3.5
The Reproach of Hunger
ByPublisher Description
Hailed as “invaluable…a substantial work of political thought,” (New Statesman) in a groundbreaking report, based on years of reporting, David Rieff assesses whether ending extreme poverty and widespread hunger is truly within our reach, as is increasingly promised.
Can we provide enough food for nine billion people in 2050, especially the bottom poorest in the Global South? Some of the most brilliant scientists, world politicians, and aid and development experts forecast an end to the crisis of massive malnutrition in the next decades. The World Bank, IMF, and Western governments look to public-private partnerships to solve the problems of access and the cost of food. “Philanthrocapitalists” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend billions to solve the problem, relying on technology. And the international development “Establishment” gets publicity from stars Bob Geldorf, George Clooney, and Bono.
“Hunger, [David Rieff] writes, is a political problem, and fighting it means rejecting the fashionable consensus that only the private sector can act efficiently” (The New Yorker). Rieff, who has been studying and reporting on humanitarian aid and development for thirty years, takes a careful look. He cites climate change, unstable governments that receive aid, the cozy relationship between the philanthropic sector and giants like Monsanto, that are often glossed over in the race to solve the crisis.
“This is a stellar addition to the canon of development policy literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The Reproach of Hunger is the most complete and informed description of the world’s most fundamental question: Can we feed the world’s population? Rieff answers a careful “Yes” and charts the path by showing how it will take seizing all opportunities; technological, cultural, and political to wipe out famine and malnutrition.
Can we provide enough food for nine billion people in 2050, especially the bottom poorest in the Global South? Some of the most brilliant scientists, world politicians, and aid and development experts forecast an end to the crisis of massive malnutrition in the next decades. The World Bank, IMF, and Western governments look to public-private partnerships to solve the problems of access and the cost of food. “Philanthrocapitalists” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend billions to solve the problem, relying on technology. And the international development “Establishment” gets publicity from stars Bob Geldorf, George Clooney, and Bono.
“Hunger, [David Rieff] writes, is a political problem, and fighting it means rejecting the fashionable consensus that only the private sector can act efficiently” (The New Yorker). Rieff, who has been studying and reporting on humanitarian aid and development for thirty years, takes a careful look. He cites climate change, unstable governments that receive aid, the cozy relationship between the philanthropic sector and giants like Monsanto, that are often glossed over in the race to solve the crisis.
“This is a stellar addition to the canon of development policy literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The Reproach of Hunger is the most complete and informed description of the world’s most fundamental question: Can we feed the world’s population? Rieff answers a careful “Yes” and charts the path by showing how it will take seizing all opportunities; technological, cultural, and political to wipe out famine and malnutrition.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Reproach of Hunger Reviews
3.5
Justus Joseph
Created about 6 years agoShare
Report
“(Review first published in Shelf Awareness)
After extensive research and two decades of observation, David Rieff, in The Reproach of Hunger, offers a nuanced perspective on hunger and poverty. In this critical look at those entrusted to solve food crises and end hunger, including farming advocates and tech-savvy "philanthrocapitalists," Rieff (Swimming in a Sea of Death) examines what solutions they have pursued and questions whether they, often without oversight by governments or the people suffering, actually understand the complexity of the problem.
According to Rieff, hunger is a problem rooted in economic, political and technological choices. He argues that many of the problem-solvers put their energies into optimistic fantasies that are doomed to fail, such as the Millennium Development Goals, which unrealistically aimed to "eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" by 2015. Modern assumptions surrounding food crises suggest hunger and poverty will end permanently if people try hard enough and throw enough money at the problem. Blinded by good intentions, these people and organizations fail to see their goals are not feasible. More than that, Reiff argues that the changes that have occurred are not sustainable, nor do they empower the people who are suffering.
In showing how and why attempts to feed the world have failed, Rieff reveals how deeply rooted popular thinking about poverty has become. His outlook is bleak, but not hopeless. While Reiff does not offer a solution, he instead calls for a complete rethink and deconstruction of the status quo, without which there will not be meaningful, lasting change.”
Acacia Graddy-Gamel
Created over 10 years agoShare
Report
About David Rieff
David Rieff is the author of eight previous books, including Swimming in a Sea of Death, At the Point of a Gun: Democratic Dreams and Armed Intervention; A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis; and Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West. He lives in New York City.
Other books by David Rieff
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