siuDE.com

Danny Wenger~Daily Egyptian

Gluttony, once famous for its spot on the list of seven deadly sins, has found new grandeur in the United States.

Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is the best example. Every year on the Fourth of July, thousands of spectators flock to Coney Island to watch as food "champions" gorge themselves like swine. According to Nathan's Famous Corporation, the competition began when four European immigrants held a hot dog eating contest to prove who was the most patriotic.

Quite frankly, it's disgusting.

The phenomenon of spectator eating will supposedly take place soon in Carbondale. A Facebook group has been formed with the promise of one student consuming all 12 McDonald's meals, with fries, in one sitting.

This is disturbing for many reasons, the first being the unique status the United States holds when it comes to food. America is one of the few countries where a person has the luxury of dying from eating too much. In many other countries, people find themselves dying from lack of food rather than their own indulgence.

More than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization.

To put that in perspective, imagine if today, after you finish reading this column, every last student at SIU dropped dead, then tomorrow every student at Illinois State, the next day NIU. Three universities worth of people gone, and that's only halfway through the week.

Here in America, surrounded by our dollar menus and grocery store chains, we lose sight of the fact that more than 9 million people starve to death every year. We're too busy watching Joey Chestnut eat 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes while an ESPN commentator declares Chestnut's victory "the greatest moment in American sports history."

The sad thing is we don't have to go far to see starvation. Thousands of men and women walk our streets with no home and no food. Soup kitchens and homeless shelters across the nation see long lines of haggard faces every day while those of us with enough time, money and calories to waste make bets to eat 12 McDonald's meals.

It's ironic that we glorify gluttony with such abandon and then televise 17 individuals devouring more than 500 hot dogs and buns combined in 12 minutes. We reward the people who were so terribly wasteful by giving them thousands of dollars and commercial contracts, in turn inspiring more deviant consumption.

World hunger is a problem that isn't going away. According to reports from the United Nations, it kills more people annually than AIDS.

In America, more than enough food is produced to keep everyone healthy. Perhaps if we were more conscious of the hunger crisis, we could make better use of the extra food we have than stuffing our already satisfied bellies. We might be able to give more to those who lack instead of wasting it on those who gorge.

It's unlikely that any student or faculty member reading this has ever suffered from real starvation, which is fortunate, but this paper reaches fewer than 50,000 people. The ludicrous televised eating competitions reach hundreds of millions around the world, many of whom have or do suffer from real hunger.

It's time we pass the plate.

Wenger is a senior studying Spanish and journalism.

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