1968 - Food Availability

Food Availability

Thousands die of starvation in Biafra, whose Ibo tribespeople have seceded from Nigeria.

CBS airs Hunger in America May 21, documenting conditions of deficiency diseases in the world's most affluent nation. Infants on Navajo reservations are shown to be suffering from marasmus, a wasting away of flesh that may cause them to lose the fat pads in their cheeks to a point where they can no longer suck. Some infants shown weigh only five pounds at age 1—less than they weighed at birth; the CBS report observes that if they survive infancy they may well turn fat, even though malnourished, because their diets will be mostly starch.

A Poor People's March on Washington focuses its protest on U.S. hunger conditions. Originally planned by Martin Luther King Jr., the demonstration proceeds from May 3 to June 23 under the leadership of Ralph D. Abernathy Jr.

The Citizens Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States observes that federal food-aid programs reach only 18 percent of the nation's poor.

The Department of Agriculture liberalizes its food stamp program (see 1967). It expands from two to 42 the number of counties where federal authorities will handle the program; local authorities in some areas resist its implementation (see 1969).