Feeding the hungry.

The author discusses a new study on how to alleviate world hunger. Televised images of starving children with distended bellies have brought the problem of global hunger home to people in rich countries. Sadly, however, the problem is far deeper than an immediate lack of food, as a new paper for the Copenhagen Consensus project points out. Jere Behrman of the University of Pennsylvania, Harold Alderman of the World Bank and John Hoddinott of the International Food Policy Research Institute have examined the extent of hunger and malnutrition and four concrete proposals to ameliorate it. Around a billion people, say the authors, are malnourished, and around a sixth of these are children. That is not only a deplorable human tragedy in its own right. It also leads to measurable economic losses--ie, further poverty. But what can be done to address hunger directly? The first course they examine is halting the ill effects of hunger at the earliest possible stage: in utero. Next, the authors investigate improving nutrition in young children. Third is a reduction of deficiencies in key "micronutrients", such as iodine, zinc, vitamin A and iron. The fourth course is to improve agricultural technology--for example, by using higher-yielding crops (which are often genetically modified) and controlling pests better. The authors see investments in technology as the most effective means of increasing the incomes of hungry people.