JUDAISM AND HUNGER  

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the chains of wickedness, to undo the bonds of oppression, and to let the crushed go free... Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? 

              Isaiah 58:6-7 

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Jews fast and pray for forgiveness, a favorable judgment, and a good year. On this same day, they are told, through the words of the prophet Isaiah, that fasting, confession of sins, and prayers are not sufficient; people must also work to end oppression and provide food for the needy.

Helping the hungry is fundamental in Judaism. The Talmud states, "Providing charity for poor and hungry people is as important as all the other commandments of the Torah combined."[i]  

The Midrash teaches: 

God says to Israel, "My children, whenever you give sustenance to the poor, I impute it to you as though you gave sustenance to Me... " Does then God eat and drink? No, but whenever you give food to the poor, God accounts it to you as if you gave food to Him.[ii] 

On Passover we are reminded not to forget the poor. Besides providing ma'ot chittim (funds for purchasing matzah and other holiday necessities) for the needy before Passover, during the Seder meal, we reach out to them: 

This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need come and celebrate the Passover.[iii] 

We are even admonished to feed our enemies if they are in need: 

          If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat.

          If your enemy is thirsty, give him water to drink. 

                   (Proverbs 25:21) 

This is consistent with the rabbinic teaching that the greatest hero is a person who converts an enemy into a friend.[iv] 

WORLD HUNGER TODAY

The magnitude of world hunger is staggering: More than a billion people, over one out of 6 people in the world, are chronically hungry.[v] The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates that 21 percent of India's population is chronically undernourished, but the situation may be far worse. Recent on-the-ground surveys indicate that 49 percent of adults and 53 percent of children in India are underweight, which is a proxy measurement for hunger.[vi] Hunger is found in the wealthier countries as well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in 1998, some ten percent of U. S. households were hungry, on the edge of being hungry, or threatened by hunger.[vii]

Children are particularly victimized by malnutrition. Throughout the world, over 12 million children under the age of 5 die every year –about 34,000 each day -- from diseases brought on or complicated by malnutrition.[viii] Each year, almost 8 million children die before their first birthday, largely due to malnutrition.[ix] Malnourishment also causes listlessness and reduced capacity for learning and work, thus perpetuating the legacy of poverty.

Jeremy Rifkin summarizes the anomaly of rich people dieting and poor people starving:  

While millions of Americans anguish over excess pounds, spending time, money, and emotional energy on slimming down, children in other lands are wasting away, their physical growth irreversibly stunted, their bodies racked by parasitic and opportunistic diseases, their brain growth diminished by lack of nutrients in their meager diets.[x]   

Extensive hunger and malnutrition in so many parts of the world make rebellion and violence more likely. Professor Georg Borgstrom, international expert on food science, fears that "the rich world is on a direct collision course with the poor of the world... We cannot survive behind our Maginot line of missiles and bombs."[xi] Unless the problem of global hunger is fully addressed soon, the outlook for global stability is very poor. Professor Robert Heilbroner, a noted economist, predicted that, in times of severe famine, countries like India would be sorely tempted to try nuclear blackmail.[xii]

Prospects for reducing hunger are uncertain. In his book, Tough Choices -- Facing the Challenge of Food Scarcity,[xiii] Lester R. Brown, President of the Worldwatch Institute, states that numerous factors, including rapidly increasing world population and affluence, environmental strains, climate changes, and significant decreases in clean water, arable land, fish catches, and land productivity all threaten the world's food security. The Worldwatch Institute believes that providing enough food for the world's rapidly increasing population will be a critical issue for many decades. 

NON-CAUSES OF WORLD HUNGER

There are many misconceptions about the causes of global hunger. Hunger is not caused primarily by overpopulation, bad weather, lack of technology, or the ignorance of people in poor countries.[xiv] These can all worsen the problem, but they do not cause it.

Population has been growing explosively in recent years. While it took until 1830 for the world's population to reach one billion people, In 1999 the population reached six billion and was projected to double in the next half century.[xv] Yet population, while a very serious concern that must be addressed, is not a root cause of world hunger. Africa is relatively sparsely populated, but still has much hunger. Japan and many European countries, such as Belgium and Holland, are very densely populated but have relatively few hungry people.

Rather than being a cause of hunger, rapid population growth is more often a result of hunger. When infant mortality is high, due to malnutrition and disease, couples will have many children so that some will survive. In societies where there are no unemployment insurance or pension programs, children, especially males, provide the only assurance that there will be help when the parents become disabled or too old to work. Rapid population growth and hunger are common in societies where land ownership, jobs, education, health care, and old age security are beyond the reach of most people.[xvi] In these very poor, hungry countries, the cost of raising a child is very low, but the economic value of the child providing financial assistance to the family, especially when the parents become too old to work, is great. Given these conditions, the answer to the population problem is not only better family planning techniques, but also an improvement of the people's economic and social conditions. Third World societies that have experienced rapid reductions of population growth rates -- China, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala – clearly demonstrate that the lives of the poor, especially poor women, must improve before they will choose to have fewer children.[xvii]

Hunger is not due to insufficient food production. Research at the Institute for Food and Development in California has shown that the world produces enough grain alone to provide every person with 3,500 calories a day, enough to make most people gain weight.[xviii] (Over one third of the world's grain is currently fed to animals destined for slaughter.) The 3,500-calorie estimate does not even include the fruits, vegetables, nuts, root crops, dairy products, and non-grain-fed meat that are produced around the world. If all foods are considered, they would provide an average of at least 4.3 pounds per person per day.[xix]

The problem is that many people lack the income to buy the available food. Even most "hungry countries" currently have sufficient food for all their people. Many are net exporters of food and other agricultural products.[xx]  

Hunger is also not primarily a result of bad weather. No matter how bad the weather, the wealthy in any country always manage to eat well. In a book published in 1928, it was reported that China had a famine in some provinces every year for over 1,000 years.[xxi] Today China has an agricultural system that is much less vulnerable to weather changes. They have utilized their massive labor power to sink hundreds of wells, build reservoirs, and dam rivers to insure an adequate supply of water.

In the autumn of 1974, Bangladesh had one of the worse famines of modern times with 100,000 lives lost. The government claimed that it was due to harvest-destroying floods, but workers on the scene observed that there was adequate food, but that wealthy farmers were hoarding rice to maintain high prices.[xxii] 

It's relatively easy to blame nature. Yet, food is readily available for people who can afford it -- only the poorest face starvation during hard times. However, human-made forces are making people increasingly vulnerable to nature's vagaries.[xxiii] Millions live on the brink of disaster in Africa, south Asia, and elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in debt, or inadequately paid for their labor. Natural events rarely explain deaths by starvation; they are generally the final push over the brink. Famine is primarily caused by social, political, and economic conditions, not nature.

What about lack of technology as a cause of global hunger? In many cases, new technology has made the situation worse, because it has not been combined with necessary social and economic changes.

New "miracle" seeds (the “Green Revolution”) were proposed as an answer to inadequate food production. But these seeds require good land, proper irrigation, and heavy doses of fertilizer and pesticides. Only wealthy farmers with large farms can afford these. Also, increased production of grain lowers the price of food and drives many small farmers off the land when they can’t compete.

Mechanization, so widely used on American farms, can also have negative effects. It forces many farm workers off the land and into increasingly crowded cities, seeking employment which often is not available.

Increased production due to improved technology seldom goes to hungry people. It generally goes to wealthier people for luxury food products, to feed livestock, or for exports to more affluent countries.

Thanks to the technological advances of the Green Revolution, millions of tons of additional grain are being harvested annually. But focusing narrowly on increasing production cannot reduce hunger, because it fails to alter the tightly concentrated distribution of economic power that determines who can buy the additional food. In several countries with the biggest Green Revolution successes —- India, Mexico, and the Philippines —- grain production and in some cases, exports, have climbed, while hunger has persisted and the long-term productive capacity of the soil is degraded.[xxiv]  

The key question with regard to technology is: who stands to gain? If technology is used to benefit small local elites while driving many people off farms, it worsens the hunger situation. If it is used cooperatively, in conjunction with a country's vast labor power and local planning and initiative, so that individual peasants benefit directly from their added productivity, it can be of great value.

Is the ignorance of small farmers in poor countries a major cause of widespread hunger? On the contrary. Small peasant farmers get much out of their land, working their very limited resources to the fullest because it is all they have for survival. The problems of the poor are not due to backwardness. They just have very little to work with, since ownership of land and wealth is concentrated in very few hands. 

CAUSES OF WORLD HUNGER

What, then, are the root causes of global hunger? A significant part of the answer lies in a system of production and distribution which is rooted in inequality, injustice, and greed, and is at sharp variance with Torah values.[xxv] In a policy statement issued on October 11, 1975, the National Council of Churches (NCC) stated that the fundamental cause of world hunger was "the sinful behavior of humankind, including the denial of human solidarity; greed; and selfishness with which neighbor exploits neighbor." The NCC further noted: "Institutionalized injustice explains more than all other factors combined why half a billion persons [as of 2000, it is more than a billion people] suffer from chronic hunger in a world which could have enough food to go around."

There is great poverty and hunger in less developed countries because the social and economic inequalities prevalent in these countries prevent people from making an adequate living. Land and wealth are concentrated among a few, and with land and wealth goes power to control the destiny of the masses. Control of land, and of the things needed to make the land produce, --seeds, tools, machinery, fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation systems -- are in relatively few hands.

According to World Hunger: Twelve Myths by Frances Moore Lappe and others (see Bibliography), powerful misconceptions block understanding of the true causes of hunger and thus prevent effective action. "The true source of world hunger is not scarcity but policy; not inevitability but politics," according to Dr. Peter Rosset, Executive Director of Food First and co-author of the book. "The real culprits are economies that fail to offer everyone opportunities and societies that place economic efficiency over compassion."[xxvi] 

Colonialism changed patterns of food production in many countries. The 19th century English political economist John Stuart Mill stated that colonies should not be thought of as countries at all, but as "agricultural establishments" whose sole purpose was to supply the "large community to which they belong."[xxvii] Using raw force and high taxes, Europeans changed the diversified agriculture of their colonies to single cash crops, often at the exclusion of staple foods. The best land was taken over to produce tea, coffee, bananas, and other crops that could be exported to enrich foreigners and local elites, at the expense of the native population. This process sowed the seeds of famine.

While the colonial period is over, its remnants sometimes remain in the form of neocolonialism. Less developed countries must still produce cash crops in order to meet their debts and to obtain badly needed cash.[xxviii] As a result, these countries are on a treadmill. They must work harder and harder just to try to maintain their inadequate economic conditions. They are prevented from developing their own resources for their own use, and conditions of trade are against them.

Another factor that greatly worsens the global food situation is the wastefulness of affluent countries, such as the United States. The American  diet is extremely wasteful. As discussed in more detail in Chapter 12, we consume about five times as much grain per person (mostly by eating meat from grain-fed animals) than the average person in poorer countries. It takes up to sixteen pounds of grain to produce one pound of edible beef in a feedlot. Half of U.S. farm acreage is used to produce feed crops for livestock. Animal-centered diets require up to 21 times the land area per person than would be required for a vegan diet. Modern intensive livestock agriculture also requires tremendous inputs of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, irrigation water, and fuel, commodities which are becoming very scarce worldwide.

In view of these negative effects of animal-based agriculture, it is scandalous that U.S. meat conglomerates, aided by the World bank and other international financial institutions, are promoting food policies and trade agreements that would double world production and consumption of meat and other animal food products in the next 20 years.[xxix] Most of this expansion would take place in less developed nations, through massive factory farming operations similar to these currently being used in the developed world. This would have very severe consequences for the poor countries and worldwide: more hunger, more poverty, more pollution, more animal suffering, less self-determination for the people in low-income nations, and less water for everyone.

To help combat the expansion of western intensive animal-based agriculture into developing nations, an international coalition of animal liberation, environmental, and social justice organizations has launched a “Global Hunger Alliance,” which aims to convince the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Conference in Rome to promote plant-based diets as a solution to the scandal of widespread world hunger.[xxx] They are circulating a petition that they hope will help increase pressure on food-related groups and conference delegates.

In summary, millions of people are hungry today, not because of insufficient agricultural capacity, but because of unjust social systems and wasteful methods of food production, including the feeding of tremendous amounts of grain to animals to fatten them for slaughter and consumption by meat-eating societies. 

JEWISH RESPONSES TO HUNGER

1.  INVOLVEMENT

Judaism teaches involvement and concern with the plight of fellow human beings. Every life is sacred, and we are obligated to do what we can to help others. The Torah states, "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16).

Jews rightfully condemn the silence of the world when 6 million Jews and millions of other people were murdered by the Nazis. Can we be silent when millions die agonizing deaths because of lack of food? Can we acquiesce to the apathy of the world toward the fate of starving people?

Elie Wiesel has pointed out that there can be no analogies to the Holocaust, but that it can be used as a reference.  In that context, we can consider the almost 8 million infants who die each year due to malnutrition and the 6 million Jews who were slaughtered by the Nazis. True, victims of hunger are not being singled out because of their religion, race, or nationality, but, as did Holocaust victims, they die while the world goes about its business, grumbling about personal inconveniences, indifferent to the plight of the starving people. Since the Mishneh teaches that if one saves a single human life, it is as if one has saved an entire world (Sanhedrin 4:5), what then if one fails to save a single life? Or 20 million?

The Hebrew prophets berate those who are content and comfortable while others are in great distress: 

          Tremble you women, who are at ease,

          Shudder you complacent ones;

          Strip and make yourselves bare,

          Gird sackcloth upon your loins. (Isaiah. 32:11)
 

          Woe to those who are at ease in Zion...

          Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory

          And stretch themselves upon their couches...

          Who drink wine from bowls

          And anoint themselves with the finest oils

          But are not grieved at the ruin of Joseph.

                                             (Amos 6:1,4,6) 

Like other peoples, Jews have frequently experienced hunger. Because of famines, Abraham was forced to go to Egypt (Genesis 12:10), Isaac went to the land of Abimelech, king of the Philistine, in Gerar (Genesis 26:1), the children of Jacob went to Egypt to buy grain (Genesis 42:1-3), and Naomi and her family fled Israel and went to Moab (Ruth 1:1-2). There were also famines in the reigns of King David (2 Samuel 21:1) and King Ahab (1 Kings 18:1-2).

Jews know the agony of great hunger. The Prophet Jeremiah, referring to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, proclaims "Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the yield of the field" (Lamentations 4:9).

Based on Jewish values and Jewish history, we must empathize with the starving millions of the world. We must be involved by speaking out and working in support of more just, environmentally sustainable agricultural policies. Some traditional Jewish ways to help needy people are to pursue justice, practice charity, show compassion, share resources, and simplify lifestyles.

2.  SHARING

Feeling compassion for the poor and hungry is not enough. A fundamental Jewish principle is that those who have much should share with others who are less fortunate. The Talmudic sage Hillel stresses that we must not be concerned only with our own welfare: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I?"[xxxi] Indeed, the Haggadah read at Passover Seders exhorts us to welcome and share with all who are hungry and in need. The act of prolonging one's meal, on the chance that a poor person may come so that one may give him or her food, is so meritorious that the table of the person who does this is compared to the altar of the ancient Temple.[xxxii] 

Judaism's great emphasis on sharing is also illustrated in the following Chassidic tale: 

The story is told of a great rabbi who was given the privilege of seeing the realms of Heaven and Hell before his death. He was taken first to Hell, where he was confronted with a huge banquet room in the middle of which was a large elegant table covered with a magnificent tablecloth and the finest china, silver, and crystal. The table was covered from one end to the other with the most delicious foods that the eyes have ever seen or the mouth tasted. And all around the table, people were sitting looking at the food... and wailing.

It was such a wail that the rabbi had never heard such a sad sound in his entire life and he asked, "With a luxurious table and the most delicious food, why do these people wail so bitterly?" As he entered the room, he saw the reason for their distress. For although each was confronted with this incredible sight before him, no one was able to eat the food. Each person's arms were splinted so that the elbows could not bend. They could touch the food but could not eat it. The anguish this caused was the reason for the great wail and despair that the rabbi saw and heard.

He was next shown Heaven, and to his surprise he observed the identical scene witnessed in Hell: The large banquet room, elegant table, lavish settings, and sumptuous foods. And, in addition, once again everyone's arms were splinted so the elbows could not bend.  Here, however, there was no wailing, but rather joy greater than he had ever experienced in his life. For whereas here too the people could not put the food into their own mouths, each picked up the food and fed it to another. They were thus able to enjoy not only the beautiful scene, the wonderful smells, and the delicious foods, but also the joy of sharing and helping one another.[xxxiii]   

Rabbi Jay Marcus, former longtime spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Staten Island, comments on the fact that karpas  (eating of greens) and yahatz  (breaking of the middle matzah for later use as the dessert) are next to each other in the order of the Passover Seder service.[xxxiv] He suggests that those who can live on simple things like greens (vegetables, etc.) will more readily divide their possessions and share with others.

To help share God's abundant harvests with the poor, the Torah instructed farmers:

            1) A corner of the field always had to be left unharvested; it was the property of the poor (Pe'ah). [Leviticus 19; 9-10]

            2) If less than three ears of corn were dropped during the harvest, they were not to be gleaned, but were to be left for the poor (Leket).
            [Leviticus 19; 9- 10]

            3) A sheaf forgotten by the farmer could not be retrieved but had to be left for the poor (Shik'khah). [Deuteronomy 24: 19-21]

            4) Every third year a part of the tithe of the harvest had to be set aside for the poor (Ma'aser Ani).

            5) On the eve of every holy day, "mat'not yad," a special gift to the poor, had to be put aside.

As discussed in Chapter 12, vegetarianism is consistent with this Jewish concept of sharing. As Jay Dinshah, late long-time President of the American Vegan Society, stated:

After all, vegetarianism is, more than anything else, the very essence and the very expression of altruistic SHARING... the sharing of the One Life... the sharing of the natural resources of the Earth... the sharing of love, kindness, compassion, and beauty in this life.[xxxv]   

The Los Angeles-based Jewish organization Mazon attempts to help Jews share their joyous events with hungry people. It urges people to contribute 3 percent of the money spent for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other celebrations to the group, which funnels the money to organizations working to reduce hunger.  For contact information, see Appendix C.  

3. SIMPLIFYING LIFESTYLES

Because millions lack sufficient food, it is imperative that those of us who have so much simplify our lives so that we can share more with others. A group of major religious leaders, including representatives of several branches of Judaism in the United States and Israel, met in Bellagio, Italy, in May 1975 to consider "The Energy/Food Crisis: A Challenge to Peace, a Call to Faith." They agreed on a statement that included this assertion: 

The deepest and strongest expression of any religion is the "styles of life" that characterizes its believers. It is urgent that religious communities and individuals scrutinize their life style and turn from habits of waste, overconsumption, and thoughtless acceptance of the standards propagated by advertisements and social pressures.

The cry from millions for food brought us together from many faiths.  God--Reality itself--calls us to respond to the cry for food.  And we hear it as a cry not only for aid but also for justice.[xxxvi] 

Simpler lifestyles, with less wasteful diets, can be an important first step toward justice for the hungry of the world. Simpler diets do not mean a lack of joy or a lack of fellowship. As Proverbs 15:17 states: "Better a dinner of herbs where love is present than a stalled ox with hatred."

During the Middle Ages, local Jewish councils often established "sumptuary laws" for the community. People were forbidden to spend more than a specified amount of money for weddings and other occasions. These laws were designed so that the poor should not be embarrassed for being unable to match the expenditures of the wealthy and so that a financial strain was not placed on the community as a whole. Perhaps the spirit of such laws should be invoked today. Can we continue to consume flesh that requires so much grain to be fed to animals at a time when millions of people are starving? Is it not now time for officiating rabbis to specify guidelines to reduce waste and ostentation at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other occasions? (Several Chassidic Rebbes have established limits on expenses and on the number of guests at weddings and other religious celebrations within their communities)

It is a fundamental Jewish belief that God provides enough for every person’s needs. In our daily prayers, it is said: "He opens His hand and provided sustenance to all living things" (Psalms 145:16). Jews are mandated to give thanks to God for providing enough food for everyone. In the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals), we praise God "Who feeds the entire world with goodness, grace, loving kindness and compassion." The blessing is, of course, correct. God has provided enough for all. The bounties of nature, fairly distributed and properly consumed, would sustain all people.

The means are available for each person to have an adequate diet. Every nation could be self sufficient in producing food. The conditions of inequality and injustice that are causing widespread hunger are outrageous and must be changed. As the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi stated: "There is enough for the world's need, but not for its greed."

With so much hunger, poverty, and injustice in the world, explicit Jewish mandates to feed the hungry, help the poor, share resources, practice charity, show compassion, and pursue justice, along with the remembrance of the suffering and deprivation experienced throughout Jewish history, should provide the impetus for Jews to be in the forefront of efforts to create food production and distribution systems that will sharply reduce world hunger.   


Chapter Six: Hunger 

[i]  Baba Batra 9a. 

[ii]  Midrash Tannaim.    

[iii]  Passover Haggadah. 

[iv]  Avot de Rabbi Nathan, chapter 23. 

[v]  Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil, “Underfed and Overfed - The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition,” Worldwatch paper #150, March 2000, 11. 

[vi]  Ibid, 12. 

[vii]  Ibid, 13. 

[viii]  Frances Moore Lappe, et al, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, New York: Grove Press, 1998, 2. 

[ix]  Based on calculations using data from the "2000 World Population Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C. (www.prb.org). 

[x]  Rifkin, Jeremy, Beyond Beef , New York: Dutton, 1992, 177. 

[xi]  Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 Oct. 1974, 9B.  

[xii]  Lester R. Brown, In the Human Interest , New York: Norton, 1974, 21. 

[xiii]  Lester R. Brown, Tough Choices - Facing the Challenge of Food Scarcity , New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.  

[xiv]  A detailed analysis of root causes of world hunger is in Lappe, Frances Moore, et al, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, New York: Grove Press, 1998. The group behind the book and the research is Food First/ Institute for Food and Development Policy, 398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618;  Phone (510) 654-4400; email foodfirst@igc.org; www.foodfirst.org

[xv]  World Population Data Sheet 2000, Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C. (www.prb.org). 

[xvi]  Food First analysis at http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/1998/w98v5n1.html

[xvii]  Ibid. 

[xviii]  Calculated from Food and Agriculture Organization, 1992 FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 46, Rome: FAO, 1993, cited by Lappe, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, 8. 

[xix]  Food and Agriculture Organization, 1995 FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 49, Rome: FAO, 1996,  cited by Lappe, World Hunger: Twelve Myths,

[xx]   Food First analysis at http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/1998/w98v5n1.html 

[xxi]  China's progress in greatly reducing hunger is discussed by Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins, Food first: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity  (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1977), 95 - 96, 166 - 167, 400 - 401. 

[xxii]  Lappe, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, 16. 

[xxiii]  The analysis in this paragraph is based on material from the Institute for Food and Development Policy, http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/1998/w98v5n1.html

[xxiv]  Ibid. 

[xxv]  A detailed analysis of root causes of world hunger is in Lappe, Frances Moore, et al, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, (New York: Grove Press, 1998). The group behind the book and the research is Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, 398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618,  Phone (510) 654-4400; email foodfirst@igc.org; www.foodfirst.org

[xxvi]  www.foodfirst.org

[xxvii]  Lappe, Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity, 77. 

[xxviii]  For a documented, comprehensive discussion of the effects of colonialism and neocolonialism in creating and spreading hunger, see Lappe, Food first: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity, 75 - 92. 

[xxix] The Farm Report, Farm Animal Reform Movement, p. 1, Box 30654, Bethesda, MD 20824, www.farmusa.org.
 
[xxx]  www.globahunger.net.

[xxxi] Pirke Avot  l: 14. 

[xxxii] Berachot 55a. 

[xxxiii]  Paper on world hunger from Mazon, ad hoc Jewish group on hunger. E-mail: mazonmail@aol.com

[xxxiv]  Class before Passover given at Young Israel of Staten Island, attended by author. 

[xxxv]  Jay Dinshah, The Vegetarian Way, Proceedings of the 24th World Vegetarian Conference, Madras, India, 1977, 34. 

[xxxvi]   "The Energy-Food Crisis: A Challenge to Peace - A Call to Faith" statement from the Inter- religious Peace Colloquium, held in Bellagio, Italy, May 1975.

Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island
Author of "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global Survival," and "Mathematics and Global Survival," and over 130 articles at www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz
President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) www.JewishVeg.com
and Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)
Associate Producer of A SACRED DUTY (asacredduty.com)
Director of Veg Climate Alliance (www.vegclimatealliance.org)
president@JewishVeg.com