— Overview
The notes stay with a book on hunger, with a conversation with Karim, and with numbers they are careful to leave in the year the writer called “now.”
— Contents and key concepts
A child’s face among the covers, and a talk with Karim
Among the bright covers in a large bookshop, a sombre child’s face stood out, in black and white. The book is Why the World’s Hungry Half, by Jean Ziegler, a special rapporteur on food, the notes say, for the UN Commission on Human Rights.
He sets out the facts of hunger, and the causes behind them, as a conversation with his son Karim.
Figures dated to 2017, and a FAO report from 2006
The writer is careful to say this is still happening “in 2017, the present.” The numbers stay in that window, and are not treated as unofficial totals for today. The world already grows enough food for twelve billion people, yet a hundred thousand people a day, one child every five seconds, die of hunger.
A FAO report of October 2006, on 2005, records children under ten dying at one every five seconds, a third losing their sight from lack of vitamin A, and 850 million people, one in seven, in chronic malnutrition. In Africa, 36 percent lived with hunger as daily life. The same notes also put the world at about 7.3 billion, market food at more than twice that need, and hunger at about 800 million.
European support, and farms given up
Even so, the notes say, people give up farming because of the power of European states. Europe, facing cheap imported produce, offers its own farmers a range of support.
The argument is left there. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- The notes, a student reading of Jean Ziegler’s Why the World’s Hungry Half, a conversation with Karim: a child’s face in a shop, figures the notes date to 2017, a FAO report of October 2006 on 2005, and European farm support.
Last updated: 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
How does the writer come to the book, and who is the author?
Among the bright covers in a large bookshop, the notes say, a sombre child’s face stood out, in black and white. The book is Why the World’s Hungry Half — the Korean title as the notes give it — by Jean Ziegler, whom they call a special rapporteur on food for the UN Commission on Human Rights. He sets out the facts of hunger, and the causes behind them, as a conversation with his son Karim.
What figures do they record, and in what year do they sit?
The writer is careful to say this is not only a thing of the past: it is still happening “in 2017, the present.” Those figures are left in that window, and are not treated as unofficial totals for today. The world, they write, already grows enough food for twelve billion people, yet a hundred thousand people a day, one child every five seconds, die of hunger. A FAO report submitted in October 2006, they say, gave 2005 figures: children under ten dying of hunger at one every five seconds; a third losing their sight from lack of vitamin A; 850 million people, one in seven, living with chronic malnutrition. In Africa, 36 percent of the population lived with hunger as if it were daily life. Elsewhere in the same notes, the world’s people are put at about 7.3 billion, food on the market at more than twice what that population needs, and hunger at about 800 million. The two counts are both in the notes; neither is updated.
What cause do they follow in Africa?
Even so, the notes say, people there give up farming because of the power of European states. Europe, facing cheap imported produce, offers its own farmers a range of support. The notes leave the argument there.
Refund policy
- Change of mind / refund requested after partial use / more than 7 days after purchase
◆ Exceptions
- File errors / cannot download or open the file
◆ How to request a refund: send a 1:1 inquiry via Customer Service at the top