"It's very simple. The system that we have in place is totally upside down and backwards. We know how to feed the world. We know what the developing world needs to do, and yet we keep hearing more and more of the same."
"When food is made into a commodity in the international market, people starve... Food is a human right, not a commodity."
"75 percent of people who are identified as living in chronic hunger are the small scale food producers of the world. Don't send them food aid, give them back the markets."
--Anuradha Mittal, The Oakland Institute (a PHP partner and grant recipient).
The free market promise of development is clearly a broken promise. If you read last week's post from Anna and Frances Moore Lappe, you might like this video from Anuradha Mittal. In it she talks about the negative impacts of neoliberal trade on world hunger. She was in Louisville recently speaking to the Hunger Program and some seminary students about the TRADE Act.
The TRADE Act calls for a review of our current trade agreements before any new trade deals can be made. It outlines labor, environmental, food safety and other standards for future trade agreements, and requires the government to act on those standards. It's a comprehensive trade reform bill that would alleviate many of the underlying structural problems that cause hunger and poverty around the world.
The TRADE Act is before congress right now, and you can help! Go to the PC(USA) Washington Office website, type in your name and click send to email your U.S. Representative and Senators. Act now! It's simple and it will help.
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