WHAT IS HUNGER?
The image of hunger in our minds is ,hungry mothers too weak to breastfeed their children in drought-hit Ethiopia, refugees in war-torn Syria who are queueing for food and helicopters airlifting biscuits to earthquake victims in Haiti or Pakistan. These are the crises like war or natural disasters but these kind of emergencies account for less than eight percent of hunger`s victims [1]. What is the big picture? According to the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics from 2013, there are 842 million hungry people in the world and 98 percent of them are in developing countries. They are distributed like this:
It is clear that the reason of the significant hunger rate is not necessarily the crisis situations. Mostly these developing countries are dependent on the food market cause of the obstacles they have to deal in the agriculture fields and reaching the food markets for reasonable prices.
WHAT ARE THE REASONS OF HUNGER?
There are some reasons lying down of the hunger problem but to understand them deeply,
I would like to compare some statistics based on FDO .
- While there 843 millions of people suffering from hunger (by 2013) , 1.2 billion suffer from obesity
- Over 9 million people die worldwide each year because of hunger and malnutrition. 5 million are children.However, in the UK, 30-40% of food is never eaten and additionally £20 billion worth of food is thrown away every year.
- While Some 2 to 3.5 billion people have micronutrient deficiency (deficiency of vitamins and minerals), in the US 40-50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten 14% is wasted ($43 billions of waste)
- The direct medical cost of hunger and malnutrition is estimated at $30 billion each year.
These numbers mainly tell us this: We have enough food production for meeting demands but the poverty itself is the biggest problem so when the food prices get doubled , people who are living in poverty have no chance to buy the food while the other half of the world is selfishly wasting the sources of world,. After the poverty itself, we should also consider other reasons such as land rights and ownership , diversion of land use to non-productive use, increasing emphasis on export-oriented agriculture, inefficient agricultural practices, wars, famine, drought, over-fishing, poor crop yield, lack of democracy and rights, lack of investment in agriculture, unstable market, weather and climate
[2][3]
HOW TO SOLVE HUNGER ISSUE?
“Eliminating hunger is a moral imperative that the world cannot afford to ignore. It’s not just the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do. Global stability, economic growth and human development will only be achieved when we secure food and nutrition for everyone around the world."
Etharin Cousin , WFP director
To solve hunger issue , we shoul understand the value of joint work of governments, farmers, civil society, academia and the private sectors.From the lower scale business to billion-dollar multinational corporations , everybody have to be involved for the solution action.It`s not jut because it `s a moral dutiy , it is also fundamental for economic growth and development of humanty.By the participants of 2013`s World Economic Forum in Davos underlined, the business life is more patient then past to take action but the business cannot act just by itself. The need of global partnerships based on “a transformative shift towards a new spirit of solidarity, co-operation and mutual accountability” is a growing need for the hunger issue.Firstly , governments need to create and apply the right framework for productive and stable investment. This framework should commit to fight the corruption; to be transparent; to implement a robust regulation.Secondly, business approach must be a total value chain,
optimising their supply chains, innovative, working with global networks to build sustainable business.
Third, equitable growth must be at the center of the business operations and transparency must be the key of this action. Transparency is good for corporation.The companies must also manage resources more effectively, treat employee and customer with respect and show the respect to governments by paying the taxes. [4]
THE CURRENT PRACTICES BY BUSINESS
Soylent (Food Substitute)
Soylent is a food substitute intended to supply all of a human body's daily nutritional needs, made from powdered starch, rice protein, olive oil, and raw chemical powders. Soylent is a way to get all the nutrients needed by the body without spending too much time and effort to prepare . (It can be used by mixing with an amount of water), Soylent is currently undergoing testing and modification. As of October 2013, a crowdfunding campaign has provided roughly US$1,500,000, and venture capitalists (Andreessen Horowitz) provided another US$1,500,000, to produce and market a commercial version of Soylent. [5]
Based on the data given by Wikipedia, we can assume that the future of the food substitute production and marketing business seems really bright. $1.5 million investment a good start for a young market like Soylent`s but there are concerns about the product. Firstly and mainly, Rob Rhinehart who is the inventor of the product ,underlines that he didn`t develop the product to end the hunger problem of the world. That means , the company actually just care about the profit not the humanity. Even the company agrees to help people, the price is defined by the cost of the product and shipping so reduction of the price in the first place will be a big issue , clearly. In addition, tests are still limited so it is too early to talk about the product as a solution of the hunger issue.
GMO`S -MONSANTO AND OTHER BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES
Genetically Modified Organisms-Foods are the genetically engineered seeds which have had specific changes introduced into their DNA. By using GMO seeds, harvesting will be faster and the amount of the product will be significantly higher than the number of the product can be harvested by the regular seeds. One of the dominant biotechnology companies, Monsanto tells the public : “Biotechnology is one of tomorrow’s tools in our hands today. Slowing its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford.” as an answer for the against campaigns for GMO`s. To understand the benefits of GMO`s, lets take a look at from the bright side:
- Supporters of GMO argue that GMO`s offer a valuable tool for responding to the serious problem of malnutrition. Anemia as an example, affects %56 of pregnant women and anemic women have higher infant mortality rates.(Lack of vitamin D is one of the problems which triggers the Anemia) On the other hand, with the GMO`s which are introduced vitamin D can reduce the rate of Anemia. Blindness of millions of poor children is another example which triggered by the lack of Vitamin A , may be solved by GMO method.
- GMO supporters also say that GM foods cause less environmental damage because foods can be engineered to be pest-resistant, decreasing the amounts of toxics applied to crops.
- No health risks have yet been traced to GM foods.
- It seems it is the fastest , practical and functional solution which have a high chance to reduce the rates of death of people who are struggling to find food.
References
[1] World Food Programme, What is Hunger?
[2]Causes of Hunger are related to Poverty ,by Anup Shah,
[3]World Food Programme, What are the reasons of hunger?
[4] 'Responsible business can solve the world’s challenges'
[5] Definition of Genetically Modified Food
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food
[6] Highly Beneficial Increased Yield and Hardiness
[7] Grains of Hope , by J. MADELEINE NASH
http://botany.wiki.lovett.org/file/view/Grains+of+Hope+--+Printout+--+TIME.pdf
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