The physical need for food is subjugated in favor of political concerns. The structures that exist today continually allocate food resources towards the wealthy and nourished and away from those in serious physical need. In 1991 more than 85 percent of the world s population received only 15 percent of the world s income. This can be seen as the paradox of world hunger. One way to evaluate hunger is what E.M. Young, in her book World Hunger, calls entitlement.
Entitlements are the ways a group or person can command or obtain food.
It includes socioeconomic and political considerations. This exists on the personal, regional, national and even international level. It can more simply be correlated with power structures in society. In some instances the more political connections a person has or their access to land or other resources, can increase their ability to obtain food . In developing nations these resources are generally not in the hand of the population that live in poverty or with hunger, so they have less entitlements.