Download  Myths on Hunger debunked.pdf

Thirteen myths about hunger….

In order to have a better grasp of what hunger is all about, it is important to debunk some widely held myths that don’t die easily.

These myths are often rather old and refer to past situations. For example, the perception of hunger as a consequence of food shortages fits rather well with explanations of famines of the past, but fails to explain most of today’s food crises.

These myths generally result from a superficial analysis of hunger-related issues in the media where time available to present news is very limited (from a few dozen seconds to a maximum of a few minutes!). The consequence of this situation is that the media usually limit themselves to presenting the immediate causes of hunger without taking time to understand underlying causes (the cause of the cause, and the cause of the cause of the cause…). This is probably why climate or weather (droughts or floods) are so often referred to in order to explain hunger without trying to find out why nothing has been done to prevent or alleviate the consequences of negative climatic events.

This superficial way of looking at hunger is one of the reasons why myths are so resilient and persist in people’s minds, preventing them from being fully aware of what has to be done to resolve the hunger issue sustainably.

We shall review some of these myths in the hope of finding the right words to finally banish them from the minds of our readers :

Myth 1 : Hunger is due to a lack of food availability [read]

Myth 2 : Hunger is the result of excessively rapid population growth [read]

Myth 3 : Hunger is a consequence of weather events or of war  [read]

Myth 4 : An increase in food aid would eradicate hunger  [read]

Myth 5 : There is nothing we can do about hunger [read]

Myth 6 : Most hungry people are in Africa [read]

Myth 7 : Hunger is best illustrated by pictures of skinny children in refugee camps [read]

Myth 8 : Hunger is a consequence of poverty [read]

Myth 9 : In periods of economic crisis, it is too costly to fight against hunger [read]

Myth 10 : The main issue to be resolved in order to eradicate hunger is price volatility [read]

Myth 11 : GMOs are the solutionfor eradicating hunger [read]

Myth 12 : Organic agriculture will never be able to feed the world [read]

Myth 13: Investment by large private corporations is the only means to solve sustainably the food and hunger problem [read]

Thirteen myths about hunger:

1. 1. Lack of food availability
   

2. 2. Population growth
   

3. 3. Meteorological events or war
   

4. 4. Food aid
   

5. 5.There is nothing we can do...
   

6. 6. Africa
   

7. 7. Pictures of children
   

8. 8. Poverty
   

9. 9. Too costly at times of crisis
   

10. 10. Price volatility
    

11. 11. GMOs are the solution to hunger
    

12. 12. Organic agriculture cannot feed the world
    

13. 13. Investment by large private companies is the solution