kcet public television] tavis: david beckmann is the president for bread for the world.is new book is called "exodus from honker." -- hunger. good to have you on the program. let me start with asking what the politics of honker art. >> the binding constraint -- politics of hunger. there is lack of political will. there are many countries that made progress against hunger and disease, so we know it is possible to make progress against poverty. it is also possible in the u.s. what is really needed is organized give a damn. we have to have political commitment to reduce hunger. we know a lot of things to reduce it around the world. what we need to do is change u.s. government policy, because our government provides a framework for what we do in this country and has reached all over the world. >> what is wrong with u.s. policy? >> in our country it has been since johnson or nixon we have had a president that would have made reducing party -- reducing poverty one of his top priorities. it is not surprising we have not reduced it. with the recession, a lot more people have bee