ABSTRACT
Although the world produces enough food to feed everyone, and transportation exists to get food to those who are hungry, millions are dying of malnutrition. The structure of the international food distribution system, which governments have the power to regulate, is clearly responsible. Similarly, homeless people sometimes camp outside vacant apartments and office buildings from London to Los Angeles despite the possibility that governments could rent unused housing units from property owners and allow the homeless to use them for shelter. In short, food and shelter are available for nearly everyone, but are not allocated on the basis of need. Sociologist Johan Galtung (1930-) refers to such cruel squandering of abundant resources as involving structural violence. What he means is that some people are dying from lack of adequate food and shelter, albeit slowly, due to political structures that ignore them.
