by Jeffrey Allen

MINNEAPOLIS - Concerns are growing that many low- and middle-income families in the United States and around the world will not be able to afford enough to eat in the coming months, especially as the global economic downturn threatens to undermine recent efforts to alleviate the global food crisis.

The United Nations says another 75 million people were plunged into hunger and poverty in 2007 by a global food crisis that analysts have blamed on a disastrous confluence of events, including rising fuel costs, erratic weather patterns, and the widespread diversion of food crops for biofuels and escalating livestock production.

Nearly 1 billion people -- almost one out of every six people on Earth -- currently do not get enough to eat, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

While this year's record grain harvest has helped improve fortunes for some, 36 countries are still in need of external aid as a result of crop failures, conflict, or continuing local high prices, says a recent FAO report.

"The food crisis is not an issue of shortage but of inequitable distribution," adds the international human rights group MADRE [1]. "Even as global crop yields are projected to reach record levels, rising prices place basic necessities out of the reach of millions."

And now global economic woes threaten to deepen the crisis for those already facing hunger and others on the brink.

As world leaders attempt to restart faltering financial markets in an effort to improve the global economic outlook, a top UN official is reminding them of the pledges they made during a food summit in June to help bolster the agriculture sector in countries at risk for hunger. He also warned of potentially fatal consequences of altering trade rules or cutting off aid to developing countries at such a precarious moment.

"The great uncertainty now enveloping international markets and the threat of global recession may tempt countries towards protectionism and towards reassessing their commitments to international development aid," noted FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf Wednesday.

"It would be unfortunate if this were to be the case," Diouf said, adding: "Last year it was the pan. Next year could be the fire."

Focus on Women Urged

A report from think tanks in the United States, Ireland, and Germany [2] indicates that, over the past two decades, a good deal of progress has been made toward rooting out hunger in South Asia, the Near East, North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. But hunger still remains at or above "alarming" levels in 33 countries, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the report notes.

And the World Bank warned this week that "the poorest households are reducing the quantity and/or quality of the food, schooling, and basic services that they consume, leading to irreparable damage to the health and education of millions of children."

Women and girls will be the hardest hit, the Bank noted, because "gender disparities in the quantity and quality of food consumed increase during times of shortage. Mothers forego meals and in many countries boys get preference over girls."

Adds MADRE: "The first step towards a solution is to recognize the central role of women in agriculture, as they make up more than half of that labor force. The next step is to listen to their solutions."

The International Center for Research on Women, another nonprofit working against poverty and hunger worldwide, agrees. "Bolstering women's role in agriculture through agricultural investments and entrepreneurial opportunities promises to reap a double dividend of both better food security and nutrition, and greater economic growth," the group says [3].

Humanitarian aid workers are calling on global financial institutions to provide a "bailout" for the hungry to match the rescue packages provided for financial firms around the planet over the past two weeks.

"We are witnessing an unprecedented effort to bailout the global financial industry and an acknowledgement that for too long, lack of government involvement and oversight has led to massive failures in the market," says ActionAid International [4], which works in 42 countries. "A similar rethinking needs to take place on the food crisis."

The group recommends that at least $30 billion a year be spent "to invigorate environmentally friendly small scale food production in developing countries."

U.S. Not Immune

In September, OneWorld.net [5] asked readers to submit articles [6] on how people in their part of the world are coping with rising food prices. From South Carolina and Georgia to Texas, Iowa, and New York, Americans wrote about how they and their neighbors have begun to alter their diets and shopping habits.

"It is becoming more and more expensive to buy groceries and the Brooklyn population is traveling far from their homes in search of the cheapest markets to buy from," wrote Rosannie Murillo.

"Families are beginning to adjust their diets by cooking in their homes what they used to buy in restaurants and planting the foods they understand they can grow right in their own backyards. They are also beginning to consume a larger quantity of fruits and vegetables and depending less on meat," Murillo added.

In Covington, Georgia, Robert Hyatt, Jr. noticed a similar trend. "Suddenly, more and more gardens are starting to flourish among citizens. It's seen as a cheaper solution rather than buying such items at a store," wrote Hyatt. "Many meals are becoming planned more around vegetables and fruits grown rather than meat and poultry purchased at a grocery store."

Murillo sees that as a potential silver lining to the food crisis. "During this time, food grown close to home, mainly farmers' markets, now has a chance of receiving more publicity and becoming more competitive -- selling locally grown produce at a lower cost than regular markets."

But the rise in prices has forced many Americans to do more than just "adjust."

"Our local food bank is continually running low on food. The local Soup Kitchen has seen their patrons increase by more than 45 percent over the course of the last year," writes Iowan Sara Broers. "Being able to provide our families with a hot meal is something that we have all taken for granted."

Melissa Crossley says that she has considered her family to be "lower-middle class," but now they are "one week away from being on the streets....We still live week to week," she says, "but at the end of the week sometimes we simply can't make it work."

"Our lives have become a game of which bill can wait the longest and how can we make this food stretch? Do we buy food or pay the light bill? Can we go without a phone for a month to get the boys school clothes and supplies? Even with both of us working there just isn't enough money for what we need, let alone things we want."

In Brownsville, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, Bob Schmidt thinks the current crisis could help call attention to global anti-poverty efforts.

"Higher food costs and a strained budget are a reminder to everyone that it is no fun when you cannot afford to feed yourself," Schmidt says. "The result of this reminder may just inspire a few to be more mindful of those who suffer from chronic poverty and hunger."

Schmidt recognizes that "this idyllic thought may be lost on most once food prices stabilize in the world's wealthiest country," but, he adds hopefully, "some will remember, and humanity may ultimately benefit."