The UN have removed a satirical article from their website that detailed the benefits of world hunger after its discovery sparked an online backlash.
The article, entitled “The Benefits of World Hunger,” was written by Professor George Kent from the University of Hawaii. Originally published in June 2008, the article was more recently reposted to the UN’s Chronicle magazine.
“We sometimes talk about hunger in the world as if it were a scourge that all of us want to see abolished,” Kent wrote, adding that hunger was actually “a great positive value to many people. Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world’s economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour.”
The article continued, highlighting the importance of the “threat of hunger” to maintaining cheap labour. “When we sell our services cheaply, we enrich others, those who own the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately own the people who work for them. For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth.”
It argued that for the elite at “the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster,” as “if there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields?… Who would clean our toilets?… For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.”
After the article gained traction on Twitter on Tuesday night, and following reporting by a number of news outlets, the UN removed “The Benefits of World Hunger” from their website sometime after 11AM Eastern on Wednesday morning.
I THINK this is meant to be satirical??? — but not sure why UN would be getting into the parody business https://t.co/dAImGhQgBV pic.twitter.com/fcSITBVLFQ
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 6, 2022
The UN is at it again https://t.co/5gOGqQHb2l
— Julia Song (@realjuliasong) July 6, 2022
Unsurprisingly, the article is, in fact, satirical, with Kent writing much on the problem of world hunger, including in his 2016 book, “Caring About Hunger.” In a not insignificant move, Kent used flipped direct examples given in the article as reasons why the global elite today would refuse to end hunger, including the productivity argument.
“Hunger could be ended quickly if the people who have the power cared enough about the people who have the problem,” Kent wrote. “There is widespread indifference. There is also the fact that many people benefit from the existence of hunger. Whether consciously or unconsciously, many people and many countries act in ways that ensure that hunger in the world is sustained.”
The book is even promoted by the UN themselves in the resource centre for their Standing Committee on Nutrition.
What is unclear is exactly why the UN decided to remove the original “Benefits of World Hunger” article given it was satirical. Valiant News made a press enquiry to the UN reflecting this query, asking whether there was any consultation on its removal, or if they had considered editing the page to reflect its satirical nature, rather than deleting it in its entirety.
There was no response from the UN by the time of publication. This article will be updated if any response is forthcoming.

Philip Seth Hammersley
July 7, 2022 at 4:08 pm
Liberals/Marxists/regressives are too ignorant to “get” satire or real humor! All they understand is HATE.
Mr Mustashe
July 7, 2022 at 5:40 pm
Shhhh… you didn’t set up your “satirical piece” properly. And you have no “contextual believability”… i.e., we don’t know you! And for example, you’re not Stephen Colbert… who has given us ample “contextual intimations”!… demonstrating his intentionality; and counterpoints! Maybe an animated “character avatar” would provide Blog Comment Host Comments in the future with a degree of “anonymous character dimensionality”… something that is currently absent from social media– and, frankly, is a part of its problem. And inasmuch, as the current “text-talk” is a throwback to pen and paper communication… and thus, requires SYNTACTIC LITERACY! And on this site, comment syntax is a DIRTY WORD!
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KSRich
July 9, 2022 at 4:30 pm
That’s one of the silliest comments I’ve ever read. It’s like camouflage for an empty mind.
1-Eddie-1
July 7, 2022 at 4:15 pm
Satire my ass. Klaus Schwab of the W.E.F. says in the future, you’ll own nothing and be happy. The W.E.F. wants the world population to decrease dramatically. Remember, W.E.F. is few spelled backward. Few as in the world elites. They are going to need some people to work for them. Hunger will be great motivation.
Mr Mustashe
July 7, 2022 at 5:43 pm
Shhhh… try and get some sleep.
samspson
July 8, 2022 at 8:03 am
shhhh… put your head back in the sand
1-Eddie-1
July 8, 2022 at 3:04 pm
How about you shut up. Troll. Why don’t you get a life? Seriously. Apparently being a troll is the only thing you look forward to in life, that’s sad. It must really suck to be you.
KSRich
July 9, 2022 at 4:49 pm
“Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour. . . When we sell our services cheaply, we enrich others, those who own the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately own the people who work for them. For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth.”
That may be intended as satire but I can see how it could trigger the liberal-world-order types who populate the UN. It’s actually a pretty accurate description of the reality of socialism and its variants fascism and Nazism, in which the government becomes the one and only, massive, all powerful corporation that owns and controls all of “the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately the people” – i.e., the means of production. Socialism is the inevitable perverted result of criminal politicians and government officials with way too much power colluding with wealthy crooks and corporations to bring about the scenario in the paragraph above. When the government owns or controls the means of production then the people are nothing more than a part of the means of production. It’s the ultimate crime cartel.