Synopses & Reviews
First World Hunger Revisited exposes the hidden functions and limits of food charity and corporately sponsored food banks as primary responses to widespread domestic hunger and income poverty in twelve rich 'food-secure' societies and emerging economies: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the USA. Who wins, who loses when governments violate their Right to Food obligations under international law to ensure the food security of their vulnerable populations? It challenges the effectiveness of food aid and argues for integrated income redistribution, agriculture, food, health and social policies informed by the Right to Food, whilst critiquing the lack of public policy and political will in achieving food security for all.
Synopsis
Is food aid the way of the future? What are the prospects for integrated public policies informed by the right to food? First World Hunger Revisited investigates the rise of food charity and corporately sponsored food banks as effective and sustainable responses to increasing hunger and food poverty in twelve rich 'food-secure' societies.
About the Author
Graham Riches is Emeritus Professor and former Director of the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, Canada. His social policy research, publications and advocacy include the politics of hunger, social welfare and food justice in the North and South, and the implementation of the Right to Food.
Tiina Silvasti is a Lecturer in the Department Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has studied the social and cultural consequences of structural change in agriculture in Finland. Her recent research interests lie in food system studies and First World hunger.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2008-2014)
1. Hunger in the Rich World: Food Aid and Right to Food Perspectives; Graham Riches and Tiina Silvasti
2. Food Banks in Australia: Discouraging the Right to Food; Sue Booth
3. A Right to Food Approach: Public Food Banks in Brazil; Cecilia Rocha
4. Canada: Thirty Years of Food Charity and Public Policy Neglect; Graham Riches and Valerie Tarasuk
5. Hunger and Food Aid in Estonia: a Local Authority and Family Obligation; Jüri Kõre
6. Hunger in a Nordic Welfare State: Finland; Tiina Silvasti and Jouko Karjalainen
7. Poverty Amid Growth: post-1997 Hong Kong Food Banks; Kwong-leung Tang, Yu-hong Zhu and Yan-yan Chen
8. Privatising the Right to Food: Aotearoa/New Zealand; Mike O'Brien
9. Between Markets and Masses: Food Assistance and Food Banks in South Africa; Sheryl Hendriks and Angela McIntyre
10. Erosion of Rights, Uncritical Solidarity and Food Banks in Spain; Karlos Pérez de Armiño
11. Food Banking in Turkey: Conservative Politics in a Neo-liberal State; Mustafa Koc
12 Food Banks and Food Justice in 'Austerity; Elizabeth Dowler
13. Food Assistance, Hunger and the End of Welfare in the USA; Janet Poppendieck
14. Hunger and Food Charity in Rich Societies: What Hope for the Right to Food?; Tiina Silvasti and Graham Riches
References