The U.N. Wants More Money For African Food

Rising prices for food have led the United Nations programme fighting famine in Africa and other regions to warn that it can no longer afford to feed the 90m people it has helped for each of the past five years on its budget.

The World Food Programme feeds people in countries including Chad, Uganda and Ethiopia, but reaches a fraction of the 850m people it estimates suffers from hunger. It spent about $600m buying food in 2006. So far, the WFP has not cut its reach because of high commodities prices, but now says it could be forced to do so unless donor countries provide extra funds.

The United Nations is only feeding 90 million people out of 850 million, and they do it at a cost of $600 million per year. How in the hell are they feeding one person enough food for $6.66 per year? Can someone explain this to me?

Are those areas of Africa still in drought conditions, or do the people just not produce their own food at all? How have Chad, Uganda, and Ethiopia existed throughout history, you know, like before the United Nations? People haven't always been donating food to them. So?

Now the U.N. wants more money because of rising costs? Why don't we remind these people how to produce their own food? Hasn't the time (and the technology) come to help make people self-reliant?

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."