‘Nothing Less than its Eradication'? Ireland'S Hunger Task Force and the Production of Hunger

Abstract

A wide range of actors have intervened in the debate about the causes of hunger and what can be done to eradicate it. One example is a 2008 report by the Hunger Task Force, a group of development experts mandated by the Irish government to explain the root causes of hunger and identify ways for Ireland to play a leading role in eradicating it. In this paper, I present a critical review of what the HTF report says about the causes of hunger. I argue the report fails to live up to its aim of commemorating those who died in the Irish Famine in the 1840s because it refuses to consider the role of the corporate food regime in the production of hunger. Further, I position the report's flaws relative to Ireland by asking how the report balances Ireland's drive to eradicate hunger against its political and economic interests. I pay particular attention to Ireland's diplomatic proximity to the United States and to the emerging corporate foodscape within Ireland; both considerations shed light on Ireland's place within the structures and mechanisms that produce hunger in the contemporary period.