Preventable Starvation Committee

Before the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the last century, what we would nowadays term extreme or deadly poverty affected entire populations in all countries. Even ambitious redistribution measures could have not profoundly changed these dynamics. In this current world of plenty, in contrast, humanity possesses the knowledge and resources to potentially stamp out extreme poverty and its consequences, including death through starvation and lack of vital medicines. A malaria bed net only costs 1 USD; yet malaria, transmitted through mosquitoes, kills one million children every year. The worldwide food supply is much bigger than its consumption needs even if everyone's nutritional needs were met; yet millions starve. It is the foundational belief of the Preventable Starvation Committee (PSC) that starvation, the ugliest result of extreme poverty, as well as all other manifestations of deadly poverty are not only consequences of a country’s geography or basic climatic conditions, but also of political and economic practices. Examples are, but are in no way limited to the use of forced starvation to achieve a political goal; a government’s discriminatory practices that leave the basic needs of certain communities unmet; rampant corruption, which mostly victimizes a country’s most vulnerable populations; humanitarian embargos that block the delivery of goods vital for a population’s survival; trade and other economic rules as well as environmental practices that undermine food security; and a lack of political will on the international stage to deliver on promises to relieve extreme poverty.The PSC will not directly deliver humanitarian aid to meet these manifold challenges. Instead, it will assemble and conduct research to identify actors responsible for shortages of food and other basic necessities as well as actors who could remedy their detrimental effects. This is done in an effort to raise awareness of the multi-dimensional causes of preventable poverty in the general public and directly criticize decision-makers in and outside of government and in rich and poor countries alike. Recognizing that one civil society actor alone cannot stimulate the significant change needed and that more and more citizens grow concerned of entirely preventable suffering; it is one of PSC's basic philosophies to connect with others to build worldwide constituencies for change, which reach beyond religious, ideological and political differences. In its advocacy work, PSC refers to the right to food, which almost all governments recognized through Chapter 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which refers to a global right to healthcare. PSC's members are from rich and poor countries. Aside from directly criticizing decision-makers, for example through letter writing campaigns, its members may engage in demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience and “Skip-A-Meal” fasting outreaches to raise awareness and donate the saved money to non-governmental organizations that directly aid victims of preventable starvation.

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