Hunger in the World

Hungry people are no longer a problem according to State Department analyst Dennis Avery, who says there is no huge reservoir of hungry mouths in the world.

This kind of thinking may be one reason why so many millions of hungry people around the world are looking for food through communism.

Ironically, two days later in The Times (April 28), a U.N. affiliated study group in Orange County was pointing out that in that county alone there are 320,000 people at or below the poverty level. And this is in an area that buys more Mercedes than Germany does and where a typical house on the hill goes for $500,000 up.

Avery was probably right about there being plenty of food, but wrong in implying that no one is hungry. People need to know that food must be distributed equitably so that everyone has enough; that surpluses wouldn’t be surpluses if gotten to those in need.

As early as 1976, with prompting from Bread for the World, the national Christian citizens’ anti-hunger movement, and others, Congress passed the Right to Food resolution. It affirms the right of every person in the country and throughout the world to food and a nutritionally adequate diet.

How tragic it is to have huge “surpluses” that the hungry cannot get to, and an Administration that keeps trying to cut allocations for food programs to help the hungry, and yet we spend $3,000 million each year to produce a feeling of increased insecurity.

What a wonderful day it would be if those resources could be used to develop worldwide systems for food distribution, water systems, medical facilities and other advancements for mankind--instead of greater profits for arms dealers!

JACK F. MILLER

Tustin