A Silver Lining of the Global Crisis

Another cloud swept over the economy: the poverty rate for 2009 rose to 14.3% (up from 13.2% in 2008), according to a Census Bureau report. That means that 43.6 million Americans (or 1 in 7) lived below the poverty level last year…the largest number in the 51 years for which poverty data is available. And what’s really disturbing: this marks the highest one-year increase in the poverty rate since 1965, when President Johnson began the war on poverty. And to put it in perspective: the poverty threshold for a family of four is an income of $21,954. That equals $5,488.50 for each family member to survive on for a year.

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Yet, in the midst of that bad news, interestingly enough, the recession has had a positive effect: global hunger has fallen for the first time in 15 years. And it didn’t just fall a little…hunger is down 9.6%. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, an estimated 925 million people are undernourished this year, compared to 1.023 billion in 2009.

Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

The decline in the hunger number is the result of a decline in food prices from the peak of 2008. Another factor: economic growth in developing countries has improved access to food: the International Monetary Fund estimates that the global economy will expand 4.2% this year, with income growth primarily in emerging and developing economies. But that good news is threatened by a recent uptick in food prices, and the fact that developing/emerging countries (where most of the world’s hungry are found) are extremely vulnerable to shifts in the global economy.

Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

The global economy still faces some serious headwinds. And the world’s hungry still number far too many. According to the United Nations report, “The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry…indicates a deeper structural problem that gravely threatens the ability to achieve internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction”. Still…that 98 million fewer people are hungry is the silver lining of this global recession.

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