Kimberly Mega Food Scarcity 4/9/08 3:00pm Current Event
No one is focused on world hunger anymore. All our attention has turned to terrorism and global warming. Malnutrition will take the lives of more than 3.5 million women and children this year. Food supplies are the lowest they have ever been and food riots are erupting everywhere. Eighty percent of the world’s undernourished children are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Not only is this a humanitarian crisis it’s also an economic crisis. People who are malnourished and diseased can’t be productive members of society. Therefore, less and less income is being made by these underdeveloped countries everyday. Most of the possible preventative measures would cost only a few cents per person a year. These measures mainly deal with vitamins, de-worming and food fortification. Also, spending more up front would drastically decrease future spending and cut down on debt. Maternal and child care education and providing information about nutritional foods is very important as well. Most of my articles so far have focused on certain countries’ battle with food scarcity. But this article brings out an important point of what the more advanced nations can do to help. We are all so focused on war that the effects of conflict are pushed to the side. Or maybe we are very aware of famine and hardship but lack the resources to fix it. Either way there are more cost effective ways to go about ending world hunger. It would be a struggle at first but providing education would be a start.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/04/05/2003408388
4 comments:
You are right something does need to be done about world hunger unfortunately like you said people are too wrapped up in other things to take the time and education is probably the best means to get something done
I agree. This week my article also focused on hunger. Currently in North Korea there is a shortage of food, this is very sad and shouldn't occur in this day and age.
As someone who does not 100% agree with the war we have going on right now, I completely agree with this article. There are more pressing problems in the world outside of who is ruling what Middle Eastern country. We as a country can make a larger difference by helping malnourished children then fighting in the Middle East.
The food consumption of western nations is astronomical. Not to mention waste. The way that food is now a global good has affected much more than we may think. No one in the US should be eating strawberries in the winter. The conversion of input to output for meat is 4 to 1. World hunger is an issue that needs to be addressed but there would need to be a lifestyle shift in the US. Not going to happen (peak oil might help?)
Post a Comment