ABOUT |
| Since 1991, Reverend David Beckmann has served as president of Bread for the World, a Christian group which lobbies the U.S. government for policy changes to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world. Reverend Beckmann sees his fight against hunger as a way to connect the Christian faith and moral teachings with large scale economic poverty problems, like world hunger. |
| Prior to his position at Bread for the World, Reverend Beckmann spent 15 years as a World Bank economist. In this capacity, he played a prominent role in the Bank's heightened focus on poverty reduction, and fostered greater collaboration between the Bank and private voluntary organizations serving poor people. |
| He has written a series of books and articles on Christian faith and economics. Most recently, he coauthored, Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World. |
| INTERVIEW |
| I got interested in world hunger because of Christian faith. I grew up in a home that was concerned about problems in the world, and world hunger is one of the biggest ones. I was a student during the Vietnam period and that made me really interested in issues of global justice. When I was ordained to be a minister of the church, I was called to be a missionary economist--I think I'm the only one in captivity. The call from the church has always been to connect Christian faith and moral teaching with economic and poverty problems, like the problem of world hunger. |
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| "World hunger is the Holocaust of our time. A hundred years from now people are going to be wondering how did we stand by and let this go on, day after day." |
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| I think that world hunger is one of the top two or three moral issues of our day. I have a Jewish friend whose family suffered during the Holocaust of the Second World War. He says a hundred years from now people are going to be saying about us, 'How did they go about their day to day life when there were people starving on the other side of the world.' World hunger is the Holocaust of our time. A hundred years from now people are going to be wondering how did we stand by and let this go on, day after day. |
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| "That's about one child dying for every breath we take." |
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| Most of the hunger in the world is chronic hunger; it is a daily grind of poverty. Families who suffer from this kind of hunger almost never have enough food or other resources to be able to feed themselves adequately. These are just regular folks who happen to live in countries where most people do not have a chance to go to school. They are very vulnerable to disease, so they may be sickly. |
| Children are particularly at risk. About thirty thousand kids die every day in developing countries and about half of those deaths are hunger related. Thirty thousand, I counted one time, that's about one child dying for every breath we take. Every time you take a breath, a child's dying in a poor country. Half of those deaths are related to hunger. Those deaths are avoidable. These kids are dying of measles, they're dying of diarrhea. There's no reason those children should die. |
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| "For less than two cents per American per day, we could do our part to cut world hunger in half by 2015." |
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| People think that world hunger is a completely hopeless problem; it is sort of the emblem of hopelessness, but that's wrong. In fact, there are fewer hungry people in the world than there were thirty years ago, despite the population explosion. Thirty years ago about a third of the people in developing countries were undernourished. That's down to one fifth today. A lot of countries have been able to make really dramatic progress against hunger and we've learned a lot about how to make progress against hunger. |
| With a little bit more effort, especially by the U.S. government, we could accelerate progress against world hunger. In fact, it wouldn't really cost very much to make dramatic progress on hunger in the next fifteen years. At a cost of about one and a half billion dollars a year, the U.S. could cut world hunger in half by 2015. Now that's a lot of money, but it amounts to less than two cents per American per day. So for less than two cents per American per day, we could do our part to cut world hunger in half by 2015. |
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| "This really is a scandal, and it is contrary to American values." |
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| Part of the change involves changing perceptions. Americans' perception is that we are the most generous country in the world. They think that about fifteen percent of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid. That is way more than we actually give. All aid that is really relevant to poor and hungry people is about one half of one percent of the U.S. budget. |
| This really is a scandal, and it's contrary to American values. If Americans understood how little we give, I think we would support more charitable behavior by our government. |
| The polls show that Americans think a lot of our aid has gone to support dictators that are important to us politically and don't help their own people. They have heard that foreign aid programs are corrupt and that the money goes to the wrong places, so they are skeptical about what can really help. |
| But the best development assistance programs have been very effective. When people understand that there really is a chance to make a difference for hungry people around the world through their power as a citizen to influence what our government does, Americans are more than ready to do that. |
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| "We help people understand the U.S. government's policies that impact hungry people around the world." |
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| Bread for the World is a Christian citizens' movement. We organize mainly in churches and with other people of good will, and we help people understand the U.S. government's policies that impact hungry people around the world. |
| We know from polls that Americans want to do everything they can to reduce world hunger. Nobody wants kids to go hungry. We need to connect between that public good will and the actual decision making process in Washington. |
| Our citizenship in the U.S. is a tremendous gift. Here we are citizens of a democracy, and it is the most powerful nation in the world. Over and over again the industrialized countries follow U.S. leadership on issues that are important to hungry people all over the world. |
| If Americans are concerned with world hunger, the most powerful thing they have to offer is their influence as a citizen to let their senators and representatives know their concerns and what they want them to do. And it's not that anybody is really opposed to helping reduce world hunger. The problem is getting five or ten minutes of a senator's time to think about legislation that's important to hungry people. |
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| "When Americans let members of Congress know that hunger is important to them, it's not very hard to move Congress on these issues." |
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| That's why it makes so much sense for Americans who are concerned about hunger to write that letter to their member of Congress and speak in a specific way about wanting more funding for the kinds of programs that help farmers in Africa be more productive or help kids around the world get in school. Why shouldn't every kid around the world be able to go to school? |
| It does make a difference, and it only takes ninety seconds. You sit down and you write to your senator that you are concerned about hunger and poverty in the world and that you want your government to do more. You will have even more impact if you join an organization like Bread for the World, so you're aware of the specific bills being discussed in Congress. |
| When Americans let members of Congress know that that is important to them, it's not very hard to move Congress on these issues. The kind of money we need for these programs in Africa is tiny by the standards of the U.S. Congress, so a little push from home can easily swing a vote. And when U.S. policy shifts that in turn will shift the policies of the other industrialized countries, making it a lot easier for a lot of hungry people to get ahead. |
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| "We are able to win really substantial changes that open up aid and opportunity for the hungry around the world." |
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| Bread for the World has experienced for over thirty years that small numbers of committed people can again and again win changes that provide help and opportunity to people all over the world. |
| We have a network of about 54,000 members, including about 2,000 churches. It's only about a hundred members per congressional district, but every year we are able to win really substantial changes that open up aid and opportunity for the hungry around the world. |
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| "About five years ago, Pat felt she ought to do something for Africa." |
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| Let me tell you about Pat Pelham. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the mother of a couple children. About five years ago, Pam felt called to do something for Africa. Pat learned about Bread for the World, connected as an activist and started organizing people in Birmingham around hunger issues. |
| When the issue of debt relief came before Congress, her representative in the House, Representative Spencer Bachus, had just been appointed Chair of the International Sub-Committee of Banking. If the U.S. government was going to participate in any kind of debt relief for the poorest countries, it had to start with Spencer Bachus. |
| Pat and her friends went into action. Within two weeks they had managed to get a petition together (we don't usually encourage petitions) and had it signed at a Catholic church one Sunday. They flew to Washington at their own expense to see Mr. Bachus to urge him to provide leadership on debt relief for the poorest countries. |
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| "I think you, as my representative, can do something about that by providing debt relief for the poorest countries." |
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| Mr. Bachus has since become a friend. He's very candid about how he had never thought much about Africa before. When he got appointed to this committee, he thought, 'Boy, this is boring. Nobody cares about this stuff.' Then four constituents came to him to ask him to do something. |
| One of Pat's friends, Elaine Van Cleave said, 'I know about 30,000 kids die every day from hunger and related causes, and it just kills me as a mother. Mostly I don't think there's much I can do about it, but I think you, as my representative, can do something about that by providing debt relief for the poorest countries.' |
| Spencer Bachus was convinced, and he became a forceful and important advocate for debt relief. He is very conservative and had never thought much about these issues before, but precisely because of that, he was able to have a lot of influence. And it all started with Pat and Elaine in Birmingham who wanted to do something about poor people in Africa. It's great and it's true. |
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| "What's needed is mainly a shift in political will, and mainly in the United States." |
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| We've known for a long time that progress against world hunger was feasible. Back in 1973 at the World Food Summit, Henry Kissinger, who was then the U.S. Secretary of State, stood up and said, 'By the year 2000 no child should go to bed hungry.' He was right. It could have happened by 2000. |
| And since 1973 we have had a lot of experience, so we know better how to reduce world hunger. The political climate is better as well. Many of the poor countries now have more democratic governments, and it is also much more possible to make progress in that kind of environment. What's needed is mainly a shift in political will, and primarily in the United States. |
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| "Even before we solve the problem of poverty, we can certainly solve the problem of world hunger." |
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| Making progress against poverty is one way to reduce hunger. You can also accelerate progress against hunger by simply feeding the kids. Feeding people is not a high tech problem. |
| Even if the community is still poor, you can give the kids a school lunch. So even before we solve the problem of poverty, we can certainly solve the problem of world hunger. |
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| "And the progress that we can make against hunger is irreversible progress." |
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| And the progress that we can make against hunger is irreversible progress. Once kids can go to school, once kids learn to read and write, they will make sure that their children know how to read and write. Once farmers are able to produce more, they earn more. Once people know some of the basic things they need to know to keep healthy, they will teach their children and they will insist that vaccines be available for their children. |
| We are not in the process of setting up an eternal welfare system. What we're trying to do is solve the problem of world hunger by letting people be more productive. Once they become more productive, there won't be any going back to hunger, it'll be fixed for good. |
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| "The U.S. farms receiving these subsidies are corporations or wealthy farmers. That makes no sense." |
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| Development assistance isn't the only issue. Trade policy is another important factor. Currently, there are prohibitively high tariffs on imports from Africa. Opening up opportunities for African countries to sell their textiles or cotton in our market has almost no effect on Americans or Europeans, but it offers huge opportunities for employment and better incomes for the people of Africa. |
| When we talk about trade we also have to look at subsidies. U.S. farm subsidies depress prices for farmers in Africa and Asia. The U.S. farms receiving these subsidies are corporations or wealthy farmers. That makes no sense. If we would just cap the subsidies and instead help the U.S. farmers who are really struggling, that would reduce the impact of U.S. farm subsidies on global agriculture. |
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| "There is no way a little cotton farmer in Mali can compete with the U.S. treasury." |
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| For example, cotton farmers in Mali are some of the poorest people in the world. When they try to sell their cotton, they're competing with U.S. farmers who have tremendous technological advantages and who are receiving big subsidies from the U.S. government. It's just not fair. There is no way a cotton farmer in Mali can compete with the U.S. Treasury. |
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| "It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy." |
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| It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy. There are fewer hungry people in the world now than there were thirty years ago. By 2015 there could be 400 million people in the world instead or 800 million people in the world who are undernourished. Progress is very achievable. Mainly what it requires is for the U.S. government to show some interest and lead the world in reducing world hunger. |
| David Beckmann can be reached at dbeckmann@bread.org |
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