Conflict, Corruption Greatest Causes of Hunger
New book paints painful portrait of world hunger, displacement.
Mike Wilson
Published: Oct 1, 2009
That is one of the many profound truths in Fragile: The Human Condition ($35 National Geographic online - see link below), a book of tremendous impact for anyone concerned about world hunger and displacement.
With his own words and photos, Howard Buffett offers readers a shattering portrait of despair for some four billion people in 65 nations, predominantly in Africa and Central America.
U.S. farmers with interests in feeding others will find this a compelling read, especially since Buffett himself is an Illinois farmer and philanthropist who also serves as United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Against Hunger. His philanthropic foundation provides millions in funding for projects that help boost food production in hungry nations.
Reconciliation is a long and sometimes difficult process. Soldiers are shown planting sweet potatoes alongside farmers in a government project. When demobilization is completed, many of these soldiers will return to farming. (Burundi) But boosting production is not the only answer to hunger, as Buffett discovered when he began photographing and meeting the people found in his book. Political strife, corruption and lawlessness hurt people much more than droughts or floods.
"Sixty percent of hunger in Africa is caused by conflict, and it's the nastiest conflict you can imagine," says Buffett. "The average time a person spends in a refugee camp is 17 years. You've ruined two generations of lives in that time - parents who have been driven from their homes and livelihoods, and kids who never get an education."
This woman makes drying rice look like an art form. This is a common sight throughout Africa. (Ghana) The book is an effort to move the intellectual discussion over hunger more closely toward reality, and provoke a more determined effort to find solutions.
Conflict is caused by a number of things: religion, ethnic cleansing, or desire to control resources or power. In any case, when people are driven from their homes, they rarely return. Case in point: The August 2008 war between Russia and its former satellite Georgia, where people, including farmers, were forced to flee their homes.
"They had to leave their tractors, implements and homes, and the likelihood of them returning in their lifetime is very low," says Buffett. "What if in Central Illinois every five or ten years, you had your tractors blown up, grain bins trashed, and you couldn't build any business long-term? That's what it is like in these regions."
A young boy collects cow dung to use for cooking at home. Competition for limited resources takes a toll in various ways - in this case, organic fertilizer to increase soil fertility is claimed for immediate needs such as cooking fuel. (Ghana) Buffett has authored seven books on conservation, wildlife, and the human condition. Before he began his extensive travels, Buffett believed - like many U.S. farmers - that Africa's problems could be solved with better seed and fertility. "But that's not the way it is once you've been there," he says. "You can't just put in large-scale ag like we have. To say the only way to fix hunger is to increase productivity is not dealing with the reality of the situation."
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an on-going civil war is the most deadly since WWII, killing 5 million people since 1998. "In the last decade three different rogue military groups have been as strong as or stronger than the government military," says Buffett. "Conflict occurs and continues because weak governments don't have the resources to stop it. That's so hard for Americans to get their heads around."
As a result, Buffett believes wealthy nations like the U.S. might be better off spending more time at peacekeeping and conflict resolution. "Raising yields is always the focus of the debate and that's easier to talk about, but resolving conflict is even more important," he says.
The book has a revealing section on the stark differences in farming around the world. On one page a picture of corn harvest in Illinois, with 71 tons of corn transported by modern tractors; on the opposite page, women struggle to carry a few pounds of corn in baskets as they walk from their fields.
The disparity is illuminating, to say the least.
The book can be ordered at Fragile. The purchase of the book supports the charitable missions of National Geographic.
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Tagged: hunger, tractors, Harvest, farming, United Nations
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