A Note of Thanks From Missouri Rep. Emerson
September 7th, 2007 at 11:06 am | posted by Sarah Crouthers
I am glad to congratulate the State of Missouri and the City of St. Louis on joining a worldwide movement to recognize the challenges faced by the world’s poorest nations and people.
Without question, disease, famine, and poverty are rampant afflictions that take the lives of millions every year while depriving many millions more of a future full of their potential. Solving these problems is a common interest in our state, our nation and our world. Regardless of political convictions, religious upbringing or personal background, those who fight for the world’s less fortunate are bound by their commitment to service and their concern for humanity.
I have long worked on hunger issues as a member of Congress, and there is one incomprehensible contradiction in this fight: the difference between our ability to fight hunger and our efforts to do so. Eliminating this difference requires us to follow up on the pledges made today with actions that target the sources of poverty’s ills. We can seek solutions through public policy, by contacting our elected officials, in our personal lives, and with faith-based institutions.
The challenges before us are significant, but our response is full of a uniting promise. I appreciate Governor Blunt and Mayor Slay for joining the efforts of ONE, and I thank you all for raising awareness about global poverty.
-Jo Ann Emerson, Member of Congress, 8th District - Missouri
September 11th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I’m wondering why the recent study on the cost of domestic hunger (in excess of 90 billion dollars a year in lost productivity, “emergency” charity outlays for food, and excess medical costs) is not high lighted in anti-hunger circles. The study was commissioned by Sodexho corporation and can be read at their website. Dr. J. Larry Brown(Harvard) and others conducted the study and did what appears to be a credible job. The punch line to all this is the concensus opinion among virtually all the leading lights in anti-hunger work in this country that hunger can be eliminated totally in America at a cost of about 10 Billion dollars per year. You would think that this would be a no brainer. And yet, here we are in the midst of redoing the farm bill and hardly anyone mentions the study or its’ findings, and I see no one seriously advocating the elimination of hunger as an option. Whassup?