I have reviewed The End of Hunger previously, but a brief review won’t capture the flood of thoughts hitting me.
The issue of hunger, poverty, or climate change relies on a main factor for motivation and action: panic. The fuel of any issue is the old news adage: “If it bleeds it leads.” There has to be a sense of things getting worse to keep an issue in front of people.
This book decidedly avoids this approach. They actually deliver good news on hunger and poverty. Their point is this: that doesn’t mean the work is done. As a matter of fact, what is left to do is harder and if we will give it attention, it’s possible. They hold out HOPE and I find this refreshing.
The goal of this group putting out the book is this: End food insecurity by 2030. It’s possible.
How do we know it’s possible? The facts are astonishing. Basically, the truth is we’ve cut world hunger and poverty in half in the last 25 years.
“Each and every day this year, nineteen thousand fewer children will die than on each day in 1990.” (p. 45)
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In 1960 there were more than 20 million children under 5 dying every year. That number is under 6 million this year. Because those issues surrounding infant mortality have been worked on over the decades, there are twice as many young children on the planet today, but hunger and poverty have continued to decline.
There is GOOD NEWS.
“In the past twenty-five years, we have lifted one billion people out of poverty and cut hunger in half!” (p. 46)
The issues in front of us, in spite of the good news, are tough. When you have good news, the flip side is that funding tends to get cut. Fewer dollars at a time when more innovative research is needed is a bad formula. We battle political will. We battle lack of knowledge. We don’t see the correlation of acting now (through funding) and having those “investments” actually be returned in the next two decades because people are living well, living longer, and are more productive.
Eradicating hunger is always more difficult than reducing it.
So… we need to understand there IS good news. We also need to realize the better news: If we will just keep pushing and not let up, we can truly see and END to hunger.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 