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New efforts to end global hunger… and global hypocrisy too?

Francisco Miraval

Just a short time ago the Global Summit on Sustainable Development took place in New York under the auspices of the United Nations. Representatives from many countries and organizations adopted a plan to end hunger and poverty by 2030, and ambitious and worthy goal we should all support.

More than 150 global leaders met to debate the new Goals for Sustainable Development with the overall goal of coordinating efforts to eliminate hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the next 15 years and, at the same time, promoting a “better care” of the planet and a society where “all can achieve their potential”.

The challenge, of course, is enormous. At this time, there are 7.2 billion people on this planet. According to the World Bank, more than one billion of earth inhabitants face hunger and live in poverty. In other words, almost one in seven people in the world lacks the resources needed to access to enough food.

There are many reasons to explain such a clearly unacceptable situation. Wars and armed conflicts appear at the top of the list, followed by tyrannies, corruption, epidemics, and exploitation.

For example, people trying to flee from the most affected areas move in mass to better places where they hope to find an opportunity to avoid hunger and poverty. Yet, those massive migrations (for example, what is happening now in Europe with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of immigrants and refugees) may not be the best solution.

Whatever the case, one in seven people in the world does not have enough food. Hence, the UN initiative to change that situation.

I was thinking about this issue and I couldn’t avoid comparing what is happening in the world with what is happening in Colorado, the state where I live. Colorado’s GDP is now around $310 billion, similar to the GDP of Denmark and just above Malaysia, Singapore, and Chile.

According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), in 2015 Colorado enjoys the fastest growing economy in the country and it is the “most competitive state” because of its solid economy. And according to Forbes magazine, Denver (the state capital) is the best city in the country to do business and to find a job.

In Colorado there are no wars, epidemics, tyrannies, or massive migrations. There is stability and an abundance of resources. In fact, the recovery after the economic depression that began in 2008 was so fast and it is so strong that Colorado’s unemployment rate is now just above 4 percent, against 5,5 percent in the country.

There is, therefore, no way to compare what is happening in Colorado with what is happening in the rest of the world. The socioeconomic conditions in Colorado are so good that there is no place for hunger here. Yet, there is. According to Hunger Free Colorado, one in seven persons in this state faces hunger, the same percentage of hunger detected in the world.

What, then, is the real reason for hunger?

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