ESSAY ON THREATS TO GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLIES
In the twenty-first century, because of the swift development of technology the living conditions and lifestyle have refined. Whereas the complication of food security has not yet been addressed, especially in some poorer countries.
The food crisis is, above all, a warning sign of the strains that face a planet of 6.6 billion people. "We've essentially been asleep at the switch in this country, not thinking of what it means to be on a crowded planet, with rising demand, scarce natural resources, more climate change," says Sachs. If nothing else, those supermarket prices now sending shock waves across the world will be a wake-up call of the need to look hard for solutions to a food crisis that the world shares.
This essay will look into these problems, and aim at providing proper solutions and evaluate the implications of implementing these solutions.
The increasing world population and the growth of the environmental problems such as depletion of the ozone layer is a huge problem as in the upper atmosphere, without the ozone layer, the high concentration ultraviolet rays that radiate from the sun and space, would wipe out all the life that exists on the planet earth. As the ozone layer is being affected tremendously day by day, it is reasonable to expect that the plants we grow for food may not produce the variety, quality and the quantity we desire for.
The Acid rain is another problem, the chemicals which are the main cause for the formation of acid like smelting and chemical manufacturing have known to have a very harmful effect on a variety of plants and trees. These acids are spread in the form of rain, snow and sleet and it is expected that the acid rain will have a shattering eff...
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... the food production to meet the growing demand. This can be done by the use of advanced technology. Recently, the genetically modified crops involving relatively simple manipulations, has become popular in many countries. This biotechnology may increase the food field, but also raises the issue of whether it will be able to sustain it in the longer run or not.
Another measure that we can take to solve this problem is to reduce the wastage of food. Effective ways of reducing the food waste is by raising the food prices and advocating balanced diet in the developed countries around the world. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about one-third of cereal production is fed to animals worldwide. This is to say amounts of food have wasted. If these cereals could be changed into food supplying to the hunger, the problem might be solved in some extent.
In Raj Patel’s novel Stuffed and Starved, Patel goes through every aspect of the food production process by taking the experiences of all the people involved in food production from around the world. Patel concludes by eventually blaming both big corporations and governments for their critical role in undermining local, cultural, and sustainable foodways and in so doing causing the key food-related problems of today such as starvation and obesity. In this book of facts and serious crime, Patel's Stuffed and Starved is a general but available analysis of global food struggles that has a goal of enlightening and motivating the general Western public that there is something critically wrong with our food system.
Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved analyzes the paradoxical content in its title statement. Patel demonstrates how the world food system has created two opposite, but inherently linked epidemics: obesity and crippling hunger. Throughout the course of this book, it becomes painfully clear that the majority of the world’s population is being manipulated by our global food system and by the corporations and their CEO’s who control it. Patel encourages his readers to make themselves politically responsible (313) and through Stuffed and Starved, highlights the discrepancies and major imbalances of our world food system, the small percentage of people who benefit from it, and the vast majority of humanity who does not. He does all this while pointing out they we are starving not only physically, but also politically and socially. And Patel encourages his readers to get hungry, but in the right way.
In Lester R. Brown's novel Full Planet, Empty Plates, the issue of food scarcity is explained through an environmental perspective. He begins the novel by addressing the issue of the world's high demand for crops, such as grain, and the stress it places on farmers to keep up with the increase in demand. In a time where there is a significant water shortage, higher temperatures, and eroding soils, food scarcity should be at the top of everyone's agenda. Brown poses the question whether or not food scarcity will be our civilization's "weak link" in terms of survival. He demonstrates how food security is a serious issue across the globe. As supply decreases, demand increases, thus raising the price of food. Unlike global resources such as oil,
Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
These three disciplines will be the foundation to helping solve the problem of world hunger for this paper. To understand the issue even further it is imperative to now gather literature and information surrounding the issue in relation to the disciplines mentioned above, and perhaps opens new doors to other disciplines that are related to solving the issue of world hunger (Repko, 2011). This will help to further map out the problem and give us a starting point when gathering
Imagine not being able to reach into your refrigerator and pull out a snack. Think about those mornings when you forget to eat breakfast and your stomach is growling the whole morning. Now imagine not being able to suppress that feeling. Imagine feeling that hunger day after day. This is reality for almost a sixth of the world’s population. Is there any good news? Yes there is. There are many ways for us to reduce world hunger. This essay will look at the causes of world hunger as well as short-term, and long-term, solutions. World hunger can be solved using a combination of ideas and people working together.
Collier, Paul. "Annual Editions: Developing World 11/12." Article 14. The Politics of Hunger: How Illusion and Greed Fan the Food Crisis, Edited by Robert Griffiths, 61. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2008.
We live in an age in which we have come to expect everything to be instantaneously at our fingertips. We live in an age of instant coffee, instant tea, and even instant mashed potatoes. We can walk down the street at 5 in the morning and get a gallon of milk or even a weeks worth of groceries at our discretion. Even though it is great that food is now readily available at all times, this convenience comes at a price, for both the producer and the consumer. Farmers are cheated out of money and are slaves to big business, workers and animals are mistreated. And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers.
Hunger is the most pressing issue we face. One out of every eight people in the world today suffers from chronic undernourishment caused by food scarcity. 19,000 kids die everyday from hunger. The world has more than 1.5 times enough food to feed everyone on this entire planet although with some people making less than two dollars an hour, it is hardly imaginable to be able to. At least the number of people who die everyday of famine is going down every year because more and more people care. We want to keep this number going down not only by the year, but also by the day. If we want this to happen, we have to take action. Now.
One of the most complex issues in the world today concerns human population. The number of people living off the earth’s resources and stressing its ecosystem has doubled in just forty years. In 1960 there were 3 billion of us; today there are 6 billion. We have no idea what maximum number of people the earth will support. Therefore, the very first question that comes into people’s mind is that are there enough food for all of us in the future? There is no answer for that. Food shortage has become a serious problem among many countries around the world. There are many different reasons why people are starving all over the world. The lack of economic justice and water shortages are just merely two examples out of them all.
This can not be done with the same ineffective tactics that were used in the past, so that’s why people are developing new ways to eradicate hunger. When the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) was held, they discussed the nutrition component and how important it is that it is not overlooked. By paying attention to nutrient-dense foods and recognizing the different entry points for improving nutrition, the ICN2 argues the world will be one step closer in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal. Some of the entry points they discussed include “the promotion of crop diversification…, strengthening local food production and processing, and exploring regulatory or voluntary instruments for promoting healthy diets” (goals 2). Promoting the nutrition aspect of the goal can help achieve it because nutrients are what keep people alive and
There are those that believe our planet has reached its maximum capacity to sustain humanity and we need to reduce our population to rectify it. It is also said that our planet is well capable of providing both the nutrition and caloric needs for humanity, both now and into the future as well. Regardless of where one’s opinion of the facts fall between these two arguments, global food security is not where it should be. Uneven development could be argued to be a cause of this. But it is not the only issue affecting the planet.
In comparison to food sovereignty, food security is relies more deeply on supply; more specifically, whether or not there is enough food available to meet normal dietary requirement across the entire population. In turn, even if there is enough food available, ...
In recent years people often suppose that the hunger might be understood as weakness caused by not enough nutrition. Actually, there are some different meanings between hunger and malnutrition. In general, they are existing as complex difficulty and people can not solve them separately. In some countries the percentage of hunger index is so high like in case of India. Moreover, the study of global hunger was shown that a great deal of humanity suffer from this issue every year. In order to fight with hunger it is important to understand basic principles which lead to happening of hunger. The main reasons for hunger occurring are environmental, political and economic conditions. To my mind, the environmental cause is the most important as land scarcity leads to poverty mostly in comparison with other ones. The purpose of this essay is to struggle with hunger by using agricultural project.