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Could 3% of US military spending end global starvation?

Tuesday, January 11, 2022
By Jacob Alabab-Moser
YES

A United Nations agency calculates that global starvation could be significantly ameliorated with less than 1% of the sum the U.S. annually spends on its military.

The World Food Program, the food-assistance branch of the U.N., released a plan last November to combat famine. It identified 42 million people across 43 countries at risk of starvation and found that it would cost $6.6 billion to feed each of them "one meal a day, the basic needed to survive," for one year. This price tag is 0.9% of the latest U.S. military budget of $768.2 billion.

A broader study published in October 2020 found that it would require $33 billion a year to end hunger globally—about 4% of the U.S. military budget.  

The UN agency noted that hunger is on the rise due to "widespread conflicts, growing climate crises and the economic fallout of COVID- 19," increasing 110% from 2019. 

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