Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “Experts Worry About Feeding the World as Its Population Grows” (news article, Oct. 22):

The international community’s response to the global hunger crisis—to promote increased food production through agricultural innovation—is blind to the political realities that shape the global food security situation. Many countries around the world are able to produce much more food than is necessary to feed their populations, yet their citizens go hungry.

Among many reasons for this, two are particularly pertinent.

First, subsidies of corn and other basic food products in the United States and other developed countries drive down their prices, thereby discouraging production and devastating many agriculture-based economies in the developing world.

Second, the prevalence of foreign ownership of land in developing countries often means that land is used to produce food for export, rather than to feed the local population. Amid agricultural riches, the majority lives as peasants, unable to produce or buy their own food.

This is a political problem that demands a political solution.

Nicole Summers
Evanston, Ill., Oct. 22, 2009
The writer recently conducted independent malnutrition policy research in Nicaragua on a Fulbright grant.