Global Hunger Campaign

Although the world’s farmers produce enough food to adequately feed everyone on the planet, nearly 925 million people worldwide remain hungry. Global hunger is not a problem of quantity but of access, distribution and control. A host of economic and political forces undermine the ability of farmers in the developing world to produce the necessary food to feed their families and maintain their livelihoods. And U.S. agriculture and development policies play a key role in perpetuating this unjust system.

As part of our food justice campaign, Reverse Hunger, AJWS urges the U.S. government and the international community to promote local food production as a basic principle of economic security. Our approach is rooted in the concept of food sovereignty—the right of people to determine their own agricultural and food policies. AJWS believes that through consultation with the communities most impacted by food insecurity, greater investment in local infrastructure and the dismantling of discriminatory trade and agricultural policies, the United States can become a valued partner in combating global hunger. Learn more about our broken food aid system.

The upcoming revision of the U.S. Farm Bill provides an important opportunity to reform damaging policies that undermine local farmers and contribute to global hunger.

The right to food is a human right. In listening to local people’s needs and investing in their ability to grow and sell their own food, we can end food insecurity and assist the world’s poorest people in lifting themselves out of poverty. Together, we can Reverse Hunger.

• AJWS joined a diverse group of organizations in a letter calling on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reject any proposal by the Agriculture Committee that would alter Farm Bill programs outside of the regular Farm Bill reauthorization process.
• American Jewish World Service endorsed a charter to end extreme hunger that sets out actions governments and leaders should take to address the underlying cause of the crises in the Horn of Africa.
• AJWS joined a diverse group of individuals and organizations in a letter encouraging Senators Baucus and Hatch, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Representatives Camp and Levin, chairman and ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, to allow the refundable Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) to sunset and to resist calls for spending on conventional biofuels infrastructure.
• AJWS and members of the U.S. NGO Working Group on IFAD and Rural Poverty urged Congresswoman Kay Granger and Senator Patrick Leahy, chairs of the State, Foreign Operations & Related Programs Subcommittees, to approve the President’s 2012 request for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and to provide active support for U.S. leadership in the Fund.

• Visit our Action Center and get involved.
The Jewish Petition for a Just Farm Bill




The U.S. is the largest donor of global food aid. But that generosity can have unintended—yet tragic—consequences for people in need around the world. Next year, when Congress debates the U.S. Farm Bill, we can reform food aid so that it helps turn back the tide of food insecurity. A better food aid system will save more lives. And we can make it happen.