niger food crisis

Amartya Sen showed that famine and food crises are not caused by a lack of food but by distributional problems. The present Niger food crisis is similar. And, as Jan Egeland at the UN notes,

...the $30m requested for both short - and long-term aid "was nothing".

"Europeans eat ice cream for $10bn a year and Americans spend $35bn on their pets each year."

UPDATE (22 July, 1:13pm):

Aid Agencies in Scramble to Help Famine-Hit Niger