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HungerHunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts.
The term is commonly used more broadly to refer to cases of widespread malnourishment or deprivation among populations, usually due to poverty or adverse agricultural conditions; see famine and malnutrition for a discussion of this.
Hunger as a condition
The term hungry is commonly used simply to mean being ready for a meal. After a long time without food, the mild sensation of hunger associated with being ready for a meal becomes a progressively more severe sensation, until it becomes acutely painful. Prolonged hunger will drive people to eat substances with no nutritional value, such as grass and soil, simply to fill their stomachs. Eventually, after long enough without food, death will occur through starvation.
In contrast, fasting is the practice of voluntarily not eating for a short period of time.
Politics of hunger
As of 2004, hunger continues to be a worldwide problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "842 million people worldwide were undernourished in 1999 to 2001, the most recent years for which figures are available" and the number of hungry people has recently been increasing. [1]
There is a wide range of opinions as to why this problem is so persistent. Organizations such as Food First raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the "free trade" economic order associated with such insititions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to hunger, claiming that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.
See also
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World Hunger Notes
An on-line magazine about world hunger and poverty in the United States published by World Hunger Education Service
http://www.worldhunger.org/
Readings on Poverty, Hunger, and Economic Development
Fits lots of webpages together to present a coherent picture about the amount of food in the world, the role it plays in a capitalist economy, why people are poor, and what measures can be taken to eliminate poverty and hunger.
http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/legacy/hunger_readings.htm
HungerBanquet.org
Learn about hunger from the point of view of those who experience it every day. HungerBanquet.org is part of Oxfam's Fast for a World Harvest campaign, which raises awareness and funds to fight poverty world hunger.
http://www.hungerbanquet.org/
Action Against Hunger - USA
USA part of an international humanitarian network called Action Against Hunger.
http://www.aah-usa.org/
Bread for the World
Bread for the World stands in a long biblical and prophetic tradition of those who speak out boldly in defense of people who are poor, hungry and consigned to the margins of society. People of faith and conscience have long engaged in the struggle for a more just world. They have fought for the abolition of slavery, for an end to nuclear proliferation and for the respect of human dignity and freedom.
http://www.bread.org/
World Hunger Resource Center (WHRC)
A comprehensive respository of resources dedicated to ending World Hunger!
http://www.garvinweb.com/whrc
Vegfam
Feeds the hungry without exploiting animals.
http://www.veganvillage.co.uk/vegfam/
FRAC - Consequences of Hunger
Short factsheet. Hunger impacts on health (physical and mental), literacy, intelligence, child development, education, and infant mortality.
http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_the_us/health.html
UNICEF: The State of the World's Children 1998
Overviews the scale of malnutrition and causes, lists solutions, gives a scientific role, and provides statistical tables .
http://www.unicef.org/sowc98/
Still Hungry
Position paper on world hunger, showing it has little changed in a quarter century, with more children than ever going hungry.
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/jan97bacon.htm
NomadNet
A collection of unorthodox views on aid and relief operations: Many articles suggest charities are partially to blame for hunger in Africa becasue they ignore evidence about hunger in order to fatten their coffers.
http://www.netnomad.com
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy is an education-for-action center and non-profit think tank focusing on issues of hunger, food, poverty, agriculture, trade, and rural development, guided by the principle that food is a fundamental human right.
http://www.foodfirst.org
Fidel Castro Speech
The Cuban president presents appalling statistics on the hunger of children and other issues at the 50th World Health Assembly, May 1998.
http://www.ldb.org/castro.htm
Is it sustainable to spend this much on lipstick and pet food?
Hope Magazine suggests from U.N. world data that what people in U.S. spend on cosmetics and pets could more than feed the whole world.
http://www.hopemag.com/issues/11-12-98/ed-n-d98.htm
Food Dumping (or Aid) Maintains Poverty
Looks at the effects of food aid to developing countries in non-emergency situations. Additional links, articles and research are provided, including links.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/FoodDumping.asp
Hunger: Myths and Realities
Contains myths about world hunger and their respective truths.
http://www.rehydrate.org/facts/hunger.htm
The Hunger Site
Includes facts as well as a form for making donations.
http://www.thehungersite.com/
Environmental Literacy Council: Food and Hunger
Articles critical of agribusiness, pesticides, and genetically engineered plants.
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/category.php/6.html
RESULTS
Nonprofit, grassroots citizens's lobby working to create the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty, and committed to having individual citizens have a breakthrough in realizing their own personal and political power.
http://www.results.org/
Congressional Hunger Center
A non-profit anti-hunger leadership training and a bi-partisan organization, serves as a center where the anti-hunger community can discuss creative solutions to end domestic and international hunger, located in Washington, DC.
http://www.hungercenter.org/
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