Myth 2: Nature's to blame for famine

Reality: It's too easy to blame nature. Human-made forces are making people increasingly vulnerable to nature's vagaries. Food is always available for those who can afford it; starvation during hard times hits only the poorest.

Millions live on the brink of disaster in South Asia, Africa and elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid. Natural events rarely explain deaths; they are simply the final push over the brink. Human institutions and policies determine who eats and who starves during hard times.

Likewise, in rich countries many homeless die from the cold every winter, yet ultimate responsibility doesn't lie with the weather. The real culprits are an economy that fails to offer everyone opportunities, and a society that places economic efficiency over compassion.

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Additional Resources

What We Do - Gorta

Hunger Task Force - Irish Aid

World Hunger - WFP

Special programme for food security - FAO

World Hunger Facts 2009 - Hunger Notes

World Hunger and Poverty - Global Issues

Hunger Fact File - DevelopmentEducation.ie

Food Crisis - World Bank

Millennium Development Goals - United Nations