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Terry Bouchard Instructor Kelly Heppner English A111 625 December 6, 2011 World Hunger Hunger can kill. Every year tens of thousands of people die of hunger. People die from it on every continent, in first world nations as well as third world nations. World hunger is that constant reminder to mankind that we need to come together and solve problems in a peaceful way or people will die. The hunger crisis is only growing worse. World Hunger affects billions of people in the world today, but what exactly is it, how many people are affected, how does it happen, and how should the world fix this problem? This is a major challenge for the world to overcome. It may sound simple to understand what world hunger is. Its not. World hunger is malnutrition, not getting the food you need, and chronic hunger. The authors Sui-Lin Nah and Chi-Fai Chau state, Numerous people around the world are now suffering from hunger and lack of basic food intake for survival and productive lives, (Nah, Chau 544). The statement sums up what all of this is about. It is about people not having their basic needs met. World Hunger is poverty. World Hunger is a major issue today and can only get worse as human population booms. Many people today are affected by hunger. Author Fred Magdoff states how many people are affected best: Of the 6 billion people living in the world today, the United Nations estimates that

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close to 1 billion suffer from chronic hunger. But this number, which is only a crude estimate leaves out those suffering from vitamin and nutrient deficiencies and other forms of malnutrition. The total number of food insecure people who are malnourished or lacking critical nutrients is probably closer to 3 billion (Magdoff). Three billion people being affected from hunger is considered a catastrophe that not enough people notice. 18,000 children die each day from malnutrition (qtd. in Magdoff ). World hunger is literally everywhere; from the well known places such as India and Africa and to the less well know- the United States. In the United states 35 million people are food insecure and in 5 millions families sometimes children dont have enough to eat (Magodff). How do people go hungry in a world that seems to have a lot of abundant food? This is not easily answered as there are many factors involved. Climate change and population will be the discussion for the sake of there being so many other factors. The International Agriculture Assesment of Science, Technology, and Development (IAASTD) reported the effect of climate change will vary on the different regions of the Earth but will bring about water stress and the spread of invasive pests (Lang 90). James A. Paul and Katrina Wahlberg perhaps sum it up best: Climate change is already harming agriculture. The negative effects include droughts, desertification, more frequent and serious storms, intense rainfalls and floods. Unusual rains have drowned crops and carried away topsoil. Increasing temperatures have enlarged the range of pests and crop diseases (6). Therefore, it can be deduced that if nations do not do something to dim the effects of climate change, or erase them completely, then the negative effects on agriculture will be astounding. This in turn may lead to widespread famine.

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As the population soars it will put pressure how easily obtainable food will become. The steadily increasing human population puts great pressure on the global food supply, especially since food is so evenly distributed (Paul and Wahlberg 3). To understand this better Paul and Wahlberg continue their explanation: Between 2000 and 2007, world grain production increased substantially, but consumption increased still faster, resulting in a fall of reserve stocks - by 53 million tons in 2007 alone. Stocks are now just a small fraction of total annual consumption, so we have scant reserves left as a hedge against future harvest failures (3). Knowing this, it is possible that as population continues to climb the reserves could easily be eaten through and a ferocious pace. With that happening, there will not be much one could rely on if a harvest fails or war happens. With the pressure to do something about world hunger mounting more and more; nations around the world recognize that something must be done. There are a couple of things we can do food aid, and some policy approaches. The first response to the food crisis must be to help the poorest billion people who are most severely hit, (Paul and Wahlberg 8). Giving food or money to programs will help. Paul and Wahlberg states; Strengthened global funding for fast and evenhanded response, notably the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) at the UN that should be increased to at least one billion dollars (8). On the other hand, concieving policy making, Sara J. Scherr, Courtney Wallace, and Louis Buck sum it up best: Non-agricultural interventions are absolutely critical and include such initiatives as maternal and infant feeding centers, clean water to avoid diarrhea and disease, food-for-work programs, nutrition educations, micro nutrient supplementation,

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and food subsidies (6). With more then a billion people hungry and even more than that with malnutrition, something must be done to curb this. The fact that it happens to both the wealthy and poor nations says something about the way our policies today work are not doing what they should be. Something is not working and it will take the united people of the world to solve it. Solutions need to be carried out swiftly and soon, otherwise there may be no fixing this.

Works Cited

Lang, Tim. Crisis? What Crisis? The Normality of the Current Food Crisis. Journal of

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Agrarian Change, Vol. 10 No. 1, January 2010: 87-97. Print. Magdoff, Fred. The World Food Crisis. Znet May 2008. Zcomminitcations. Web. 6 December 2011. Web. Nah, Sui-Lin and Chau, Chi-Fai. Issues and Challenges In Defeating World Hunger. Trends in Food Science & Technology 21 (2010): 544-557. Print. Paul, A. James and Wahlberg, Katarina. A New Era of World Hunger? - The Global Food Crisis Analyzed. FES Briefing Papers August 2008: 1-10. Print. Scherr, J. Sara, Courtney Wallace, and Louise Buck. Agriculture Innovation for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in the 21st Century: Issues for Africa and the World. State of the World 2011 (April 2010): 2-20. Print.