Editor's note: Who needs global jihad when the toll from global hunger and poverty is so extraordinary? Isn't it time for warring Christian, Islamic, and Jewish factions around the globe to put down the missiles, throw away the guns, look at your neighbor in the eyes, and offer him or her a morsel of food and a clean glass of water?

The following statements about hunger, while suspect because they come from the UN, are more believable than the UNAIDS numbers, if for no other reason than the fact that so many of the latter figures are actually cases of malnutrition and severe poverty, not AIDS, and certainly not HIV, which couldn't even cause the common cold.

GLOBAL HUNGER

• Hunger & malnutrition are the number one risk to global health killing more people than AIDS, malaria & TB combined
  Source: WHO-World Health Report 2002 - WHO 2003

• Hunger and poverty claim 25,000 lives every day
  Source: FAO

• 852 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003

• 815 million people in developing countries alone are hungry - one in three lives in sub-Saharan Africa
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003 - FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003, p7

• In the 1990s, global poverty dropped by 20 percent. The number of hungry people increased by 18 million
  Source: Food as Aid: Trends, Needs and Challenges in the 21st Century

• 314.9 million of the world's hungry live in South Asia - more than the populations of Australia and USA
  Source: Agriculture in the Global Economy, Bread for the World Institute, 2003, p132-135 (from FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2002) - Agriculture in the Global Economy, Bread for the World Institute, 2003, p126-127

• Poor families spend over 70 percent of their income on food. An average American family spends over 10 percent
  Source: World Bank 1992; "School Feeding Works for Girls' Education", WFP

CHILD HUNGER

• Every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry
  Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003

• Hunger is inherited. Each year, 17 million children are born underweight because their mothers are malnourished
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

• For 19 cents you can feed a hungry child in school for a day
  Source: WFP School Feeding Global Report, 2003

• Child mortality rates are eight times higher in Africa than Europe. Malnutrition is the main cause
  Source: The Lancet (Jan 2003); in Nutrition Update Handout, Oct 2003, Siena - Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p1

• 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths
  Source: UNICEF

• Cutting malnutrition among children aged under five in poor countries will reduce child mortality by 20 percent
  Source: Pelletier and Frongillo (2002) Changes in Child Survival are strongly associated with changes in malnutrition in developing countries; in Nutrition Update Handout, October 2003, Siena

• Six million children under five die every year from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases. There are 6.2 million under fives in France and Italy
  Source: UNICEF State of the World's Children 2003, Table 5, p101

• Research shows that free school lunches can increase attendance rates by 100 percent and boost performance
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p4

MALNUTRITION

• Iron deficiency impairs growth. Fortifying food with iron has a bigger impact on health than immunisation
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2, p3

• Micro-nutrient deficiencies is ranked eighth among the top ten risks to health worldwide
  Source: WHO & World Health Report 2002

• Lack of Vitamin A kills a million infants a year
  Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF

• Over half of all pregnant women do not have sufficient iron. Every day 300 die in childbirth
  Source: WHO, 1998; Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

• Iron deficiency is the most common form of malnutrition, affecting 180 million children aged under four
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

• Iron deficiency is impairing the mental development of 40-60 percent children in developing countries
  Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF

• Lack of vitamin A weakens the immune system of 40 percent of under fives in poor countries, and can cause blindness
  Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF - WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

• Iodine deficiency is the main cause of brain damage in the early years of a child's life
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

• Lack of iron affects 4.5 billion people damaging productivity and cutting GDP by two percent in some countries
  Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2 - Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF

Editor's postscipt: Pharmaceutical companies and AIDS service organizations don't see the value in food distribution though, so I suspect that the problems will continue.

If ever there was a time for the second coming, the Messiah, a day of judgement, it would be now because I don't see how in the second millenium after Christ, with the ability to send rockets into space, and levitate 100 floors above ground in glass and steel pyramids, and LCD flat screen TVs in every well-to-do home, that there can be so many people without the basic necessities.

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