Beginning to End Hunger presents the story of Belo Horizonte, home to 2.5 million people and the site of one of the world's most successful city food security programs. Since its Municipal Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security was founded in 1993, malnutrition in Belo Horizonte has declined dramatically, leading it to serve as an inspiration for Brazil's renowned Zero Hunger programs. The Municipal Secretariat's work with local family farmers also offers a glimpse of how food security, rural livelihoods, and healthy ecosystems can be supported together. While inevitably imperfect, Belo Horizonte offers a vision of the path away from food system dysfunction, unsustainability, and hunger. This case study by M. Jahi Chappell shows the vital importance of holistic approaches to food security, offers ideas on how to design successful policies to end hunger, and lays out strategies for making policy change happen. With these tools, we can take the next steps toward achieving similar reductions in hunger and food insecurity elsewhere in the developed and developing worlds.

BIO

M. Jahi Chappell is a political agroecologist with training in ecology and evolutionary biology, science and technology studies, and chemical engineering. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at Coventry University, a Fellow of FoodFirst/the Institute for Food and Development Policy, and an Adjunct Faculty member of the School of the Environment at Washington State University.

REVIEWS

"M. Jahi Chappell's exceptional scholarship in the food system finally gets the audience it deserves in this deeply researched and engaging work. Moving from the seats of Belo Horizonte's state-run restaurants to the annals of world history, Chappell demonstrates a keen eye for local detail and global relevance. This book is a provocation to new thought and better action to end hunger permanently." --Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World's Food System

"Chappell illuminates how a city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, has achieved the unthinkable--dramatic decreases in hunger and malnutrition--and skewers popular myths with logical, systematic analysis and brilliant analogies. Should be read by every person committed to ending hunger!" --Molly Anderson, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Food Studies, Middlebury College and member of International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems

"In this remarkable book, Chappell uses the case of Belo Horizonte to challenge us to be 'active optimists.' Pairing hope with evidence, and recognizing that the course to universal food security will never run smooth, Chappell proposes we take responsibility for a vision of a world without hunger. Beginning to End Hunger is a passionate plea against a fatalistic acceptance of poverty and in favor of promoting meaningful democracy. This is a very fine, honorable book." --Cecilia Rocha, Professor and Associate Researcher, Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University

University of California Press  /  January 19, 2018

 0.7" H x 8.9" L x 5.9" W (0.8 lbs) 272 pages