The Politics Of Hunger

Originally published in 1987. This important and provocative book explains the persistence of hunger, poverty, and the lack of balanced development in many countries and the central role of agriculture in economic development. Most theories of agricultural development are based on the experiences of western Europe and the United States while the two models for successful "late development" have been Japan and the Soviet Union. This book surveys the evolution of agriculture under colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia and concludes that this long period distorted the development prospects for these areas and retarded the production of food. Under strong state capitalist governments, a few underdeveloped countries have broken the colonial patterns of development. However, other post-revolutionary societies are having far less success because of economic blockades and outside military intervention. While the primary focus of the book is on the short-run problems of inequality, the author examines the long-run ecological and resource constraints to a sustainable food system and raising the standard of living in the underdeveloped world.

Do people starve in democratic polities? It is often claimed that as government must respond to public needs in times of crisis, democracy has reduced famine in India since Independence. This book seeks to identify the processes which generate and perpetuate hunger in India, and what sort of intervention by public and private agencies are best suited to combat this problem. Drawing on fieldwork in the much publicised Kalahandi district, Bob Currie explains why problems of poverty and alleged starvation remain despite regular elections and extensive regional and national publicity.

In his study of the Allied blockade of 1915-1919, Vincent examines the rationale and impact of this first large-scale use of food as a weapon in the twentieth century. Vincent demonstrates that the collapse of the German war effort was induced as much by prolonged hunger as by military reversal. Under blockade since 1915, the starving Germans were, by 1918, in a state of growing anarchy. Remarkably, however, the armistice ending hostilities specifically required the continuation of the blockade until such time as German signatures had been affixed to a peace treaty.

The world has made progress against hunger and poverty, and we have the opportunity---now---to win changes that will reduce hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. God is calling people of faith and conscience to change the politics of hunger. "David Beckmann and Bread for the World have done an extraordinary job not only in providing positive responses in the fight against hunger but in helping to lead the way in terms of development and urging the United States to improve coordination and better target our investments and to learn from local communities." ---Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State "It has been my privilege to work with Bread for the World and witness their remarkable work on behalf of hungry people." ---Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Republican, Senate Foreign Relations Committee "I am delighted to endorse David Beckmann's new book. I have the highest regard for him and his work." ---Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Washington "This is a message for which the church and the world are hungry." ---Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America "When people of hope engage politically, effective change can and does happen. To learn how, read this book-and act!" ---Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church "David points to the potential for far greater progress if individual Christians and churches will continue to offer grassroots compassionate care to those in need, while also boldly challenging our government to more generously and wisely participate with us in the battle against poverty and hunger." ---Lynne Hybels, Cofounder, Willow Creek Community Church "Exodus from Hunger tells us how God is moving in history with a concern for the poor and invites us to join that movement." ---Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners "Beckmann tells the truth in ways that empower!" ---Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

A timely and provocative look at the role political developments and the biology of nutrition play in world famine

This book is an inquiry into the role of law in the contemporary political economy of hunger. In the work of many international institutions, governments, and NGOs, law is represented as a solution to the persistence of hunger. This presentation is evident in the efforts to realize a human right to adequate food, as well as in the positioning of law, in the form of regulation, as a tool to protect society from 'unruly' markets. In this monograph, Anna Chadwick draws on theoretical work from a range of disciplines to challenge accounts that portray law's role in the context of hunger as exclusively remedial. The book takes as its starting point claims that financial traders 'caused' the 2007-8 global food crisis by speculating in financial instruments linked to the prices of staple grains. The introduction of new regulations to curb the 'excesses' of the financial sector in order to protect the food insecure reinforces the dominant perception that law can solve the problem. Chadwick investigates a number of different legal regimes spanning public international law, international economic law, transnational governance, private law, and human rights law to gather evidence for a counterclaim: law is part of the problem. The character of the contemporary global food system-a food system that is being progressively 'financialized'-owes everything to law. If world hunger is to be eradicated, Chadwick argues, then greater attention needs to be paid to how different legal regimes operate to consistently privilege the interests of the wealthy few over the needs of poor and the hungry.

In An Ethnography of Hunger Kristin D. Phillips examines how rural farmers in central Tanzania negotiate the interconnected projects of subsistence, politics, and rural development. Writing against stereotypical Western media images of spectacular famine in Africa, she examines how people live with—rather than die from—hunger. Through tracing the seasonal cycles of drought, plenty, and suffering and the political cycles of elections, development, and state extraction, Phillips studies hunger as a pattern of relationships and practices that organizes access to food and profoundly shapes agrarian lives and livelihoods. Amid extreme inequality and unpredictability, rural people pursue subsistence by alternating between—and sometimes combining—rights and reciprocity, a political form that she calls "subsistence citizenship." Phillips argues that studying subsistence is essential to understanding the persistence of global poverty, how people vote, and why development projects succeed or fail.

Matthew Williamson's book argues that the representation of hunger and appetite was central to political debate in early modern drama.