Choosing War Over Food

The purpose of their international summit is to do something to help the 1 billion people worldwide who will face famine this year. In order to address this global problem, this week the UN asked the international community at the UN Food Summit for 44 billion dollars to invest in agriculture in developing nations. The summit said no to this request.

Meanwhile the total amount spent by the US alone on the occupation of Afghanistan will total 223 billion dollars this year.  According to Jo Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes’ research, both wars combined have cost 3 trillion dollars.

Military experts and political leaders continue to argue about how best to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan, how best to spend  the hundreds of billions of dollars for fighting their war. Yet we know what it takes to stop hunger, we know how to feed people, and we don’t do it.