fiTenDays 
     
    
   
   
    
     TEN DAYS FOR WORLD DEVELOPMENT is 
     
    

    
     a joint development education programme of 
     
    

    
     the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian 
     
    

    
     and United Churches of Canada. Its goal is to 
     
    

    
     bring about changes in Canadian public policy 
     
    

    
     which will broadenthe opportunities for 
     
    

    
     human growth, especially by the peoples of 
     
    

    
     developing countries. TEN DAYS seeks to 
     
    

    
     achieve this goal by _ 
     
    

    
     0 mobilizing public opinion favourable to sue _ 
     
     changes ‘ 
     
    

    
     0 clearly demonstrating positive public opinion 
     
     to policy makers ‘ ' 
     
    

    
     0 countering resistance to these changes. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In this, its fifth year TEN DAYS continiies‘ its. 
     
     support of the international movement towards 
     
     a “New International Economic Order”. Its 
     
     focus for 1977 is “FOOD”. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     Here we want to share with you six myths that 
     
     keep us locked into a misunderstanding of the 
     
     problem of world hunger. We also wish to com— V 
     
     mend the alternative view that emerges once we 
     
    
   
   
    
     begin to grasp the real issues. Our hope is to help' 
     
    
   
   
    
     anchor the hunger movement with an unequivo- 
     
     cal and cogent analysis. 
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH ONE: People are 
     
     hungry because of 
     
     scarcity — both of food 
     
     and agricultural land. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The truth is that there is enough 
     
     arable land in the world to feed 
     
     40 billion people using present 
     
     uethods.In some of the hungriest 
     
     :ounrties agricultural production 
     
     ;as increased but so has the number 
     
     of hungry people ,because the land 
     
     is in the hands of a few who view 
     
     agriculture as a big business and 
     
     therefore ,grow luxury items for 
     
     export. 
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH TWO: A hungry- 
     
     world simply cannot 
     
     afford the luxury of ' 
     
     justice for the small 
     
     farmer. 
     
    
   
   
    
     A study of several countries concludes 
     
     that the small farmer is commonly more 
     
     productive, often many times more pro— 
     
     ductive, than the larger farmer. 
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH THREE: We are 
     
     faced with a sad \» 
     
     trade-off. Population . 
     
     pressure means, we — 
     
     must now use marginal 
     
     land even at the risk of 
     
     irreparable erosion. 
     
    
   
   
    
     A closer look at the land use in Africa 
     
     and elsewhere reveals that it is not 
     
     people's food needs that threaten to T 
     
     destréy the envirdnment, but other 
     
     forces: land monopolizers ,colonial 
     
     patterns of cash cropping, food spec— 
     
     ulation, and profit seeking by the 
     
     elites. Cutting the number of hungry 
     
    

    
     in half tomorrow would not stop any of 
     
     these forces. 
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH FOUR: Hunger is 
     
     a contest between the 
     
     Rich World and the 
     
     Poor World. 
     
    
   
   
    
     This kind of thinking makes the hungry 
     
     appear as a threat to the material well 
     
     being of the majority.of peOple in rich 
     
     countries. In truth, hunger will never 
     
     be addressed untik the average citizens 
     
     in rich countries can see that the 
     
     hungry abroad are our allies, not our 
     
     enemies. ', , ~ 
     
     The real enemies are the multi—national 
     
     agribusiness firms which are creating 
     
    

    
     a single world agricultural system in 
     
     which they exercise integrated control 
     
     over all stages of production fromfarm 
     
     to conmsumer. .//n_._mm_ll,l_.~l 
     
    
   
   
    
           
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH FIVE: An under- 
     
     developed  
     
     best hope for «develop; 
     
     ment is to  
     
     crops in which it has a 
     
     natural advantage and 
     
     use the earnings to “ 
     
     import food and 
     
     industrial goods. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In truth, the same land that grows 
     
     cocoa, coffee, rubber, tea and sugar 
     
     could grow an incredible diversity 
     
     of nutritious crops-grains, high 
     
     protein legumes, vegetables and' 
     
     fruits. The people who need food 
     
     are not the same who benefit from 
     
     foreign exchange earned by agri- 
     
     cultural exports. The food which 
     
     is often imported is not the basic 
     
     staples but food which is geared 
     
     to the tastes.of the wealther 
     
     people in the urban areas while 
     
     the poor are deprived of the land. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     MYTH SIX: Hunger 
     
     ‘ should be overcome 
     
     by re-distributing  
     
    
   
   
    
     The problem with this is that food 
     
     redistribution is seen as the 
     
     solution to hunger. Wehave to come 
     
     to a different understanding. Who 
     
     controls the land determines who 
     
     »can grow food, what is grown and 
     
     where it goes. Whocan grow: a few 
     
     or all who need to? What is grown: 
     
     luxury non—food or basic staples? 
     
     Where does‘it go: to the hungaryr 
     
     or the world's well-feed? The“ 
     
     real question is, How Can people 
     
     everywhere begin to democratize 
     
     the control of food resources?