Experts on hunger and food production told campus community members Wednesday at Memorial Union the current food production system in the United States and worldwide needs to change to protect every human’s right of access to food.

A panel of four experts discussed the multifaceted problem of hunger in the U.S. and around the world as a part of Human Rights Awareness Week on campus.

“Food is a human right,” said Brad Barham, head of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin. “There is ample food produced in the world to feed the human population.”

Panelist Michael Bell, from the UW’s Agro Ecology Graduate Program, pointed to the food problem being partly an economic problem, especially during the recession.

“Fundamentally, if we can get income back in people’s hands … the food is there,” Bell said.

Hunger and malnutrition are not only present in developing countries, but also in the United States. According to John Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders, wasteful practices in the U.S. are one cause of hunger.

“We actually throw away 27 percent of the food we buy in this country,” Peck said. “[UW] is probably throwing away dumpster-loads of food right now. If we even reclaimed 5 percent of that food, we could feed 4 million people.”

Additionally, Peck said students need to question how much campus food actually comes from Wisconsin.

Local control and production of food was a crucial topic for the panel. All panelists agreed hunger can be fought with locally grown food coupled with responsible international trading.

Peck accused the United States of unfair trading practices, leading to questionable food.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the trading we now have is the U.S. forcing South Korea to buy our hormone-tainted beef when they do not want it,” Peck said.

Barham disagreed and thought this was an oversimplification of the complexities of international trade. However, he affirmed the need for both local and international solutions to hunger.

Peck also accused the U.S. of “using food as a weapon,” saying the U.S. was involved with targeting crops and greenhouses in the Gaza Strip. According to Peck, this was part of a conscious effort to undermine Gaza’s food supply.

“It’s amazing to me that … our government would participate in that,” Beck said.

The panel discussed how almost everyone in society agrees food accessibility is a great concern. However, solutions are still elusive.

“There isn’t outright opposition [to hunger solutions], but there isn’t perfect support,” said Nicholas Heckman, from the Family Living Program at UW-Extension.

Sean Becker, a UW freshman and member of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Society and Politics Committee, helped set up the discussion as part of WUD’s Human Rights Awareness Week.

“The main goal of the week is just to promote awareness of human rights, in both an international context as well as local,” Becker said.