Population Growth and Feeding the Poor Essay example

For most Americans, the word poverty means insufficient access to to housing, clothing and nutritious food that meet their needs for a healthy life. A consequence of poverty is a low socioeconomic status that leads to being exposed to poor nutrition. Since food and dietary choices are influenced by income, poverty and nutrition go hand in hand. There are many important factors that threaten the nutritional status of poor people. The number one factor is not having enough money to buy food of good quality and quantity. Not having enough money can have a profound impact on the diets of low-income people. Limited financial resources may force low income people to make difficult decisions about what kind and how much food to buy. Limited

The world we live in today is growing at an extremely fast pace. It seems to be that everyday there are more buildings being built, more concrete being poured, and more free land being destroyed. The cause of these events is the worlds’ population rate. Every day our population reaches an all-time high, every day we gain more mouths to feed, and every day we are losing ways to feed these mouths. Food insecurity has risen significantly along with the rise of our population. We must find ways to lower the food insecurity rate by finding new farming practices, making the public more aware of this issue, and doing more ourselves to make sure that we make a change to this problem.

It is estimated that 740 million people are starving in the world today. (Prakash and Conko 357) There are about 7.2 billion people in the world, so the hungry population accounts for 12.7% of the population. The time has come to change these statistics. It is the 21st century and we, as humans, now have the technology and resources to reverse these terrible numbers. There are two arguments on what we should do with this new technology, however. One side, researched by a science policy analyst, stated that biotechnology still has kinks to be worked out and is not the best way to combat world hunger. Another side by a AgBioWorld Foundation vice president and a world-renowned scientific researcher, professor, scholar, and director of the

As the population continues to grow the challenge of sustainably feeding the population increases. Countries like India, china, and Africa are some of the most agriculture abundant locations in the world yet they are the ones suffering the most from hunger. Currently 1 in 7 Americans struggle to eat enough food everyday. Poverty in Africa however is very different from America in regard to hunger. In America 40 percent of Americans from age 25-60 will experience at least a year below the poverty line. This quite the contrary to Africa where most people spend their whole life under the poverty line. The major difference is resources, many Americans can overcome poverty and find a steady job to support themselves. In Africa there are limited jobs, most people have to cultivate their own food and supply their own drinking water. It is an endless cycle of hunger with no real way out unless outside help is given.

While the birthrate increases approximately one percent every year, the death rate increases too. Some of these deaths are caused by poverty, job instability, food shortages and waste, poor infrastructure, unstable markets, climate change, war and conflict, nutritional quality, and discrimination. However, the United Nation says that around twenty-one thousand people die every day due to hunger or hunger related causes, the food just does not get to all the people around the world. Starvation is an old problem that has been around ever since the sixth century and possibly earlier. Right now, there are currently eight hundred seventy million people in the world who do not have enough to eat or drink, and this number is growing. Population growth is out of control in many developing areas, such as Africa and India. More and more children are being born each year, but with less and less food to feed them.

Richard Robbins explores and analyzes the creation and the upkeep of hunger in his book “Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. Each day, over a billion people in the world lack basic food needs. Common misunderstandings about world hunger are that it is the result of insufficient food production, famine is the common reason for hunger and that hunger is caused by overpopulation. Robbins argues against that theory and says that famines is not the leading cause of hunger and hunger is not due to overpopulation or insufficient food production. “Food production is not determined by the global need for food; it is determined on how many people have the means for it” (page 176). The documentary “The End of Poverty” reinforces Robbins belief that food is a commodity.

World hunger is one of the many dire problems facing the human race. Although the common person probably won't have a big impact on ending world hunger, but by being aware of the issues you become empowered. It is first necessary discuss some other the myths about the reasons for world hunger. World hunger is not caused by population increase, but it is one of the factors. The global grain production is high enough to

John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution states that “if genetically engineered plants were designed to reverse world hunger, you would expect them to bring higher yields. But there is increasing evidence that they do just the opposite”. Numerous studies have shown that GM crops do not have a higher yield production, but in fact have at times shown a lower outcome. In 2000, “research done by the University of Nebraska found the yields of GE soybeans were six to eleven percent lower than conventional plants” (Robbins). Evidence that GM foods are not the answer to world hunger continues to pile up. Former US EPA and US FDA biotech specialist Dr. Doug Gurian-Sherman acknowledges that GM crops are not beneficial to solving world hunger: “as of this year [2008], there are no commercialized GM crops that inherently increase yield. Similarly, there are no GM crops on the market that were engineered to resist drought, reduce fertilizer pollution or save soil. Not one” (“10 Reasons Why we don’t Need GM Foods”). Genetically modified corn is a product that has been modified to the extreme in recent years. Here, you can clearly see the physical differences between organic and GM corn. In response to Monsanto’s statement, eighteen African delegates clearly objected, noting that it would undermine their capacity to feed

Hunger is caused by many things and shockingly a food shortage is not one of them. Most people who face hunger are in that situation because of poverty. Poverty is the lack of money to buy what is necessary. The number one cause of poverty is job instability. Without jobs people have no way to make money to provide for their families and one of the things some people cut back on in their budget is food. Sometimes

In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short.

Poor agricultural infrastructure causes hunger because the lack of roads, warehouses, and irrigation causes higher transportation costs, a deficiency of storage facilities, and unreliable water supplies. To improve the agricultural infrastructure, however, it would cost a profuse amount of money, which would put the country in greater debt and result in less funding for essential systems, such as health care, which already has too little funding.

Most of the promises made by these corporations are promises of luxury, not necessity, and carry an inherently and dangerous risk. As science continues to understand further the basic element of life, DNA, the danger involved genetically modifying organisms becomes apparent. The beneficial potential genetic engineering brings are attractive, but paradoxically it also brings disastrous potential at a greater degree. The qualities brought forth by these GM foods are not necessary for our survival and only brings forth dangerous consequences to our health, environment, and economy. In order to

People have been taking action on solving the world issue of hunger and poverty since the 1900s, ever since poverty could be recognized in society, hungry people have been present. The issues within hunger have been failing farmers and malnutritioned women and children.Farmers around the world have been losing their productivity rates and haven't been able to grow nearly as much food as they have before.

Holding on to these fundamental concerns an examination of world hunger and population growth illustrates the problematic nature of this program. The connection between hunger and overpopulation is the notion that the world cannot produce enough food to feed the number of human beings alive. However, the "world produces enough grain alone to provide every man, woman, and child on Earth with 3,000 calories a day" (Hartmann 1995: 16), illustrating this "fact" as profoundly false. Hartmann further states, "at least on a global scale their is not shortage of food"(Hartmann 1995: 16), which insinuates that the concern is not production, but rather distribution. The unequal distribution and consumption of resources by the West (Hartmann 1995:

There are many reasons that may contribute to the cause of world hunger. Historically, the society will continue to change as long as there are people in the world. For what I know, the world had vastly changed from 60 years ago up to now. Whenever I’m with my grandmother, she always told me stories on how accessible and cheap it is to have food in the Philippines during her teenage life. They used to have a small pond where there are tilapia and various crops, vegetables and fruits in their backyard. This scenery was common in each household even