By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Best known in philanthropic circles for its efforts to reduce polio worldwide, Rotary International also hosts initiatives with respect to other health issues, including global hunger.
The purpose of the World Hunger Symposium at Rotary’s District 6560 conference on May 3 was to give Rotarians a sense of what is causing high food prices and rioting; the speakers, who included fellow Rotarian Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), also called members to think about how to better dedicate the organization’s resources toward improving nutrition worldwide. “The world has a tough time coming together to address really tough issues,” noted Jim Morris, president of the Indiana Pacers and a former executive director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme. “But Rotary … Rotary has immunized 2 billion people against polio in the last 25 years” by reaching out to other international organizations and governments. “It’s a remarkable accomplishment.
“When you know someone and you have a relationship with someone, everything is possible,” he added, referring to Rotary’s goal of fostering peace through members who are business and legislative leaders making friends with their counterparts all over the world, and solving many problems through this type of personal diplomacy.
Morris said there are 850 million poorly nourished people in the world, and the majority of that “falls disproportionately on the backs of women and children.” The U.N.’s goal is to cut this number in half by 2015, with the help of groups such as Rotary. His opinion is much of that effort should go toward children. “My faith teaches me that the life of a child in Africa or Bangladesh is worth as much as the life of a child in central Indiana,” he said. “Though, there are children in this country who go to school hungry, too.”
Dr. Robert Scott, chair of The Rotary Foundation and Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, said worldwide, 25,000 people die each day from malnutrition. What’s more, malnourished adults lose between 5-10 percent of their potential income because of lack of food.
Lugar said the problem in many developing nations is that the governments don’t spend wisely so that “the elite might meet up with the poor” with respect to food supply. Many of those also have poor transportation to get food from one place to another and inadequate storage facilities for harvested crops. Add to this the whole biofuel “food versus fuel” argument – which Lugar said has become “almost a theological debate at this point” – and his statement that 80-90 percent of the world’s oil is controlled by governments using it as a tool of political leverage, and the world has a rural food crisis.
“This is a very dicey situation,” he pointed out. “Agriculture and food and humanitarian work will not begin to work without a trading system as (that which is already in place) in manufacturing.”
This farm news was published in the May 7, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
