Position of the American Dietetic Association: Addressing world hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity.

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) that access to adequate amounts of safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food at all times is a fundamental human right. Hunger continues to be a worldwide problem of staggering proportions. The Association supports programs and encourages practices that combat hunger and malnutrition, produce food security, promote self-sufficiency, and are environmentally and economically sustainable. The Association is aware that hunger exists in a world of plenty and that poverty, gender inequity, ethnocentrism, racism, and the lack of political will are key constraints to solving the problems of global hunger and malnutrition. Recognizing that simplistic approaches are inadequate, the ADA identifies sustainable development as the long-term strategy to ending world hunger and achieving food security. Sustainable development requires political, economic, and social changes that include empowering the disenfranchised, widening access to assets and other resources, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and adjusting consumption patterns so as to foster good stewardship of nature. Additionally, because the health status of future generations is related to the well-being of their mothers, achieving food security will also require increased access for women to education, adequate health care and sanitation, and economic opportunities. This position paper reviews the complex issues of global food insecurity and discusses long-term solutions for achieving world food security. Achieving the end of world hunger has been and is now within our grasp. There is sufficient food to feed everyone, and solutions can be realized now that will benefit all of humanity. As noted in the paper, most people who examine the costs of ending versus not ending world hunger are bewildered by the question of why humanity did not solve the problem a long time ago. The Association supports programs and encourages practices that combat hunger and malnutrition, produce food security, promote self-sufficiency, respect local cultures, and are environmentally and economically sustainable. The ADA recognizes that decisions and actions that dietetics professionals make as practitioners and consumers can help reduce the extent of poverty and hunger both here and abroad. This paper provides information, resources, and strategies to assist dietetics professionals in improving the public's understanding of key issues, becoming advocates of the poor, and influencing the political will to end world hunger.