Famine From A Socioeconomic Theoretical Lens

“We cant close the gap on health unless we talk about nutrition”. The issue of food security can have a negative impact on the wellbeing of individuals and families in Australia, there are a number of different groups who are more vulnerable to food insecurity than others, due to social whereabouts. Food insecurities is defined as “ access by all people at all times to enough food for an active healthy life” by saying this Australia has been shown as food secure but this has people asking “why are certain groups and cultures running out of food to feed there families through out the year, if we are food secure?’ about 5% of Australians suffer from food insecurities this is usually caused by the access they have to food or the inadequate food

Many countries around the world have developed food deficiency and food insecurity issues. Deficiency is the lack or shortage of something, so food deficiency is the shortage of food; and food insecurity is when people in an area do not have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times to meet their dietary needs. There are five main factors that contribute to a country having food deficiency and food insecurity issues, these being: environmental, demographic, political, social, and economic factors. All of these factors have influenced Ethiopia to having food deficiency and food insecurity problems. Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa and is home to about 85 million people, and has been suffering from food deficiency and insecurity problems for quite a while. These five factors have contributed to Ethiopia’s current state, in regard to food.

Food security exists when everyone in the population has access to enough nutritious food to live an active and health life. In Chad there is no food security, because not everyone has enough food to eat. In fact, according to World Food Program 25-34.9% of Chad is undernourished.

Jimmy carter once said, "We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry." With the world now more interconnected than ever there might be a solution to world hunger by distribution of wealth. Peter Singer, in his article titled, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, takes this concept of unity that we have on a global scale and tries to tackle the issue of world hunger. Before we dive into the article we will focus on utilitarianism to help us understand his perspective better. Following, we will analyze Singer and his theory, by strongly arguing that famine should be given moral worth. A stance is made that if you are aware of suffering that is going on elsewhere than it is your responsibility to do something about it. He points out that it doesn’t matter if anyone else is helping nor does it matter the distance. Singer does make some good points, however, these do not come without objections.

Nutrition is important for healthy life. Many people are still hungry around the world even though there is mass production of food. This is because of unhealthy food production. In today’s world we see many obese people because of high intake of high fat and cholesterol containing food. It is important to have a healthy diet/ nutritional intake for individuals to have good foundation for physical and mental health. Now a day’s healthy food is getting more expensive rather than unhealthy food. Poor people are forced to eat unhealthy food, while the rich can afford to eat whatever the please. Food insecurity is caused by individuals not having healthy food for their families due to their low income or political and

Chad, a developing country with a high rate of undernourished people, has many different reasons for this. With Chad’s economy evolving, the amount of money the made compared to other countries is significantly lower, causing the malnutrition. Chad’s GDP per capita, the amount of money made per a person, is a shocking $2,600, compared to $57,466 in the United States (Means). People in Chad have a hard time buying the food because it is so expensive; however because Chad does not have enough money, it cannot help the suffering people.Therefore, the fatal situation in Chad remains the same. Civil wars, many occurring in the past 20 years, are another cause of Chad’s developing state. All the civil wars led to lower education for the population

Within “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” Peter Singer delves into the topic of famine; specifically, the moral obligations individuals in affluent countries have to those who are suffering. In his example, Singer focuses on the population of East Bengal, and their struggle with famine and extreme poverty. Singer proposes that with enough aid from both individuals and various governments extreme poverty can be eradicated. Therefore, the question he presents is why poor people are dying while affluent people are spending excess money on luxuries? Singer argues that affluent people, living in affluent countries, are not helping developing countries by failing to give enough to alleviate extreme poverty.

Nowadays, the process of globalization strengthens the connections between numerous countries across the world, and enables people living in developed countries to help those who are experiencing famine, deaths and diseases in poor countries. However, the moral necessity of doing so has been controversial in human’s society for years. One philosopher named Peter Singer gives his opinion in the article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, and presents a powerful argument supporting his claim. In this essay, I will explain his conclusion and main argument, propose one objection to his argument, and evaluate the validity of my objection by considering possible response that Peter Singer would make to my objection.

He asserts that “our distance from a preventable evil [does not lessen] our obligation to mitigate or prevent that evil” (Singer 521).

Food security is one of the largest problems facing our world today. To be "food secure" a country must have enough

Malawi is a small, land locked country in southern Africa, that has population of 12 million people (Menon, 2007). 65 percent are below the poverty line and 28 percent live in extreme poverty, It is known as one of the poorest country in Africa (Menon, 2007) Reports had shown that, instance of food insecurity has been happening for some time, however little attention was payed (Menon, 2007). In 2002, 500-1000 people died from hunger or hunger related diseases (Menon, 2007). The latest figures showed a huge leap in the number of people in need of food aid, over 8 million based in an article release on May 27, 2016, (Masina, 2016). In April of the same year the government stated that 2.8 million people were in need, a

Situations leading to famine are crop failure, climate change, drought and conflict. One of the main causes of famine is not crop failure or drought; it is the lack of adequate response to the conflict or dough that causes famine. Areas of East Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, are experiencing one of the worst droughts in 60 year. 11.3 million People in the Horn of Africa are in need of food assistance due to the drought. Food prices are up as much as 200% in parts of Somalia.

According to UN (1990), household food security defined as “The ability of household members to assure themselves sustained access to sufficient quantity and quality of food to live active and healthy life.” FAO (1992) defines as food security is referred in terms of access to food, availability of food, and also in terms of resource distribution to produce food and purchasing power to buy food, where it is produced. Another definition given by USAID (1992) defines food security as: “when all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life.” Based on this food security includes at a minimum the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, and assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (such as without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies). According to World Bank

Food Insecurity is defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life, and at a minimum includes the following: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods and the assured ability to acquire personally acceptable foods in a socially acceptable way, qualified by their involuntariness and periodicity. Even though food insecurity affects everyone in the household, it may also affect them differently. Food insecurity mostly exists whenever food security is limited. Uncertain or limited availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods results chronic diseases psychological, and suicidal syndrome (Cook & Frank, 2008)

The food supply should, at least, cover the nutritional needs that provide most of the essential nutrients. In terms of quantity and quality, having access to adequate food is extremely fundamental in the rights to adequate food. This is clearly defined with the lack of nutrients, protein, and calories leading to hunger and malnutrition. This is a consequence of food deprivation. Lack of both quantity and quality of food is a result of poverty within certain parts of the world. According to Yolanda Williams, “Absolute poverty refers to a condition where a person does not have the minimum amount of income needed to meet the minimum requirements for one or more basic living needs over an extended period of time.” The necessities involved with absolute poverty, but not limited to, are food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, and health. Adequate food is also a fundamental right with the standard right to adequate living. “An adequate standard of living is either a result of a transfer or seen as something earned in return for eco­nomic activities, like wage labor, self-employment, providing goods, services or means of production” (The Right to Adequate Food ). In many circumstances, lecturing the right to have food means that we (and our government) would need to address whether or not families can afford to feed themselves. This is ensured by the family or even a