Excerpted with minor edits by Carolyn Bennett

Long lens of history frame a Revolution rising from misery, a relentless hunger amidst plenty.

"The people had patiently endured misery and oppression under Louis XV. As soon as that King died in 1774, they began to revolt, knowing well that, with a change of masters at the palace, there comes an inevitable slackening of authority. A continuous series of riots broke out between 1775 and 1777.

"These were the riots of hunger that until then had been repressed only by force. The harvest of 1774 had been bad and bread was scarce. Accordingly rioting broke out in April 1775.

"At Dijon the people took possession of the houses of the monopolists, destroyed their furniture and smashed up their flour-mills...

"Sometimes these risings had a religious character; sometimes they were to resist military enlistment - every levy of soldiers led to a riot... ; or it might be the salt tax against which the people rebelled, or the exactions of the tithes.

"Revolts went on without intermission, and it was the east, south-east and north-east--future hotbeds of the Revolution--that these revolts broke out in the greatest number. They went on steadily growing in importance and number. In 1788, after the dissolution of the Courts of Justice, insurrections broke out in every part of France.

"… A thousand circumstances impelled the masses to revolt. In spite of the fact that after every outbreak there were summary hangings, wholesale arrests and even torture for those arrested, the people did revolt - pressed on one side by their desperate misery...

"They rose in numbers against the governors of provinces, tax-collectors, salt-tax agents and even against the troops. By so doing they completely disorganized the governmental machine..."

Regression: today's billion hungry amidst plenty

Though the world today has enough food, more than one billion people are hungry. Every year 6 million children die of hunger. On this day more than 17,000 children will die of hunger - One child every five seconds, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was fasting, spoke yesterday at the Food Security Summit in Italy.

"Food is a basic right," the Secretary-General said. "Food and nutritional security are the foundations of a decent life, a sound education and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

"Over the past year, we have witnessed a chain reaction... a chain reaction that threatens the very foundations of life for millions of the world's people. Rising energy prices drove up the cost of food and ate away the savings that people otherwise would have spent on health care or education. It is a vicious cycle that impoverishes not only its immediate victims but all people... Millions of families have been pushed into poverty and hunger... By 2050, our planet may be home to 9.1 billion people, over two billion more than today.

"At a time when the global population is growing, our global climate is changing. By 2050 we know we will need to grow 70 per cent more food. Weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable. In many parts of the world water supplies are declining. Agricultural land is drying out.

"Food security and climate change are deeply interconnected. If the glaciers of the Himalaya melt, it will affect the livelihoods and survival of three hundred million people in China and up to a billion people throughout Asia. Africa's small farmers, who produce most of the continent's food and depend mostly on rain, could see harvests drop by 50 per cent by 2020.

"We must make significant changes to feed ourselves - and, most especially, to safeguard the poorest and most vulnerable. We must ensure safety nets for those who cannot afford food. We must transform agricultural development, markets, and the means by which food is distributed. We must do so based on a thorough understanding of the issues...

"We must work together to build trust. We need joint investment planning, predictable resources, mutual accountability. We must ensure that food is available and affordable -- for all.

"This is at the core of the right to food."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights excerpt from
Preamble and Article 25 (1948)

"The peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of [oneself and family], including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond [one's] control."

Sources:

Kropotkin, P. (1927), The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793 (N. F. Dryhurst, Trans.), New York: Vanguard Printings. (Original work published 1909), THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT: THE RIOTS, http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/ANARCHIST_ARCHIVES/kropotkin/frenchrev/v.html
Opening remarks at Food Security Summit, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Rome (Italy), November 16, 2009, http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=646
UDHR text from Britannica

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Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett -author, independent journalist Blog: Today's Insight News Blog: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/
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