Food shortages at the household level Professor of Social and public policy Tiina Silvasti,...

Food shortages at the household level

Professor of Social and public policy Tiina Silvasti, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

tiina.silvasti@jyu.fi

Background and forthcoming…

• First World Hunger Revisited. Right to food or Food Charity? Graham Riches & Tiina Silvasti (ed.) PalgraveMacmillan (2014)

• The New Sosial Division. Making and Unmaking Precariousness. della Porta, Hänninen, Siisiäinen &

Silvasti (ed.) PalgraveMacmillan, forthcoming in October 2015

First World Hunger - Lessons

• Collection of 12 national case studies from wealthy countries, wich at aggregate terms, are food secure by internal production or import…

BUT • Where charitable food aid is established

• UK, USA, NZ, Australia, Canada, Finland, Estonia, Spain,Turkey, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa

Who are the hungry and why?

1. Domestic food insecurity has increased particularly since the global financial crisis 2007-09 (except in Brazil);

2. Food charity has expanded and became more deeply entrenched; and

3. Governments ignore their obligations under international law progressively to realise the human right to adequate food.

What’s the problem / solution?

4. People living outside or on the fringe of the labour market (un- or underemployed, pensioners, low paid jobs, precarious, indigenous) have difficulties to provide adequate food and nutrition 5. Food expenditures are the most elastic part of family budgets: often the only way to afford all the basic necessities (housing, gas, electricity, medications…) is to limit diets or go without eating.

What’s the problem /solution?

6. These problems – caused and strengthened by neo-liberal economic and social policies – cannot be solved by producing more food without any commitment to equitable distribution of food.

7. Food charity functions as a moral safety valve and de-politicizes first world hunger as an issue requiring the full attention of states and their governments. It is a part of the problem, not a solution.

What’s the problem /solution?

10. Charitable food aid as a practical response to hunger involves disturbing dilemmas:

By substituting for the role of welfare systems, institutionalised food aid programmes allow politiciansto neglect the problem of food poverty and de-politicize the hunger issue.

It deflects public discussion away from governmentalresponsibilities and the human right to food.

In spite of good will, charitable food aid is nothing more than a gift. It is not an entitlement that can be claimed by a hungry person in need of food.

Conclusions

• Ethical evaluation of food aid should adopt broad social and environmental justice view, if it wishes to advance ecosocial transition

• Justifiable food aid must meet all dimensions of justice (distribution, recognition, representation) → charity is not the solution, nor the waste

• Promoting sustainable and empowering, just food security will probably mean shifting the emphasis from production and distribution to access to food.