Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, to give Nov. 18 lecture

By Susan Lang

About one-fifth of the world's population lives in dire poverty, and the already very skewed gap between rich and poor keeps growing. Some 800 million people -- roughly three times the U.S. population -- don't have enough to eat. The consequences of such destitution are malnutrition, environmental degradation and worldwide instability. These circumstances also leave millions of people with nothing to lose, who become ripe for turning to international terrorism in their frustration and need to be heard.

So says Per Pinstrup-Andersen, the H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell. To try to develop a shared vision that combines ethics and economics into a plan of action to reduce the world's poverty, hunger and malnutrition, he has organized an H.E. Babcock workshop titled "Ethics, Globalization and Hunger: In Search of Appropriate Policies," slated for Nov. 17-19 at Cornell.

Robinson

Its highlight will be a free public lecture by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and now the executive director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative, an organization dedicated to supporting human rights. Her address, "Social Justice, Ethics and Hunger: What Are the Key Messages?" will take place Thursday, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman will introduce Robinson, who will field questions after her remarks.

Robinson also serves as honorary president of Oxfam International and chairs the Council of Women World Leaders. Before her 1990 election to the presidency, she was an Irish senator for 20 years and taught constitutional law at Trinity College, Dublin. Educated at Trinity College, Robinson also holds law degrees from the King's Inns in Dublin and Harvard University. She has been credited for "putting human rights on the map" by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Pinstrup-Andersen said that the need for the workshop is critical: "We have sufficient global resources and the knowledge to help the world's poor out of poverty and hunger and to protect natural resources, but despite much rhetoric and a multitude of plans and strategies, very little action is being taken to deal with these ethical problems, which are of great significance. One explanation for inadequate action is the lack of a shared vision of the moral rights and duties of the various population groups."

The workshop will be a three-day meeting of about two dozen leading scholars in the areas of ethics, economics, religion and nutrition. Participants will explore how freedom from hunger is a basic human right and the ethical perspectives in agricultural research, technology, production and food safety.

"By highlighting how the ethical values relate to economics, globalization and policy, we hope to translate all the rhetoric and multitude of plans and promises into action for the benefit of those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition," said Pinstrup-Andersen, who won the 2001 World Food Prize and is the former director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The workshop is sponsored by the H.E. Babcock Professorship in CALS. No tickets are required for Robinson's lecture. For more information, contact Colleen Boland at 255-9429 or e-mail ctb13@cornell.edu.