[PEN-L:501] Huger in Russia

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

#3
From: "Frank Durgin" <durgin@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct
Subject: Hunger in Russia

   Anne Applebaum, in her Intellectual Capital piece (Vol 3, Issue 40
October8-14 "Don't forget
about the Real Russians" , wrote "It is
not true, for example, that people are starving"
   I don't know what she has in mind by the word starvation, but there
is widespread malnutrition and hunger in Russia, and that fact is  a
significant contributor to that nation's deteriorating health and the
soaring death rate.
   Up until about a year ago I collected and filed Russian press
reports of hunger in Russia. I sent around  a scaled down collection of
those reports well over a year ago, but I guess the various lists mangers
 thought it  took up
too much space for posting. But even if no one read those reports, a
priori reasoning inexorably leads to the conclusion that there is
hunger in Russia.
   Agricultural production has plummeted. In 1997 gross agricultural
production was down by 40% from the 1990 level. (Sels.zhizn', April, 28,
1998 p. 1) The decline in net agricultural output (a concept which
factors in the depletion of the machine parks,  livestock, soil
degradation etc) was of a much larger magnitude. By way of comparison,
the decline in gross output trigged by the collectivization in the
1930's was 24%. Meat production has plunged 55% and the production of
milk and dairy products and eggs by over a third
   The plunging output has dragged per capita consumption with it and
produced deterioration in the structure of diets. While the per capita
consumption of bread has risen from 119 kg in 1990 to 130 in 1997 and
that of potatoes 106 to 126, corresponding figures for other foods
are: vegetables 89 to 70: fruits and berries 34 to 28: meat and meat
products 75 to 52: fish and fish products 20 to 7:milk and dairy
products 386 to 246: eggs 297 pieces to 208.
   The Russian daily per-capita caloric intake has declined by 25%:
i.e., from an average of 3300 kcal. for the period 1986-1990, to
2,460 kcal. in 1997. Were it not for the imports it would have fallen
by some 40%
   Those are per capita figures. Given the astronomic inequality
of   incomes that has swept the country, it is clear that many are
 going hungry.  Sadly,  the situation continues to deteriorate.
 This years grain harvest, according to Sov Ekon, will not exceed
50 million tons, i.e, less than in 1940. The potato crop, too.  is
expected to be a poor one and it is predicted that this comming winter some
regions will be afflected by famine.   The
Russian's are requesting humanitarian aid.

	 If  there is interest, and with Michael's permission, I will post my
edited file of
very depressing  Russian press reports on hunger, many running back.
to 1991 and   1992,
Frank

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