Causes of World Hunger

Hunger may be one of the most serious and least understood of all world problems. Many people believe that hunger is the result of a lack of available food, which is a myth that is perpetuated by many well-meaning news organizations. Discussions of famine and drought make it seem as if hunger occurs because there is simply not enough food to feed people. The reality is that worldwide food supplies significantly exceed worldwide food demand. Moreover, even in those countries with excess food production and the means to distribute food to starving people, people starve. Instead, there are a multitude of causes of the world hunger problem: poverty, free market economics, large land ownership, food exports, diversion of land to non-food production, foreign aid, and last, but certainly not least, misconceptions about the causes of poverty that perpetuate, rather than alleviate the problem.

Without discussing the...
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