Bhikkhu Bodhi, a prominent American Buddhist monk, spoke Monday night in Hendricks Chapel about world hunger and food productivity as part of a Syracuse Symposium series.

In his speech, Bodhi touched on two main topics: the challenge of sustainable production and the challenge of equity.

Many people around the world are dying from causes such as starvation and food malnutrition, despite food being considered a human right by the United Nations, Bodhi said.

By 2050, the world will have to produce 60 percent more food than it already does, he said.

Bodhi specifically discussed the inequity in the distribution of food across the world, as well as how developed countries tend to have more food. These countries, he said, participate in practices like buying out land in developing nations that affect those countries’ food productivity. Current agricultural practices, Bodhi added, use resources inefficiently.

About 10 million people die from hunger and hunger-related illnesses, he said.

As the founder of the Buddhist Global Relief, which advocates for food productivity and supplies emergency food aid, Bodhi is already familiar with issues related to world hunger.

“The food system is designed primarily for profit, not for people,” he said.  “Hunger is essentially a political problem,” he added.

What drives this system, he said, is the desire to gain power and influence through land ownership.

Large corporations and developed nations buy out land from developing countries, producing food there to feed their own people, Bodhi said. He also said gender inequalities can also play a role, noting that women tend to eat less in poorer families because in some cultures, the men will eat first.

In addition, the agricultural system is unsustainable in terms of food supply maintenance, as well as reducing climate change, he said.

“Agriculture uses 70 percent of fresh water,” Bodhi said.  A pound of beef, he said, requires six pounds of grain to feed livestock.

He added that an increase in living standards leads to higher consumption of quantities of food such as meat.

Some ways to address these issues, he said, are changing the power dynamics in food production, shifting away from politically-motivated agriculture and changing to an economy powered by renewable energy sources with lower carbon emissions.

Veronica Zeng, a sophomore architecture major, said she was impressed by Bodhi’s talk.

“People get richer and richer in the food production industry, but I think there should be more awareness to encourage students and people to think about the problems of world hunger,” she said, adding a “lot of people do die because of this.”

But Brian Kripke, a senior communications and rhetorical studies major, said while this topic can definitely use more media exposure, he said he still doesn’t know what more he himself can do to bring about change.

Even when people with power in the food industries hear about these “atrocities” with starvation and hunger, he said, people will still be reluctant to address them.

But in his speech, Bodhi said there is more that can be done to address these issues.

Said Bodhi: “We need to expose ourselves to their suffering, but at the same time, we also need to open the doors of our heart to be compassionate and help our fellow human beings.”

 

twrasamn@syr.edu

Published on September 17, 2013 at 2:51 am