World Hunger To Grow, Food Prices Double

One of the most damning facts in this article on world hunger is the fact that in the USA we think it is perfectly ok to use corn to fill up our SUV's while 1 in 7 in the world are hungry & thousands die each day (mostly children) from hunger & related diseases ... the medicine exists ... so does the food ... we throw away enough to feed the whole world ... the karma bitch slap that is coming America's way is going to be horrendous ...

World Hunger Issues To Grow As Food Prices Double, Study Says

A young Guatemalan father works six days a week, 10-12 hours a day as a harvester on a plantation -- but some days he and his family go hungry.

The Guardian tells the family's story as an example of complex hunger issues worldwide -- which could get worse.

Global food prices could double in the next 20 years due to a population increase, oil price hikes and climate change, according to a new report by Oxfam, an international charity that addresses poverty issues.

The world's poorest people spend up to 80 percent of their income on food and will be most affected. According to Reuters, Oxfam Chief Executive Barbara Stocking says the number of people going hungry is going to increase with all of these problems.

The Guardian says the the Guatemalan family's plight is also a prime example of the broken power structure of the food system. The country is a major food producer for the rest of the world. Yet it has has one of the highest child malnutrition rates across the globe.

Oxfam says government regulation is partly to blame:

"The failure of the system flows from failures of government...which mean [sic] that companies, interest groups, and elites are able to plunder resources and to redirect flows of finance, knowledge, and food."
Specifically, the report says India doubled its economy but didn't help the poor and that the U.S. ensures 15 percent of the world's maize goes to engines, even during food crisis. The report also blames traders, who control the world's grain, saying they drive up volatile food prices and gain a profit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/world-hunger-oxfam-study_n_869414.html