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Re: Food as a Right



Regarding Dan and Jim's comments-
	 I would contend that the very workings of the private sector under 
capitalism and the New World Order are such that they have both intended 
and "unintended consequences" far worse than those of the government 
programs criticized by Jim. Community (government) action is 
frequently needed in order to mitigate the worst effects of "the system."

	A specific initiative that I would offer is the following:
 
	In situations where there is sufficient food (such as in the US 
as well as many developing countries) it should be the community's 
(government's) responsibility to provide nutritious food to hungry 
people. This is especially so, where children's futures and very lives 
are at stake and where any perceived moral shortcoming of their parents 
should not be used as a reason to harm their children. Government 
solutions, even ones that don't resolve all the problems, can work. The 
various US anti-hunger programs (including WIC, school lunch, food 
stamps, etc.) were reasonably effective in reducing the amount of hunger 
in this country. Were there problems and/or abuses with these programs? 
Certainly, but probably not much different than those of other government 
programs. 

	In situations where there is insufficient food in the country or 
community - local self sufficiency, as Jim pointed out, is certainly the 
key to the long term solution. However, I would still suggest that we 
have a moral responsibility to keep these people going (alive) until 
local food self sufficiency has be achieved.

	As long as one believes as I do that the reason most people are 
poor and/or hungry is not because of some moral problem in themselves, 
there can be only one response to these problems. But even if one 
believes as some, that the problem results from some moral "deficiency" I 
would still hope that malnutrition and starvation would not be used as 
the weapons to try to change such behavior.

FRED

PLEASE NOTE: new email address---    fmagdoff@zoo.uvm.edu

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				Fred Magdoff 
			Northeast Region SARE Program
				Hills Building
			    University of Vermont
			    Burlington, VT 05405
			       tel:802-656-0472
			       fax:802-656-4656
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