Reading response: “The scarcity fallacy;” Jenkins, Peterson and Scanlan

Hunger, or food scarcity, is one of the most pressing issues in the world today, but it’s hard to pinpoint its cause and how to remedy it. The world’s farmers are producing more food than ever before, and the amount of food per capita is also at an all-time high. Despite this, the problem of food scarcity is increasing as many people, especially in developing countries, do not have access to a reliable food supply. From a social science perspective, the amount of food isn’t the problem, rather the way the food is distributed and who can access it. Income, gender and class stratification allocate food to those who are deemed most worthy. This can be seen especially in third-world countries where there is little protection for the underprivileged.
The issue of food scarcity can be attributed to other factors as well. A statistic was cited in the article, stating that the amount of corn used to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV’s fuel tank could feed one person for an entire year. While I have my doubts about the actual validity of that figure, it brings about an important point. Much of the corn and other crops produced go into fuel production, not directly to humans, causing conflicts between competing interests. Finally, many countries are nearly entirely dependent on imports for their food supply. There are many reasons for this, including lack of agricultural knowledge and infrastructure. The only way to make these countries self sufficient is to give them the tools and knowledge to help themselves.
Before fingers are pointed and blame is placed, it is important to remember a few key things. Farmers produce for a perfectly competitive market, meaning they are price-takers, not price makers and most often have little control over where their crops are sold and how they are used. They cannot be blamed for world hunger. The long term solution is to strengthen the agricultural economies of developing countries and help them transition from subsistence farming to the large-scale type which will have the ability to feed that nation and generate income. Projects such as these are already underway in places such as Afghanistan where the US military is working to help farmers escape pressure from the Taliban to grow opium poppies and instead grow legal food crops. These types of projects are what may have potential to begin to alleviate the problem of world hunger.

Discussion questions:

At what level should the problem of hunger be addressed? On an individual basis, by country?

Whose responsibility is it to alleviate world hunger?

What does expansion of world agricultural markets do to the US agricultural sector?

Examples of US work to rebuid Afghan ag:
'Guard Farmers' join counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan
USAID Afghanistan: From Opium to Onions