Food Culture In Venezuela

After reading the extensive “The New Face of Hunger” (Tracie McMillan), my eyes became more open to the overall issue of hunger, faced by many people today. In a few words, I was absolutely shocked by the true meaning and examples provided of what exactly food insecurity is. Honestly speaking, when I hear the word “hunger” I think of a human who has no food, living on the streets. “The New Face of hunger” brought to my attention that food insecurity is much more than simply having no food. In fact, “In 2006 the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat” (The New Face of Hunger). Not only was I able to see the harsh

When you get hungry, your gonna want your food right then at that moment. Then you may start to think, how war will I have to walk just to get my food? Or you may think that you shouldn’t have went so far from the food spots. Everyone has a big passion for food. The quality of the food is what almost everyone looks at. Or they even look at how it smells, taste, etc. Now what makes everyone upset is the price of the food. A single hot dog would be like $10. Who does that, it’s too much money for a hot dog.

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.

John Locke was an English philosopher in the 17th century. Locke explained what the most important purposes of a government were. He claimed that the government’s  primary purpose was to protect people’s natural rights; life, liberty, and property. However, the country of Venezuela’s government does not protect any of these rights, and the people should revolt and force a change in the government.  Venezuela is a medium sized county in South America with a population of about 31,400,000 people. Venezuela’s main language is Spanish and has a Federal Presidential Republic under president Nicolas Maduro.Venezuela gained its independence from Spain in 1811.

“ Amidst the trash this young girl has found some tortillas, her family is so poor the tortillas will become part of tonight’s dinner. What was food for the dogs and flies becomes food for the family ( Odell, 2011). ” Chiapas, Mexico has high rates of poverty and poor healthcare and access. Chiapas faces so many health and economic problems that can easily be decreased and prevented. This nation has poor nutrition, contaminated natural resources, lack of education and preventable disease.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a country situated on the north coast of South America. It is bounded by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, and Guyana on the east with a population of over 31 million people and covering 916,445 km2 (353,841 square miles). Venezuela is considered a developing country seeking to become more advance economically and socially. Although their rich soil and fertile ground, Venezuela suffers the world’s highest inflation rate where $1.00 US Dollar = 676,71 Venezuelan Bolivars. Shortages in food and medicine are daily issues that citizens face creating hostile environments and harsh living conditions for most of the population. As a result, Venezuelans need to search for food doing long lines that can

In the documentary Food Chains the main purpose was to inform viewers about the mistreatment that the farmers are facing by being under paid and the sexually harrasment among the immigrant women. In this one and half hour documentary, a group of farmers, from Florida all engage in week long hunger strike at one of the most popular supermarket in Florida; Publix. The reason why the farmers were protesting, was because they wanted a raise, so that they can provide for their families and try to get out of poverty.

Different types of food are associated with different classes in Bolivia and Argentina. Certain foods are looked down upon while others are praised. The middle and upper classes are vital in determining which foods are considered local and authentic.

Venezuela is now witnessing its largest protests in a decade. President Nicolas Maduro who is a affiliate and follows the socialist norms took power almost a year ago and has cracked down on demonstrations with unprecedented force, using the National Guard and armed paramilitary gangs. There is a considerable portion of the population that is fed up with the country’s rapidly weakening financial system. The government has run out of cash and now relies on printing money to finance itself. As a result this country has the highest inflation rate in the world.

Latin America is known for its beautiful landscapes, rich culture, strong family values and… its food. I was born in a small, rural town in Cuba where my dad and five other siblings shared a farm. I was raised in an environment where greasy, processed food was everyone’s favorite meal. The food my grandma made was like the daily dose of coffee, except it was eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even as a small snack every now and then. I remember watching my grandma and aunt cook over fifty pounds of food for one meal and then watching more than fifteen people simultaneously savoring their masterpiece. Nonetheless, times have changed for me, I now live in a completely different country, speak a new language, and surround myself with people

In Venezuela, many people can’t buy food because the food prices are too high and there is no food. As a result, the city got serious about farming because it is their only way to provide food. In the text, it states,” ...the administration has said metropolitan areas should grow at least 20 percent of their own food.”this shows that even metropolitan areas need need to grow their own food to feed themselves. Some stores may be stocked but the prices are to high. This affected the citizens of Venezuela to grown their own food.

Nearly 300,000 of those barrels are exported to China free of charge as loan payment and about 200,000 are sold to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and Nicaragua at extremely subsidized rates. That leaves about 1.2-.3 bpd to be exported to countries in Europe and the United States (Hammond, 2011). If Venezuela were able to sell their barrels at the top price of about $100 a day they would bring in approximately 50 billion dollars per year from oil exports. Supporting a country of 40 million people with such a small amount of money is very hard to do, especially when a majority of raw materials and resources needed to support the people must be imported. The Venezuelan government is forced to use the short money supply it has to import what it can and to subsidize the basic necessities that its citizens need. When exports decrease due to lack of demand in the foreign market around the world the deficit grows and the government is forced to cut back on those subsidies creating unrest among the people. It also forces the government to take out loans from banks like the IMF, putting them into even more national debt.

With the huge glut in old prices that began in 2014/15, the Venezuelan economy took a complete nosedive.

The cost of importing is being paid by oil exports that are currently at a price too low to sustain imports. Limited private companies are producing, and prices are increasing due to high levels of inflation. Over the past ten years, Venezuela has reaped the rewards of rising oil prices and sufficient demand from large buyers like the United States, China and India, but due to reduced private companies, falling oil price and decrease global demand this country is unable to provide any value to its economy, pushing themselves to the brink of bankruptcy.

Venezuela is a country that throughout the years has tried to become a democratic country. In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela with the intentions of making a Venezuela a better country. His intentions were to rewrite a new constitution in order to improve the state and fight poverty (Coronel, 2008). Years passed and Venezuela has become worse compared to what it was before Hugo Chavez