearly could eradicate malnutrition worldwide. Experts believe that $200 million, or about 2 hours of military spending, could wipe out the diseases of diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles and polio, which together kill 4 million children every year. [13]

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines ..." (Matthew 24:7).

Former U.S. president General Dwight D. Eisenhower put the true cost of war in simple terms when he said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired is, in a sense, a theft from those who hunger & are not fed, those who are cold & are not clothed. (Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953).

The Gulf War alone cost the Allies a half billion dollars a day, or about $350,000 a minute.

A fighter plane costs around $25 million each.

A Tomahawk missile: about $1.3 million.

An air-to-air missile: $800,000

Tank shells range from $2,000 to $36,000 each.

Translated into more everyday expenses, for the price of this one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.

Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving!

Since you started watching this program at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

However, the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other so-called natural disasters, these children are more likely to be starving because of man's inhumanity to man--war, embargoes, government corruption and economic oppression, such as the insurmountable debt many developing countries' owe to international creditors who enticed them to take out huge loans and are now holding the debtor nations in economic slavery, extracting exorbitant interest rates that ensure that the poor grow poorer and the rich lenders grow richer. While these children die of hunger, rich Western nations burn millions of tons of food a year to keep prices artificially high. Famines are largely a result of Man's corruption and greed and unwillingness to care for others.