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Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty. [Hardcover]

Roger Thurow (Author), Scott Kilman (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 22, 2009
For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the “Green Revolution” succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every year—most of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.

In the west we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Thurow & Kilman show exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European policies conspired to keep Africa hungry and unable to feed itself. As a new generation of activists work to keep famine from spreading,Enoughis essential reading on a humanitarian issue of utmost urgency.



Editorial Reviews

Review

Financial Times
“Thurow and Kilman are journalists who have covered famines in Africa, agricultural policy in the corridors of Washington and Brussels, and food commodities markets in Chicago. Yet their book is more than just a rough first draft of history. While grounded in colourful, entertaining reportage,Enoughalso displays a depth of thought and research more commonly found in academic studies. Well-chosen anecdotes bring the issues to life. Nothing could illustrate the shortcomings of US food aid policy, in which Washington sells American farmers' output in Africa rather than sending money to buy local food, better than a dialogue between an Ethiopian farmer and a US executive at a food aid meeting in Addis Ababa. The farmer asks the executive enthusiastically: ‘Can you help our farmers sell their beans in America?’ He receives an unexpected answer: ‘Actually, we represent American bean growers.’

AG Week
“I recently received my copy of “Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty.” Every person connected to the food industry should read it.”

USAToday.com
“For sensitive souls, the book's vivid descriptions of the ugliness of African poverty can make for difficult reading. But the knowledge is worth the unpleasantness. Thurow and Kilman lead the reader on a journey across continents, explaining the complexities of economic dysfunction and reminding us that there is a symbiosis of wealth and poverty that explains why starvation endures in an age of plenty.”

Huffington Post
“A page turner. Unless you simply don't give a damn, this is a must read, and it is a must read now.

Sunanda Holmes,USA Today
“Thurow and Kilman lead the reader on a journey across continents, explaining the complexities of economic dysfunction and reminding us that there is a symbiosis of wealth and poverty that explains why starvation endures in an age of plenty.”

Review

Financial Times
“Thurow and Kilman are journalists who have covered famines in Africa, agricultural policy in the corridors of Washington and Brussels, and food commodities markets in Chicago. Yet their book is more than just a rough first draft of history. While grounded in colourful, entertaining reportage, Enough also displays a depth of thought and research more commonly found in academic studies. Well-chosen anecdotes bring the issues to life. Nothing could illustrate the shortcomings of US food aid policy, in which Washington sells American farmers' output in Africa rather than sending money to buy local food, better than a dialogue between an Ethiopian farmer and a US executive at a food aid meeting in Addis Ababa. The farmer asks the executive enthusiastically: ‘Can you help our farmers sell their beans in America?’ He receives an unexpected answer: ‘Actually, we represent American bean growers.’

AG Week
“I recently received my copy of “Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty.” Every person connected to the food industry should read it.”

USAToday.com
“For sensitive souls, the book's vivid descriptions of the ugliness of African poverty can make for difficult reading. But the knowledge is worth the unpleasantness. Thurow and Kilman lead the reader on a journey across continents, explaining the complexities of economic dysfunction and reminding us that there is a symbiosis of wealth and poverty that explains why starvation endures in an age of plenty.”

Huffington Post
“A page turner. Unless you simply don't give a damn, this is a must read, and it is a must read now.

Sunanda Holmes, USA Today
“Thurow and Kilman lead the reader on a journey across continents, explaining the complexities of economic dysfunction and reminding us that there is a symbiosis of wealth and poverty that explains why starvation endures in an age of plenty.”

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; First Edition edition (June 22, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586485113
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586485115
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Shocking ... and hopeful August 31, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Half way through the book, you'll be mad as hell. By the end, you'll see some rays of hope.

Thurow and Kilman lay out the problem: a billion or so starving or malnourished people in the world, in spite of the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone. Then they describe the barriers to getting the food to the people who need it: greed, politics, good intentions gone awry, and infrastructure/technical issues. Finally, they describe some of the ongoing efforts to overcome or end-run the barriers, and they lay out what needs to happen for the great vision of Jesus in Matthew 25 - the least being fed - to come to fruition. An important read, yet an interesting read and an easy read.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A wonderful, readable, engaging treatise on the positive strategies for fighting hunger in a world of plenty. Basicall, the altruistic idea of "give a man a fish" does not work very well, despite its best intentions, especially if you are in the business of selling fish. Sound odd or ironic? Not really. When foreign aid in the form of free grain from American farmers arrives too late in a famine area, the local farmers are unable to sell their own product. What appears to be compassionate charity is clearly a deal to support American farmers and shippers and, perhaps only by chnace, starving Africans.

The "green revolution" started in Mexico and moved to Asia and then stumbled a bit in Africa. In Africa, the absence of the social and physical infrastructure needed to promote wealth-creating, modern, efficient agriculture had a hard time materializing. And foreign aid requirements that thwarted development, by insisting on premature free-market practices in a fledgling agricultural industry, only continued the problems while exposing foreign aid for what it is: government farm support for American farmers but not African farmers. Tens of millions, if not billions in aid was siphoned off by greedy African leaders and paid to shippers for carrying grain to Africa, grain that could have been purchased for much less locally and supported local farmers. It makes American accusations of "dumping" hypocritical at best, and life-thretening at worst.

Many of these case studies and stories have been published previously in the Wall Street Journal, so they will be familiar to readers of the Journal. And the authors conclude with some useful recommendations. It may seem surprising that such a compassionate treatment should come from bastion of capitalism yet, as more and more authors reveal each year, the solution to starvation in Africa is not more, free, American grain. The solution needs to be local and sustainable. "Enough" offers a bright light on the subject.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There is a great deal of interesting (not to mention heart-wrenching) information in this book, but the gist of the argument is this:

Food policy for the last 30 years has more or less ignored agricultural development and food self-sufficiency. Instead policy has focused on moving poor countries directly to industrialization. With industries, the reasoning goes, poor countries can export goods and use their export earnings to buy food from rich countries, including the United States. We produce food cheaply, they produce goods cheaply. We get cheap stuff, they get cheap food.

The authors point out a number of problems with this approach. First, it tends to fail just when poor countries need it most. A few years ago, there was a dramatic escalation in the price of rice. Immediately, famine threatened poor countries around the world. Second, as programs helping poor farmers are cut back or eliminated, they often have little choice but to abandon their farms and become urban slum dwellers - or to emigrate legally or illegally. It's this dynamic that has driven much of the post-NAFTA immigration from Mexico to the United States.

The authors argue that we need to re-orient global food policy to help poor farmers and encourage food self-sufficiency in poor nations. They admit that the task won't be easy, and that other factors (war, corruption, and disease) also help create hunger. They also point out that our current policies are very convenient for powerful economic interests - not least large-scale farmers, global grain trading companies, and manufacturers seeking cheap labor.

The authors have been covering this beat for the Wall Street Journal for many years and are clearly both passionate and very well-informed. They are also excellent writers - if some of the subject matter weren't so grim, I'd almost be tempted to describe it as a "fun read." Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Many ideas and success stories on making a difference
While the writer tried to paint the Republicans as bad for bringing free enterprise into food aid, his stories were filled with countless success stories of free enterprise helping... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Glenn D. Robinson
Gripping, shocking report on how rich nations' policies harm African...
Farm subsidies started out as a good way to protect hardworking US and European farmers against the vagaries of the marketplace and the weather. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Rolf Dobelli
Can There Be Enough?
The Gates Foundation estimated that a sum of 20 billion dollars would be necessary to finance a food program in Africa to feed the hungry and help citizens and individual countries... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Spudman
A great book
I believe that this is one of the most important books written in the last decade. It should be on the must-read list of every business leader, politician, economist, journalist,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Brien
Only the merest quater-turn of the heart...
ENOUGH is an important book about human hunger, primarily in Africa. This is a book that should be read by anyone concerned with food production, distribution, and hunger. Read more
Published 16 months ago by leggogarn
A passionately worded argument against systemic injustices
The fight against hunger is not hopeless; it is a battle that can be won, but it requires informed people to advocate for policy reform and new practices that work for the world's... Read more
Published 20 months ago by John Gibbs
good
It is a very good book. People will not realize how much injustice is present in this world, until they read this book. It is a very good book. I recommend the book.
Published 20 months ago by Oliver Okoye
Recognition of hunger's complexity
Enough is a great introduction to the complexity of "hunger." Rather than boiling down the issue to the simple question of feeding the poor, Enough recognizes the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by K. Schantz
A vivid and damning portrayal of our attitudes to food security
If I had my way, a well-thumbed copy of this book would rest on the desk of every US Senator and member of Congress, and they'd be thinking about the issues the authors raise while... Read more
Published on March 18, 2010 by S. McGee
Convicted and Inspired
This was absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. We have often heard that "there is enough food in the world to feed everyone; it's just a distribution problem". Read more
Published on February 6, 2010 by Beth DeHaven
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