ABA resolution endorses a human right to adequate food
The ABA House of Delegates has passed a resolution calling for increased funding and a reordering of priorities to fight hunger in the United States.
Resolution 107 urges governments to increase funding and implement strategies “to promote the human right to adequate food and nutrition for all.” The resolution also urges the U.S. government to make the realization of a human right to adequate food a principal objective of domestic policy.
According to a report accompanying the resolution, food insecurity in the United States has been at record levels for five years in a row. The report cites Census figures showing that 14.5 percent of U.S. households suffered food insecurity in 2012.
“The U.S. is one of the only countries that has yet to acknowledge that access to food is a human right,” the report says. “Hunger is not inevitable—the United States produces enough food to feed each American. There is no question that government must address the most basic of human needs—hunger and nutrition—with a human rights approach in order for ending hunger to be a national goal to which we all will be held accountable.”
A new five-year farm bill trims funding for food stamps by $800 million a year, the Associated Press reported last week. The compromise bill cuts less from the program than the $40 billion that would have been eliminated in House legislation passed last fall.
