A Stunning 16 Million Children Are Going Hungry in United States

Illustration by FMSC.

By Jules D. Smith
Childhood malnutrition in the United States is a problem a pediatricians organization says is not being reported by parents and going unnoticed by doctors — mostly because of embarrassment.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement, published in the journal Pediatrics, recommending doctors ask children if they are hungry and help their parents get food assistance through state and federal programs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates at least 14 percent of households in the United States in 2014 were food insecure, or lacking consistent access to adequate food. Twenty-one percent of children in the country — about 16 million — live in these households, and 30 percent of families who report they are food insecure have had to choose between food and medical care, the AAP wrote in its statement. “We are in the midst of a nutritional crisis in our country, and when you’re in a crisis, you can’t keep doing what you’ve always done,” Dr. Sandra Hassink, president of the AAP, said in a press release.

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30,000 Starving to Death in Southern Sudan 'Catastrophe' Says UN

Hospital in Nassir, Sudan run by Doctors Without Borders. (Photo by European Commission DG ECHO)

By AFP
Over 30,000 people in South Sudan's war-zone regions face death by starvation, the United Nations said today, warning that tens of thousands more are on the brink of famine.

While an official famine has not been declared, the report describes the worst conditions yet seen in a 22-month civil war marked by atrocities and accusations of war crimes, including the blockading of food supplies.

"At least 30,000 people are living in extreme conditions and are facing starvation and death," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN children's agency UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint statement.

Those worst affected are in the northern battleground state of Unity, once the country's key oil producing region, but now scene of some of the heaviest fighting, including the mass abduction and rape of women and children.

Some 3.9 million people are in crisis -- a third of the country's population -- a massive 80 per cent rise compared to the same period last year, the UN said.

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Nigerian Government Accused of War Crimes in Fight Against Boko Haram — Over 7,000 Prisoners Said to Die in Custody

Nigerian soldier abusing captives. (Screen capture from video)

By Amnesty International
The story is so shocking it is almost hard to believe. But evidence released today by Amnesty International – based on dozens of military documents and correspondence as well as interviews with victims, eyewitnesses and members of the security forces -- reveals that senior officials of the Nigerian military had full knowledge of the arbitrary detentions and high rates of deaths and failed to take action to stop these human rights violations.

RELATED STORY: Nigeria - Army Accused of Killing Hundreds After 'Islamists' Attack Barracks — Amnesty International Claims 600 Killed, Half Civilians

A high-ranking military officer gave Amnesty International a list of 683 detainees who died over a five-month period from October 2012 in Giwa barracks. Based on his visits and discussions with soldiers stationed there, he estimated that “close to 5,000 people” have died there since the beginning of 2013.

Most of the deaths are still officially unrecorded.

"The hundreds of unidentified bodies, the evidence of mass graves and the harrowing stories of starvation and abuse coming out of the country’s military barracks demand nothing less than an urgent investigation and for those responsible to be brought to justice," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General.

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The Financial Elite and the Global Land Grab

Farm Sunset. (Photo by Ruthanne Reid)

By Eric Draitser
The global financial crisis, which began in 2008, has significantly altered the way many speculators and financial institutions invest. Rather than taking huge risks with dodgy derivatives like credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities, both of which have proven to be particularly volatile, many speculators have instead begun to invest in the most tangible asset of all: land. By doing so, financial institutions, and many governments, have engaged in “land grabbing” – a process by which large amounts of capital are invested in the purchase of land for large-scale agricultural production, while the farmers who have worked the land for generations are displaced and/or become renters on land that was once their own.

This worrying trend is part of a global shift, a consolidation of land and resources in ever fewer hands, while the mass of workers and peasants are made dependent on corporations and governments. Spurred on by the financial crisis and the exponential growth of food and commodity speculation, financiers and their investment institutions (hedge funds, big banks, sovereign wealth funds, etc.) are gobbling up the most fertile land around the world, leading many to wonder what the future of food production and land distribution will look like.

It should be further noted that this trend is not only affecting the poor of the Global South, but also the independent farmers of the so called “developed world.” As such, landgrabbing has become a global phenomenon, one that must be addressed by farmers and working people internationally, with broad-based coalitions and organizations mobilizing resistance and educating the people. Only comprehensive solutions to such a global problem can possibly hope to protect the land, and all of us who depend on it.

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Mali: More 800,000 Starving As Food Crisis Triggered By Islamist Insurgency Deepens

More than 800,000 Malians starving as food crisis deepens (via AFP)

More than 800,000 Malians are desperate for food while another three million risk going without meals as the country struggles to emerge from months of armed conflict, 11 humanitarian groups warned on Friday. An Islamist insurgency and the after-effects…

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