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"Did you bring enough to share?" You've probably heard
a teacher say that, when someone tries to sneak in a snack.
Eating without sharing seems unfair. Yet on a global scale,
that's just what people do.
World population is more than 6 billion and rising. The Food
and Agriculture Organization, a part of the United Nations,
reports that nearly 800 million people are undernourished.
That means they get fewer than 2,200 calories
of food a day, not enough to maintain basic health. This grim
number could rise to 1.5 billion by 2010. And that's just
counting calories. It's not taking into account the quality
of the food people eat and whether or not it is providing
enough nutrients for good health.
An additional 2 to 3 billion people lack sufficient micronutrients
(vitamins and minerals) in their diets.
A slice of apple pie provides a whopping number calories—but few nutrients. Calories and taste can add
body weight, without contributing to overall good health. Source: USDA |
Two billion people, furthermore, endure what is called food
insecurity. They don't know from day to day whether they will
have enough to eat.
It's easy to blame population
growth and say the world just has too many people. Between
1960 and 2003, Earth's human population doubled so that today
more than six billion people share our planet. This number
could grow to about ten billion by 2050.
Yet while world population only doubled, world food production
more than tripled. And the proportion of the world's population
that is hungry is decreasing, just not fast enough. In fact,
we grow enough to give each person 3,500 calories a day, more
than most people need, depending on how active they are. Even
many developing nations produce more than enough food for
their people. Yet, three-quarters of the youngest (0-5 years)
victims of hunger live in countries with food surpluses.
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Four decades ago, the threat of massive starvation haunted China. But today, Earth's most populous nation is an agricultural powerhouse.
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Source: Journey to Planet Earth |
WHAT'S REALLY
GOING ON?
Here are some key reasons why there is hunger in a world
which produces enough food to go around:
- POVERTY: Many people in both developed and developing
countries just don't have enough money to buy food. More
than two billion people—a third of Earth's population—live
on less than two dollars a day.
- POOR EDUCATION OF WOMEN: Food production and nutrition
for the family are usually the woman's responsibility. Yet,
throughout the world, women lack the power to make important
decisions and improve conditions for their children.
- WAR AND CIVIL UNREST: Armed conflict and unrest
between and within countries can make it impossible for
people to grow or get food. The village of Nzulu, in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a tragic—yet
typical example. In 1994, waves of refugees fleeing civil
war in nearby Rwanda flooded the village. Famished, the
refugees ate everything—even seeds. That left the
villagers with neither food nor the ability to raise new
crops. Somehow the villagers survived, and in 1996 they
grew a modest field of corn. Then came soldiers, who carried
off the entire crop. At that point, the people of Nzulu
gave up. They stopped farming and were forced to depend
on food from relief organizations.
Stars mark major conflict sites on this map
of Africa. Shading and stripes indicate areas with food problems. Source: United Nations |
- ENVIRONMENT: Growing food depends on having the
necessary natural resources—such as fertile soil,
water, and good climate. In areas that lack these resources
or where human actions have degraded the soil to a great
degree, land can turn to wasteland and raising food there
becomes impossible.
Dorothea Lange's photograph of a destitute
pea picker—and mother of seven—in California became
an icon for the Great Depression of the 1930s. Believing that
President Herbert Hoover had failed to address the crisis,
Americans voted him out of office. His successor, Franklin
D. Roosevelt, enacted sweeping reforms aimed at relieving
misery. Source: Natural Resources Conservation Service |
- POLITICS: Some governments make feeding their
people a priority, while others do not. Amartya Sen, a Nobel-winning
economist, argues that massive starvation never occurs in
a democracy. Why not? Because elected leaders who allowed
such a disaster to occur would swiftly lose their jobs.
- TRADE: Economic pressures, along with nudging
from international agencies, can push farmers in poor countries
into growing cash crops such as coffee or sugar for export
rather than food for local consumption. This can force many
small, local farmers out of business. Food may become scarcer
and costlier. And if the price of cash crops should fall,
the farmers could face personal financial disaster.
Other factors contributing to hunger—disease and natural
disasters—also fuel food shortages. Yet, as we've seen,
the real question isn't whether we can feed the world. It's
whether we choose to create systems that will feed everyone
in the world. Find myths about hunger and more at Food First.
THE MENACE OF MALNUTRITION
Jutting ribs and loose skin are signs that
this Nepalese child is malnourished. Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention |
Lack of food means far more than hunger pangs. Without adequate
food, people suffer from malnutrition, which impairs a body's
ability to function. Results of malnutrition include weight
loss, fatigue, weakness, dizziness, and stunted growth in
children. In severe cases, body fluids collect in the abdomen,
giving the appearance of a fat belly. It's actually a sign
of serious protein deficiency called kwashiorkor.
Malnutrition also weakens the immune system, making undernourished
people much more vulnerable to infectious diseases.
If hungry children eventually get enough food, they may
regain weight and some height. But malnutrition-related problems,
such as mental deficiencies, may persist the rest of their
lives.
WHAT ABOUT WATER?
The human thirst for water is even more important than our
hunger for food. If you had to, you could survive several
weeks without food. But you'd die after just a few days without
water. The human body, after all, is more than 75 percent
water. In addition, water is essential for transporting nutrients,
controlling temperature, and carrying waste from the body.
So clearly, everyone needs clean water to survive. Getting
it, though, is often harder than you might expect. Ninety-nine
percent of Earth's water is salty, frozen, or buried deep
underground. Even the remaining one percent isn't readily
available as freshwater. The main sources of freshwater—rivers,
lakes, and groundwater (wells)—aren't always near population
centers. Much of our freshwater, moreover, has been polluted
or wasted. And adequate rainfall is not distributed evenly
throughout the world.
As a result, there's a fierce—and growing—demand
for fresh water. During the 20th century, the human population
tripled. Yet, the use of water has increased sixfold. What
did we do with all that water? Agriculture
gulped the bulk—70 percent. Another 20 percent went to industry, leaving 10 percent
for drinking water, clothes washing, and other personal use.
Irrigation: Water pours into
an Arkansas rice field. Source:
National Resources Conservation Service |
The double whammy of population growth and soaring demand
for water has created a global water crisis. Forty percent
of humankind lives in nations afflicted with water stress.
One in five people lacks safe drinking water. India, to cite
one example, has some 65,000 villages with no nearby source
of water.
One of the most alarming results of Earth's water woes is
aquifer depletion. That's the shrinking of our underground
water supplies. Take Beijing, China, for example. In 1950,
a well there could tap water just five meters below the surface.
Now the well would have to be fifty meters deep. Similar drawdowns
are occurring throughout the world.
Modern well technology enables us to draw water from fossil
aquifiers that lie miles below the Earth's surface. But doing
so is unsustainable because we take out water much faster
than nature replenishes it. One way to reclaim water for human
use is removing the salt from seawater—or desalinization.
This process is currently too expensive for widespread use,
but technological advances might someday make it more feasible.
Fortunately, there are ways to improve how we use the existing
supply of usable water:
- old-fashioned rainwater harvesting,
- drip irrigation devices and other measures to conserve
water used in agriculture,
- using gray water—all household water except toilet
water—to irrigate crops,
- growing crops suitable to an areas's rainfall so less
water is needed for irrigation,
- choosing to eat foods that require less water to produce—eating
grains directly, for example,
- rather than grain-fed animal meat,
- enhancing organic matter in soil to retain water, and
- using certain crops to shade soil and reduce evaporation.
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Figures from the UN Population Fund show
a stark divide between the well-fed and
the hungry. Imagine all the meat and fish
eaten on Earth during a single day. The
richest 1.2 billion people eat 45 percent
of it. The poorest 1.2 billion get just
5 percent.
