The growing ranks of chronically hungry people in the world is a largely unacknowledged source of future political unrest and violence, former prime minister Joe Clark said last week.
Rich nations that could do something about it largely ignore the issue as they concentrate on problems that affect their wealthy club.
“There is an abundance of evidence of a growing food crisis in the world,” Clark told the annual meeting of CropLife Canada Dec. 4. “This issue is not receiving the attention it deserves.”
He said Canada could be a leader in pushing the world to deal with the issue but the political will seems lacking.
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Clark noted that when he was first elected to the House of Commons from a rural Alberta seat in 1972, most MPs had a direct connection to resource sectors like agriculture and fisheries. Many had been in those industries and others had family or ancestral ties.
It meant that most MPs took the importance of the food-producing sectors for granted and over the years concentrated on other priorities. As a result, food production and availability have fallen off the political list of priorities.
“The issue is not the strength of the farm lobby but the weakness of the food lobby,” said Clark.
He urged the food industry to make allies with environmental, aid and other organizations with an interest in world food and security concerns to pressure Canada to take the issue more seriously.
A start would be to restore agriculture and food as priority issues for Canada’s international development assistance programs.
Clark said chronic hunger is a clear danger to world security. Food riots during the past year created instability in many developing countries that could spread.
The former prime minister noted that during the past several years, growing population, climate change effects that damage crops and rising food prices have added more than 100 million people to the roster of the world’s chronically hungry or starving, driving the number to more than 900 million.
Every so often, the world notices, declares an emerging crisis and holds a conference, but nothing is done.
“The food crisis is not at all new on the ground where people starve,” he said. “It is worsening. And it is creating poverty and despair that can become incendiary.”
Clark noted a bias toward quick international action when developed-world countries are in crisis.
A Wall Street meltdown has produced quick government action to inject trillions of dollars into banking and mortgage sectors.
When Yugoslavia disintegrated, western nations including Canada quickly sent troops to try to keep the peace in the midst of a civil war.
But while the long conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken more than four million lives, only six soldiers from Europe are stationed there.
“It is the largest death toll since the Second World War.”
Clark said Canada can still “punch above our weight if we choose to” in convincing the world that allowing chronic hunger to exist is a recipe for future instability and disaster.
