Posted on 17-8-2004

Still Hungry
Inforpress Centroamericana. Jul 29, 2004

The number of people living in hunger increased by 3 percent in the last
decade.

While the dieting craze has created a billion-dollar industry in developed
countries and is seeping into some sectors of Latin America’s population,
more than 7 million Central Americans are living in hunger.

The number of people suffering from malnutrition in Central America
increased by 3 percent in the 1990s, according to statistics from the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Central America’s setbacks in the fight against hunger are due to a
combination of factors, including historic patterns of inequality and
marginalization, a series of natural disasters, socioeconomic problems and
the lack of preparation to address pressures from the global marketplace.

Losing the battle against hunger

The loss of human capital because of the poverty and hunger affecting a
large percentage of Central Americans is an obstacle to the potential of
the region’s countries. To change this situation, experts recommend
implementing food-security policies as a key component of development
strategies.

Central America is losing the battle against hunger. A recent FAO document
highlights that Central America was the only sub-region in Latin America
and the Caribbean where hunger increased in the 1990s.

While levels of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean decreased from
13 percent to 10 percent of the population during the last decade, in
Central America the rate increased from 17.5 percent to 20.5 percent.

Nicaragua has largest percentage of people living in hunger (29 percent)
in Central America and the second highest rate in the Latin America and
the Caribbean after Haiti, where 49 percent of the population lives in
hunger. In Panama and Guatemala, hunger affects 26 percent and 25 percent
of the population, respectively. In Honduras, 20 percent of the population
is malnourished.

In Guatemala, 1.5 million more people were living in hunger in 2001 than
in 1990, according to the FAO. The country registered the highest increase
in levels of hunger in Latin America in the last decade. In addition, the
United Nations reports that Guatemala has the highest level of chronic
malnutrition among children (49.3 percent) in Latin America.

The FAO data reveals that an increasing number of Central Americans face
obstacles — social, political, economic and environmental — to ensure
adequate daily levels of nutrition. Poverty, which affects 50 percent of
Central America’s population, cannot be excluded from the list of
problems.

Barriers to food security

The natural disasters that wreaked havoc on the region, including
Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and droughts in 2001 and 2002, harmed an already
weakened population. According to Claudia Plock, regional coordinator of
the international organization Action against Hunger, environmental
destruction and degradation have contributed to the increased levels of
hunger.

The famine-like conditions that gripped Guatemala in 2001 were a product
of a drought, accelerated by climate changes, deforestation and a
reduction in aquifers.

Other factors have emerged over the last decade to create new barriers for
guaranteeing food security. Among these factors are an increased focus on
an agro-export model, privatization of public services, reduction in
social spending, and newly opened markets, according to José Luis Vivero,
of the FAO’s Special Food Security Program in Guatemala. "Almost none of
these (factors) favors small farmers," said Vivero. "This sector has
remained on the sidelines and is not linked to the market."

A compounding factor has been the steep drop in the international price of
coffee since the beginning of the decade, which exposed the vulnerability
of Central American economies to changes in the international market and
the lack of mechanisms to respond to these changes. The crisis has
affected the food security of small coffee growers and the laborers who
had to be fired as prices crashed, eliminating their only source of
income.

Globalization is double-edged sword

According to the FAO, the principal problems for guaranteeing food
security in the region are the decline in local production, high rates of
food imports and the gap between low wages and an increasing basic food
basket.

While the import of grains may benefit consumers with lower prices, this
has a negative effect on local agriculture, which employs 50 percent of
Central America’s work force. "The message of globalization is … that
there is going to be more food that is cheaper and readily accessible to
the population," says Hernán Delgado, director of the Central America and
Panama Nutritional Institute. "This may be correct in theory, but in
practice it is a double-edged sword for small-time farmers who suddenly
discover that their products are worthless."

Food aid may have the same effect as cheap imports. "At times, food-aid
programs, despite having the best interests in the world, distort the
market and create conflicts for farmers," Delgado adds.

The experts recommend a number of steps to combat hunger, including
decentralization of resources and decision-making mechanisms for
development, strengthening production and the local market, designing
integral food-security policies, coordinating and earmarking food-aid
programs, and making better use of lands in Central America.