I'm troubled by the potentially tremendous gap between meeting people's survival needs--which can be tricky enough*--and affording them sufficient whatever to preserve their dignity. Dignity is a tremendously elastic concept--I know SUV drivers with families to tote around for whom a more practical minivan is beneath their dignity.
*see planned, later post
as for survival, the corn-based food system owes much to the very progressive Henry A. Wallace. He succeeded in building a system where calories are more abundant and available than ever.
The catch is that system is optimized for a goal that's off center from what we really need (and though we know more now about what we need, we're still figuring some of it out).