Timmer, C. Peter; Falcon, Walter P.; Pearson, Scott R.
Abstract
The juxtaposition of global food adequacy with widespread hunger raises a perplexing question. Because food is so basic to our physiological and emotional well-being, why do societies not work out mechanisms to distribute food more equally? Why must a food policy be more complicated than a set of international arrangements to move food surplus to deficit countries and domestic programs to funnel the food to the needy? Answering these questions requires an understanding of the nature and causes of hunger. Such an understanding reveals two separate but linked problems. One involves global grain markets, international trade, and price formation. The second problem is at the human level of chronic food deficits and the accompanying impairment of people’s lives. The global market and the human problems may seem only loosely linked. This section, however, analyzes how these connections dictate the nature of domestic food policy interventions needed to alleviate hunger.
