Reasons for Global Hunger

In the November 1996 issue of Population Today, a publication of the UN Population Information Network, some of the following reasons were given for hunger around world:

• Poverty
• Population Growth
• Natural disasters
• Wars
• Migration/ displacement of populations
• Mismanagement of natural resources
• Inadequate supply of domestically grown foods
• High cost of importing foods
• Free market policies favoring exports over production for domestic use
• Concentration of land and capital in the hands of few
• Control of food trade by multi-national corporations
• Excessive consumption by affluent people in industrialized countries (and emulative peers in developing world)
• Women’s lack of access to credit, markets, technical advice, education and health care
• Earth reaching limits for food production