You're not stupid at all and you have good intentions. It's a core value of mine that food is a human right that everyone deserves, so we already have a lot of important things in common.
Unfortunately there are power structures that serve to withhold people their human rights, like food. This is the power structure of Capitalism, consisting overwhelmingly of white Christian USians. People deserve to be angry at this power structure, and those of us, like myself, who are part of the imperial core, are right to feel guilt and shame. It's not that we are inherently bad, but we are a part of the system of oppression. And we don't need to be punished, but we can take the criticism on the chin and continually strive to take down the system from the inside.
Feeding people is great right now, and the long term goal is to replace the current system with one where no one needs to be fed, because they are already guaranteed that right.
RoA 34: war is good for business
RoA 35: peace is good for business
Ferengi were different than the US in that they would not be the ones starting the wars. They were the same as the US in that they would be selling weapons to both sides.