Running Head: Hunger: Causes, Concerns and Symptoms
Hunger: Causes, Concerns and Symptoms
Michael A Armbrust
College Composition II: Effective Writing II for Legal Studies Majors CM222
Kaplan University
What are some of the causes of world hunger? Are citizens donating monetarily to the ongoing relief efforts? In this article I will address these questions with the hope that by creating an understanding of the current hunger situation, morally conscious individuals will do their part in contributing to the eradication of this suffering. In order to solve the problem of hunger the United States need to focus on the two major causes - poverty and unequal division of assets. Where does starvation exist in the world today? To end hunger we need to take the following steps: invest in public health, nutrition, education, and other components of human resources; reform public institutions and create funding and partnership arrangements; change government policies, increase funding for scientific and technological research to advance agricultural production and competence; and develop specific policies to deal with environmental deprivation caused by rapid population growth.
Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter. An unequal distribution of assets, or food in this instance, is due to the unequal distribution of money, we may hypothesize that a direct method of producing food would alleviate hunger (i.e. people/communities growing their own food). This hypothesis is true, but only if we do not consider the monopolization of land and assets. For people to grow their own food, they must first procure land, but this would bring them into conflict with governments and greedy owners of that land.
Malnutrition, or hunger, is a general term that stands for a lack of some or all of the key nutritional elements that are necessary for normal human health. Protein energy malnutrition, the basic and the most dangerous type of hunger, affects every fourth child on the planet. (de Onis M, 1993). Even though the world does produce enough food to feed everybody on the planet, part of the population still has some form of malnutrition. (Rifkin, 1992) Reasons for this are complex; however, the answer can be broke down to three major categories: poverty and unequal distribution of income, growth in population in developing countries, and priorities set by global leaders and communities.
Growth in population in developing countries leads to a decline in net income and, therefore another major cause of hunger. Third World countries with low productive efficiency tend to have higher population growth rates then the First World countries, which contributes to imbalance and complicates the situation. "There is in fact enough food in the world to feed every human being on earth." (Rifkin, 1992) Sadly, hunger still afflicts one out of every seven people in the world today. The statistic most frequently cited is that of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which measures 'under nutrition'. The most recent estimate, released on October 14, 2009 by FAO, says that 1.02 billion people are undernourished, a sizable increase from its 2006 estimate of 854 million people. The increase has been due to three factors: 1) neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people by governments and international agencies; 2) the current worldwide economic crisis, and 3) the significant increase of food prices in the last several years which have been devastating to those with only a few dollars a day to spend. 1.02 billion people is 15 percent of the estimated world population of 6.8 billion. Nearly all of the undernourished are in developing countries. (Nations, 2010)
The FAO estimate is based on statistical aggregates. It looks at a country's income level and income distribution and uses this information to estimate how many people receive such a low level of income that they are malnourished. It is not an estimate based on seeing to what extent actual people are malnourished and projecting from there (as would be done by survey sampling). It has been argued that "the FAO approach is not sufficient to give accurate estimates of malnutrition" (Svedberg, 2008).
Children are the most visible victims of under nutrition. Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year. Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--five million deaths. Under nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria. The estimated proportions of deaths in which under nutrition is an underlying cause are roughly similar for diarrhea (61%), malaria (57%), pneumonia (52%), and measles (45%). Malnutrition can also be caused by diseases, such as the diseases that cause diarrhea, by reducing the body's ability to convert food into usable nutrients. (Black RE, 2003)
The causes of hunger are multifaceted but there are some common connections that seem to be associated with this problem. First, starvation is caused by poverty. To solve the problem of hunger then the problem of poverty must be addressed. For the reason, the question that we should examine is what the causes of poverty are. A careful debate on the causes of global poverty is not within the scope of this article. Whole textbooks have been written on the subject. For our purpose, it is adequate to say that one of the main reasons of poverty is governments pursuing policies that steer communities away from self sufficiency.
Starvation is also characterized by persistent problems in cultivating food from lack of seed, land, and tools. Those that can grow food must deal with insects, drought, floods, and war, which can result in complete destruction of crops. Historically, areas of Africa have experienced periodic locusts' infestations, which can completely destroy crops. (Handwerk, 2005)
Other causes of world hunger are connected to the inadequate system of food production. The system of food production and trade favors a reliance on export crops while discriminating against small-scale farmers and subsistence crops. Many third world countries export out to much food while along with not keeping enough food to sustain their own people.
The contributing factors of hunger are numerous, and certain factors change from year to year, and at any given time, some areas may be more prone then others. The extent of drought, flood, and war can vary over time. Therefore, these factors encompass a variable affect on the degree to which people suffer from starvation.
A combination of these causative factors in a particular region is a formula for disaster. When this occurs, large scale starvation can take place. A case in point, The Horn of Africa has seen severe drought coupled with internal conflicts. This is leading to the development of a tragedy. In this region currently 11 million people are on the brink of starvation. (Poverty, 2009)
Historically, certain areas of the world have had a high prevalence of hunger and starvation. These areas are the central region of South America, large areas of East, Central, and Southern Africa, and regions of South Asia. As of 2006, the current hot spots, those areas are those which are suffering the greatest degree of starvation. These are the areas of the world which are currently suffering the highest levels of malnutrition and hunger. With this understanding of where relief efforts are needed, we must address the question of individual response. Are individuals of developed countries donating to relief efforts? Most morally conscious individuals donate to relief efforts when the problem is presented to them. But no one is focusing on the hunger issue in our own back yard. This needs to be increased by teaching people about where these problems exist, not just in third world nations but right here in our own country. Setting up a trusted organization to handle funds donated, food allocation and information gathering and distribution would be a great start..
A major problem in the relief effort is the general population of developed countries not knowing about the current hunger crisis. News organizations, more specifically television news, are not giving enough attention to the global hunger situation. While an in depth discussion as to the reasons for this is outside the purview of this article, a few points can be made. Evidently, TV news organizations do not think hunger is much of a story since starvation is a daily occurrence. I suspect, from the perspective of these news organizations, nearly 35 million people, including 13 million children, are suffering from hunger in the United States is not a big enough news story. (Walker, 2006) When 1,386 people died from hurricane Katrina, the news coverage was enormous. Five months after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, TV news organizations were still squeezing all they could out of this story. Granted this was an obvious tragedy, but an even bigger tragedy, much bigger, is going on and the general public does not even know about it. There has been no coverage given by TV news on the distressing hunger crisis in the United States. TV News organizations such as CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC are not reporting on this crisis.
It is evident that the TV news organizations do not really provide total and complete news, and only provide what they feel may be interesting to their audience. News organizations should present the news and maintain high journalistic standards. They need to focus less on the everyday life of television and movie stars, and more on the plights of the world. Maybe these news organizations need to incorporate a higher level of moral obligation into their decision making process, when deciding which stories to cover. In any case, people cannot donate if they do not know a problem exists.
We have addressed some key questions in order to characterize the current status of the world hunger situation. We have pointed out some of the contributory factors to malnutrition, hunger, and starvation. We have concluded that most morally conscious individuals would contribute to the elimination of hunger, if they knew about the crisis. Finally, we have observed that the degree of world hunger coverage by TV news organizations is very much lacking.
As I sit here in my warm house, drinking a cup of coffee and eating warm homemade chocolate chip cookies, it may be difficult to fully grasp the plight of hunger, but with a little education and a lot of compassion I think anyone with a heart and a conscience can at least feel empathy for those less fortunate.
You should have developed an understanding of the degree to which starvation is prevalent today. If you are reading this you have a moral obligation to donate either time or money to help in the elimination of unseen suffering. Donate you time, money or even your prayers to the less fortunate. As Winston Churchill once said "we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." We must all do our part to eliminate world hunger.
