(Editor’s Note: This concludes the address made by Father Richard Kieran, Archdiocesan Secretary for Education and Chairman of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta’s Moral Leadership Committee, to a meeting of the President’s Commission on World Hunger held in Atlanta.)

The Right To Eat

The right to eat is upheld by the Judeo-Christian tradition, which recognizes the right of every human person to what is essential for a dignified existence. The Scriptures attest to the fact that the resources needed for such an existence, are to be shared with the whole human family.

In November 1974, at the World Food Conference, 130 nations adopted a “Declaration on Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition,” which stated that: “Every man, woman, and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties.” World leaders have recognized the “right to eat” as a fundamental human right, which flows from the basic and inalienable right of life itself.

Our congress recognized the right to eat in 1976. Yet, we have done little to respond to the denial of this right to many millions of starving and malnourished humans. The real recognition of this right by those who formulate our food policy would be a major step toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Because a basic human right is involved, the feeding of the hungry cannot be left to philanthropy. It has to be a matter of public policy for the United States, if we are to be consistent with our commitment to upholding human rights.

Our Increasingly Interdependent World

We live in an increasingly interdependent world, one which becomes more materially interdependent every day. The issue of hunger takes on a new urgency in light of this growing interdependence.

The meaning of interdependence is that we now live locked together on a limited globe. Being locked together, we are vulnerable to each other’s actions and responsible for each other’s life. Our personal choices and national policy choices can mean the difference of life or death for others. Being linked together on a limited globe means that the total answer cannot simply be more of everything -- our ability to produce food is limited.

Hunger is the prism through which we can perceive the moral demands of living in our interdependent world. The fact of widespread hunger and malnutrition makes it paramount that our growing material interdependence give birth to real moral interdependence, in which we accept responsibility for the fate of the starving and malnourished millions of our brothers and sisters.

Moral interdependence should be a distinguishing characteristic of our nation. The human community should be understood by us as a family bound together by ties of mutual responsibility and respect for each person’s dignity. “The earth has enough for every man’s need but not enough for every man’s greed” (Mahatma Gandhi).

Social Justice

Once we recognize the right to eat, we place the issue of hunger in the domain of justice. It is no longer a question of charity, which is concerned with the needs of others and our freedom to choose to help them. To say that others have a right to eat is to say that we have an obligation rather than option. Feeding the hungry is not a matter of being generous in charity -- it is responsibility in justice.

A view of the issue of hunger in terms of charity makes it easier for us individually and as a nation to choose to measure our generosity in relation to our supply. In this view, our relative scarcity will make us cautious about meeting the critical needs of starving brothers and sisters. On the other hand, a conception of hunger in terms of social justice yields a radically different perception of the problem. In this perception, scarcity does not dissolve our moral responsibility; rather, it intensifies the nature of the moral choice.

To fail to respond to the right to eat is not to fail in generosity, but to fail in minimal human decency. It defies the bonds of solidarity needed to keep an interdependent world civil and humane.

In order to measure up to its moral responsibility, our nation will have to address urgently issues such as:

-- The development of a comprehensive and coherent food policy for the United States which addresses the issue of hunger on the international, national, and local levels;

-- The equitable distribution of food on the international, national, and local levels, based upon the rights of others to eat;

-- The production of food at full capacity, while protecting the rights of farmers to just compensation;

-- Programs of development for poorer nations to help them toward self-sufficiency;

-- The immediate relief for the starving and malnourished;

-- The promotion of an appropriate life style for our people which eliminates waste.

We pray that God will bless the efforts of this Presidential Commission with prompt success in helping our nation to respond to the world food crisis in a responsible manner.

We will be happy to offer now any further information or clarifications that would be helpful to the commission.