The conversation about food has been both lively and varied this week. Last weekend the New York Times released a feature about Stephanie Smith, a 22-year-old dance teacher whose life has been ruined as a result of eating a hamburger tainted with E. Coli 0157. This moving and educational account of the horror that results from willy-nilly food safety protocols, is a powerful reminder of how far we have to go in order to protect our food supply and our citizens. When asked to comment about meat companies like Cargill, where the meat was traced back to, Smith recounts in the video feature that accompanies the article, “I don’t know how these people sleep at night.”
While Kerri and I are vegan, and don’t eat meat, both of us were moved to sorrow and anger over what happened to this young woman. At the same time, we also, as always, understand the pain and suffering endured by the animal that was served to her. This situation was a double loss, both for the cow, and for Smith as well. As a result of reading this story, it was hard to feel sympathy for the “pain” of those who see the possibility of McDonald’s moving into the Louvre. At the same time, I totally understand their fury about the fact that fast food chain could move into the home of the Mona Lisa.
Yet, towards the end of the week, there was reason to rejoice as the House of Representatives approved an agriculture bill that increased funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps) by $4.3 billion dollars, as well adding $400 million dollars to the Women, Infant, Children feeding program (WIC), and to school aid and child care nutrition programs, who saw an increase of $1.9 billion dollars. We talk about the importance of programs like SNAP in our forthcoming book, and the challenges facing those in poverty within our country. There are those who exploit these federal assistance programs, like an extraordinary example this week where booze, porn, and viagra were being purchased, but the actual fraud rate is minimal (between 2 and 4 percent).
However, while there are 36 million people in the United States who are in need of assistance (12 percent of the population), there are billions of people around the world who have it much worse. Wealthy countries like the U.S., who give the most food aid to poorer nations, have slashed the amount they’re giving to the World Food Programme, leaving the United Nations feeding program about $2 billion dollars short. This means that 40 million people will be directly affected in the coming weeks. Josette Sheeran, head of the WFP at the UN told The Observer, that this could be the “loss of a generation” of children to malnutrition, food riots and political destabilisation. “We are facing a silent tsunami,” Sheeran said. One that she says we haven’t seen since the 1970s.
While this reality is hard to comprehend, Kerri and I were reminded on Thursday that there is hope. We had the chance to hear humanitarian and physician Paul Farmer speak on Thursday, and his level of commitment to those living in poverty across the world over the last 27 years was nothing short of inspiring. For those who have the chance to read “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” Tracy Kidder’s account of Dr. Farmer’s work in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, it is a fascinating and engaging reminder that the most important question that we can ask ourselves is this: How can I use my life to improve the world around me?
– Christopher
One Dollar Diet Project 
I fully agree with everything you say. But, food aid is often part of the problem in some countries. The aid money is a source of graft and corruption, which keeps dictatorships in power. They skim off money from the aid and then slow the delivery of the food.
The aid money also undercuts local farmers who can’t compete with free food. It depresses the market and puts them out of business.
The biggest problem is usually repressive governments, civil war or regional wars. This creates the chaos that starts the need for aid in the first place. We need to stop the conflicts/bad government first, that would allow people the dignity of creating their own economic worth.
One TED speaker has a better plan than aid – development. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elene_gabre_madhin_on_ethiopian_economics.html
Same thing is really true in the US too. Too much bad government for the last 20 years. We’ve allowed business greed to gut the underpinnings of this country. Now we’re paying the price – a broken treasury and high unemployment.
Food aid isn’t “the problem”…and the correlation between government corruption and poverty is not a strong one. Jeffery Sachs illustrates this clearly in his book “The End of Poverty” where Transparency International reports show that many of the poorest countries with corrupt governments still can have strong economic growth; as well as many other countries who have little to no corruption and still no economic growth. Having recently returned from eastern Africa, where I had several conversations about these issues, I can say with confidence that while development is essential (obviously), aid and investment are absolutely necessary. You can’t successfully “develop” a place where people are literally dying from starvation. Both are needed for successful rehabilitation.
The shortfall in aid for the WFP is going to kill millions of people…that is the bottomline.
Nice Blog And really good article! Thanks
I remember hearing about your eating on one dollar a day, and that it was a challenge to eat healthy, and that you would in the future trying to eat one dollar per day in a healthy way. I think one way to get rid of the tang could be to make tea from pine needles. This is healthy and has about 5 times as much vitamin C than a whole lemon. Also for some free greens dandelion leaves are edible. Acorns are also edible, but must be soaked 6 days with a change of water every day to release the tannins (black tea also has tannins, but they are bound in the milk we add to the tea)