Per Pinstrup-Andersen, distinguished professor at Wageningen University, will give this year’s open lecture on Global Food Security*), with the above title. Is it genocide or a crime against humanity when millions of children die because of neglect by the state? Countless politicians have argued for action to fight poverty, hunger, and related human misery on moral grounds. Pinstrup-Andersen will elaborate on ethical standards that guide such (lack of) action, which he relates to utilitarianism, deontological, virtue and human rights ethics. He concludes that the elimination of hunger in developing countries is both a moral imperative and enlightened self-interest for the non-poor.
Pinstrup-Andersen is professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell University, and formerly director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Note: From 15.30 -17.00 h, Pinstrup-Andersen will give a revision of his last year’s lecture: “Can world hunger be halved by 2015? Will it?”
The Millennium Project Hunger Task Force published in 2005 its final report: “Halving hunger, it can be done”. It gives policy advice on how to comply with the first of the Millennium Development Goals. The last 25 years about 25 global summits have resulted in international agreements and solemn governmental promises for the better of mankind. However, none of the quantified commitments have been met. Will it be different this time?
____________
*) In the realm of the Global Food Security course, the lecture for a wider public is organized for the seventh successive year. The other yearly public event of the course is a cross-bench debate on hot food-security issues, this time on April 12th from 20-22 hrs.