World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisation concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme.
Background
The World Food Day theme for 2012 is “Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world”.
World Food Day (WFD) was established by FAO’s Member Countries at the Organization’s 20th General Conference in November 1945. The Hungarian Delegation, led by the former Hungarian Minister of Agriculture and Food, Dr. Pál Romány has played an active role at the 20th Session of the FAO Conference and suggested the idea of celebrating the WFD worldwide. It has since been observed every year in more than 150 countries, raising awareness of the issues behind poverty and hunger.
Despite the enormous efforts centred around World Food Day, with an aim to raise awareness of food security, amazingly, solving world hunger and creating food security seem to an elusive goal.
Mortality
According to Jean Ziegler(the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008), mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58 percent of the total mortality in 2006: “In the world, approximately 62 million people, all causes of death combined, die each year. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished.[35] In 2006, more than 36 million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients”.[36]
According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.[6] Six million children die of hunger every year.[37] Underweight births and intrauterine growth restrictions cause 2.2 million child deaths a year. Poor or non-existent breastfeeding causes another 1.4 million. Other deficiencies, such as lack of vitamin A or zinc, for example, account for 1 million. Malnutrition in the first two years is irreversible. Malnourished children grow up with worse health and lower educational achievements. Their own children also tend to be smaller. Malnutrition was previously seen as something that exacerbates the problems of diseases as measles, pneumonia and diarrhea. But malnutrition actually causes diseases as well, and can be fatal in its own right.[6]
Food for Life’s contribution
At the present moment, Food for Life Global affiliates are the world’s largest distributor of healthy free food to the public. We estimate that our projects serve between 2 and 3 million meals daily or close to a 1 billion meals annually. To put that in perspective in 2011, WFP reached 99.1 million people in 75 countries and provided 3.6 million tonnes of food. Food for Life Global affiliates are distributing up to 10 times the amount of food as the United Nations World Food Programme.
The “key” to solving world hunger
Food for Life Global believes that the key to all the world’s problems, including malnutrition must come from a spiritual paradigm. This is not to say that religion is the answer, as we all know how much trouble religion has caused the world. What FFL proposes is that the more the human population, and especially the leaders, can embrace the reality of equality of spirit — that all beings, including animals, plants and every race of human are essentially spiritual family, and that the external covering of the body is not the true value of an individuals potential, the more peace and prosperity will exist.
This concept of spiritual equality springs from India’s Vedic culture of hospitality, wherein all beings were respected equally and therefore, the natural expression of this understanding was to share the resources of the world. You see, even the United Nations openly admits that world hunger is not a result of lack of food capacity, but rather inequitable distribution of the world’s food resources. Such disparity would not exist in a world fixed in the consciousness of spiritual equality.
Food for Life Global’s mission is fuelled by a passionate belief in spiritual equality and this translates into our keen desire to give everyone the opportunity for healthy, non-violent food. We use food as a medium of expressing our love and respect for all beings. No one should go hungry in a world with so much to offer, and neither should there be any deaths from malnutrition. It is inexcusable for countries like the United States to waste so much food while children in developing countries beg and cry for morsels. The children that die every year from malnutrition-related diseases are crying in our ear to wake up. The fact is, every day should be WORLD FOOD DAY, not only October 16.
MORE ON SOLUTIONS TO WORLD HUNGER
by Priyavrata Das
Director
A billion meals a year, and ten times more than the UN, are very impressive figures. Most other religious groups or organizations would be promoting this information much more. That is, I notice several Hindu-related groups that do smaller-scale food distribution programmes more heavily promoting that they do this. I guess many of us are collectively embarrassed by the promotion abuses and fund-raising abuses of the 1980’s and 1990’s, and therefore we’ve taken a step back in many places with promoting Food for Life. Hopefully things will balance out again.
ys Tim
p.s. and thank you very much Priyavrata prabhu for the service and the article
PART I of III
Dear Priyavrata Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Concern for the welfare of other living entities is something all civilized persons should aspire for. Actually a devotee being full of all good qualities (sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah), is by nature compassionate to all suffering souls.
A holisitic approach to Welfare
When we speak of welfare activities however, we have to understand how we can really help the suffering souls. We have to have a holistic approach to the welfare of the suffering souls and not temporary patchwork solutions (feeding them, educating them materially etc). Any help for the body is temporary. We are taught by His Divine Grace to rescue the eternal soul from this material entanglement. This is real help. As Srila Prabhupada says in Bhagavad-gita,
Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization..…. No one knows where compassion should be applied. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. A man fallen in the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dress — the gross material body. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress is called a sudra, or one who laments unnecessarily.
[Bg 2.1]
Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON to do the supreme welfare work which stops the suffering of all souls once and for all; the preaching Krishna consciousness. Also, Krishna mentions in Bhagavad-gita that one who spreads this knowledge of the science of Krishna consciousness is most dear to Him. He doesn’t mention anything about feeding needy persons or medical aid or any other form of material help. This is the best way to please Krishna; by directly preaching Krishna consciousness. >>>>> CONTINUED >>>
PART II of III
All decent men want to give service to humanity, only thing is they do not have information really what is that service. Hospitals, feeding the poor, Red Cross, these are service to the bodies only, not to the man. Service to humanity means jnana. By giving people knowledge, jnana, that is the highest service to humanity. So we are performing the actual welfare work of society by informing everyone through our literatures who is God, who they are, and what is the relationship. In this way everyone who hears our message gets the opportunity to fulfill his actual position as human entity and become delivered from the clutches of maya……..
So you may understand it that by disseminating our Krsna consciousness propaganda anywhere and everywhere, by selling books, by making publicity, newspapers, television, so many ways there are to spread Krsna consciousness information, you may know it that by utilizing our energy in this way to give everyone access to the Absolute Truth, that is the real understanding of desire to serve humanity.
[ Letter to: Ramesvara — India 9 January, 1973]
Here is an explanation of how those engaged in activities for the welfare of others are very quickly recognized by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (18.68-69), ya idam paramam guhyam mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati. .. na ca tasman manusyesu kascin me priya-krttamah: “One who preaches the message of Bhagavad-gita to My devotees is most dear to Me. No one can excel him in satisfying Me by worship.” There are different kinds of welfare activities in this material world, but the supreme welfare activity is the spreading of Krsna consciousness.
[SB 1.5.18 purport]
But people are poor, hungry and suffering !
One may say that this is heartless and cruel, we have to feed the hungry people and give relief to the disaster victims (droughts, floods etc). Of course we also don’t like to see people suffer but we should try to understand the situation. How many people will we feed? There is a specific plan of the Lord as people have rebelled against God’s authority and they refuse to be Krishna conscious. This world is inherently a place of suffering (duhkhalayam asasvatam) and we should try to get people onto the Krishna conscious platform and not make futile attempts to stop the suffering (which is impossible). We cannot and actually should not change Krishna’s plan.
>>>>CONTINUED>>>>
PART III of III
Guest (3): Now people… There are drought conditions, people are starving. Cattles are dying. There are no rains.
Prabhupäda: Yes, because they are not God conscious, they are thinking like that. Now, suppose in the hospital, there are many patients. They are starving, many patients in the hospital. Do you know that or not? So why don’t you give them food? They are starving. Why? Why don’t you go to the hospital and you’ll find hundreds of patients, they are starving… So similarly, why you are bothering? You are not bothering the hospital because you know that is right, they are starving. That is the physician’s prescription. They must starve. So if you know God, then you will understand that you cannot help anyone. They are put into the starving condition under certain condition. So you cannot help them. You are simply thinking that “I will help.” There are hundreds and thousands, millions of people starving. What you can do? ….. What you are doing for them? What you can do? You are simply thinking falsely. What you have got to give? Just oil in your own machine. Try to understand God, instead of thinking foolishly, “Oh, what I shall do, this? What I shall do, that?” First, of all try to understand the situation.
[Room Conversation — September 19, 1973, Bombay]
Conclusion
Based on these views , I feel that we shouldn’t be doing all these activities as it was against Srila Prabhupada’s wishes. We should revert to the direct preaching of Krishna consciousness as His Divine Grace intended. Yes Srila Prabhupada wanted prasadam to be distributed profusely and that should be done, to everyone, not specifically to the poor.
So far prasada distribution, it is not a question of rich or poor. That will be Karma Kanda. Our program therefore is that we offer prasada to everyone. Make our temple so nice that everyone who comes is offered some prasadam. Not that we are after poor men.
[Honolulu 15 May, 1972]
Yes, some people are too hungry or are suffering too much to be able to pay attention to the message. This is very regrettable. But if we start feeding all the hungry people then who will preach Krishna consciousness?
Your humble servant,
For further information, please see:
http://www.dandavats.com/?p=10711#more-10711
yasyaprasada@gmail.com
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I just wanted to mention that although the main article here doesn’t mention much about poor feeding, I wrote the above three parts after clicking on the link at the bottom of the article titled “MORE ON SOLUTIONS TO WORLD HUNGER”, which leads to the ffl website.
From there I surfed into the Aims and Objectives of FFL and saw the text below which outlines part of the aims of FFL.
Welfare
– To provide pure plantbased meals to te disadvantaged, malnourished and victims of disaster (natural or manmade), wherever there is a need in the world.
Your servant,
Actually prasadam distribution to the poor and rich is actual charity, and the poor need it more , a vaisnava is compassionate not a selfish monster, Srila Prabhupada stated no one should go hungry in the radius of 10 miles of a temple ,that is one of many instructiones for prasadam distribution.I have been distributing books and sometimes prasadam since 34 years, why not do both.Harinama, bookdistribution and prasadam distribution is the 3 weapons against maya….Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada wanted all grhasthas to give charity to the poor there is no better charity than giving them prasadam and books so dear Murari join us if you are not already doing this..do not be idle
Thank you for the suggestion Prabhu. However, I think you are misquoting me and this is not fair as you are turning the attention away from the whole point of the posting.
I didn’t say we should stop Prasadam distribution, as doing so would actually be a deviation of our duty. I recall a quote of Srila Prabhupada where he mentions one of the aims of ISKCON is to distribute Prasadam as widely as possible. However we shouldn’t just go to poor people and disaster zones. That is what I said we should stop. It should be distributed profusely to all people regardless of rich or poor because all people are poor (spiritually). Why? because this is the result of Yajna and one who takes the remnants are liberated from sinful reactions (BG 3.13). Everyone require to advance spiritually, not just the poor.
This is mentioned in the Conclusion of the write-up above. I will put it again here with emphasis on the relevant points:
Yes Srila Prabhupada wanted prasadam to be distributed profusely and that should be done, to everyone, not specifically to the poor.
So far prasada distribution, it is not a question of rich or poor. That will be Karma Kanda. Our program therefore is that we offer prasada to everyone. Make our temple so nice that everyone who comes is offered some prasadam. Not that we are after poor men.
[Honolulu 15 May, 1972]
And yes, I do free Prasadam distribution.
Wherever there is the most need is the best place to distribute prasadam ,,,,,Srila Prabhupada told us to focus on the poor also: Letter to Dhrstaketu: 74-03-16
Now I am especially concerned to distribute grains, rice, wheat in the form of dahl and rice prasadam to hungry people all over India. The people here are very disturbed because, partly due to the punishment of Nature, and partly due to the mismanagement of the demon class of men, food is not available. If the people do not even have sufficient food they will not even be able to receive spiritual instructions. So I am hopeful that if we can widely distribute free foodstuffs to the people of India, by giving it out at our centers as well as by traveling parties to villages, we will win over the whole country and the whole world by this activity on Krsna’s behalf.
Letter to: Tamala Krsna Maharaja : 74-01-11
Yes, I fully agree that “What is the use of a temple if there is no prasadam distribution?” Prasadam distribution on a large scale must be resumed. Such a temple where there is no such distribution has no value, I agree.
Conversation Allahabad, January 13, 1977
In all our temples the prasada distribution should be so random (?), that within ten miles nobody should remain hungry. There are many persons in India, they are half time hungry. So if you distribute prasadam, “Come over here. You are hungry, take prasadam. If I cannot supply daily, I’ll supply at least two days, three days weekly.”
In this lecture of 73 ,Srila Prabhupada says :Temple worship means to distribute the prasadam to the poor
Prabhupada’s Lectures Initiation 1973
Temple worship means to distribute the prasadam to the poor. That is temple worship. Temple worship does not mean that vou, you bring some rice from the neighborers and cook it and eat yourself and sit, sleep down, nice. No. Temple worship means you must distribute prasadam…. The sannyasi should worship the Deity in the temple and feed the poor. Poor does not mean that one who has no legs, no ears, or no… Poor… Everyone who is spiritually poor, he should be given, prasadam. ….
Prasadam distribution is very nice, but there’s no such word in the original article.
What it argues is that religion is not the solution to the problems of the world but sharing food is.
This argument will surely sound very pleasing both to donors and recipients but it has nothing to do with Krishna consciousness.
Essentially it serves as karma kanda section of the Vedas – making your life comfortable while at the same time slowly purifying your consciousness.
Perhaps this verse from Srimad Bhagavatam, spoken by Krishna to Uddhava, describes the proper place of such actions and arguments in the overall scheme of things:
SB 11.21.23: Those statements of scripture promising fruitive rewards do not prescribe the ultimate good for men but are merely enticements for executing beneficial religious duties, like promises of candy spoken to induce a child to take beneficial medicine.
People enticed to eat food served by FFL will get their agyata sukriti even if they have never been told what prasadam is. Whether Srila Prabhupada meant to serve prasadam that way is a subject of a big debate.
Interesting question – what about people who would love to take Lord’s prasadam if it was available but take no interest in FFL offerings thinking that this is just mundane food for beggars and homeless?
Sitalatma your argument is not strong milliones of people take prasadam at ISKCON restaurants, at Ratha Yatras , at temples at ISKCON festivals , no one sees it as “food “for only beggars, often they pay for taking prasadam
Payonidhi Prabhu,
We are talking about food distributed by Food for Life in places where it’s not clear it’s an ISKCON temple, Ratha Yatra or any other Hare Krishna festival.
Here it’s presented as charitable food for hungry people, meaning that those who are not hungry shouldn’t be taking it or they’d be seen as abusing the charity.
I admit I’m discussing a hypothetical situation – people seeing some food distribution going on, not realizing it’s Krishna prasadam, and giving it a miss.
If this article wasn’t posted on Dandavats and didn’t have a picture with devotees in it I would have no idea it is connected to Krishna consciousness in any way.
I just clicked around Midday Meal website and there’s no indication they are serving Krishna prasadam, I assume they are, but only because I know it’s an ISKCON program.
Of course this argument should be weighed against the opportunity to serve more prasadam if it’s done in “incognito” mode but I think it’s a valid argument anyway.
Prasadam is like medicine even if one does not know who gave it or why or devotees are incongnito it still has the same effect of purification, many or most still know very little abotut Hare Krishna, we have to educate them …ajata sukriti ..is good it creates more interest in KC
Knowingly honoring Lord’s prasadam is a bone fide devotional service, it’s not the same as accidentally eating what happens to be sanctified food.
Thanks Tim for your contribution. Yes, in many way, the cheating that has gone in the name of FFL has hampered our ability to be more bold in promoting the excellent work that the volunteers are doing.
As for the other commentators on this article, my question is: Why do you feel the need to preach to me or any of us FFL volunteers about what Prabhupada meant when it comes to welfare. We have also read the book. We know what real welfare means, and giving someone prasadam is the greatest charity.
My article was really just a commentary on World Food Day and how if the world was more spiritually aware there would be no need for a special World Food Day. Every Day would be World food day, because we all see each other as brother or sister.
What Food for Life is doing is just putting that ideal into practice — setting an example. Whether we feed a so-called poor person or rich person is a moot point. Everyone needs prasadam and that has been our mission from the very beginning.
Sitalatama prabhu, why do you feel the need to nitpick. Just be happy that prasadam is going out in more and more quantities. Let’s celebrate with kirtan!!!!