Food Dumping

Food Dumping 

            Food Dumping is a very interesting and important topic when it comes to world hunger. The idea behind food dumping is that by giving large amounts of free food to poverty areas we can actually make these areas worse in the long run. It is important to know that I am only referring to poverty areas where the level of hunger is not described as an emergency, but hunger is still a prevalent issue in the area. If an area is in an emergency situation due to hunger then food dumping is great aid to these areas. However, when hunger is not an emergency in the area food dumping can cause negative long lasting effects. This is because by giving massive amounts of free food to a poverty area you are affecting all of the local farming businesses. So while yes you are momentarily helping the area with their hunger problem at the same time you are setting the area up for long lasting hunger problems. Since most of these areas economies rely on the well being of local farms; food dumping has become a prevalent issue. It can be hard to believe that donating food can be detrimental to a poverty area; but the negative outcomes of food dumping are not hard to understand. Since food is being given to poverty areas in massive quantities through government and global aid programs less food is being purchased from local farms in the areas. So while the problem of hunger is being addressed local farms that can’t compete with food dumping are going out of business. Since local farms are usually a big part of the economies of high poverty areas this clearly affects the ability of the area to improve its economy in the future. Therefore we see that the area remains with economic and hunger problems in the future due to food dumping.  From all this information the question arises that if donating food to high poverty areas is actually detrimental to their future success, then what can we do to help these areas with both their hunger and economic issues.

            I believe that a liberal perspective could offer some solutions to the problem of food dumping. The first possible solution would be to give money to the people in these high poverty areas so that they can use it to buy food from local farms. This would deal with the problem of hunger and would not be detrimental to the local economy. Of course we would have to assume that the people receiving the money supplements would use it rationally for food from local farms and not for other products. Another possibility is to give money to the local farms in the high poverty areas and hope to stimulate their market so that they can get food to the hungry more effectively. If local farms were to receive a stimulus they could produce more food and sell it at a cheaper price to the people. Therefore, the problem of hunger is being controlled and the local farms are prospering causing the economy to improve as a whole. Again both of these strategies rely on the liberal idea that the people receiving the money will use it rationally and not waste the opportunity to improve their economy. One option is to put regulations on the money being given out so that the recipients can only use it for certain things. However, I believe that a liberal would not want too many regulations and practices to be put in effect. They would believe that the program should not have an overbearing government presence but instead leave the recipients to make good decisions about how to use the supplement money. Overall I believe that with the right approach a liberal perspective could be used to help fix the problem of food dumping.