Tiara Roman
ENC 1102
Dive
12 March 2013
Diving
in the Dumps
People in the United States can go dumpster diving if
they are hungry, but did you ever think about the people in other countries
that have no dumpsters to dive in? If we are considered one of the top ten
richest countries in the world, then why are there so many people in other
countries starving or dying from starvation? Why is it considered too expensive
to help these people? We can bail out car Dealerships by the millions, another vehicle
sold, but thousands of children and people dead. Granted there are other
countries richer than ours that could contribute to starving human beings in
other countries. But what has the world come to? Why is this so neglected?
“Hunger is a term which has three meanings” (Oxford
English Dictionary 1971) “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of
food; craving appetite, the exhausted condition caused by want of food, the
want or scarcity of food in a country and third is a strong desire or craving”(Oxford
English Dictionary 1971). And with hunger comes starvation, which is the “result of a severe or total lack of nutrients
needed for the maintenance of life” (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com).
Starvation has several causes and symptoms which include coma, stroke, and
shrinkage of vital organs, immune deficiency, severe gastrointestinal disease
and even death. There is a large Vitamin A deficiency in children, between 100
and 140 million children are vitamin A deficient. This deficiency can also cause
growth retardation, reduces the body’s resistance to disease and night
blindness. “An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 children become blind every
year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight” (World Health
Organization). Though this is only a minor list of
symptoms, it is severe.
According to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, statistics show that as of 2010 there were 925
million people hungry in the world. The majority of them are, 538 million
people in Asia and the pacific, and 239 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. “In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world.
Thus, with an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, 13.1 percent,
or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry” (FAO 2010). “The target set at the 1996 World Food Summit was to halve the number of
undernourished people by 2015 from their number in 1990-92” (FAO uses three
year averages in its calculation of undernourished people). The (estimated)
number of undernourished people in developing countries was 824 million in
1990-92. In 2010, the number had climbed to 925 million people. The WFS
goal is a global goal adopted by the nations of the world; the present outcome
indicates how marginal the efforts were in face of the real need. So,
overall, the world is not making progress toward the world food summit
goal, although there has been progress in Asia and in Latin America and the
Caribbean” (http://www.worldhunger.org).
You ask does the world have enough food to feed
every person? The answer is yes! “The world produces enough food to feed
everyone. World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today
than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase. This is
enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal)
per person per day according to the most recent estimate that we could find.
The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient
land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food” (FAO 2002, p.9).
World hunger is an ongoing issue
that doesn’t seem like it will ever take presidents. As research shows not just
in any particular country, but all around the world people and children are
starving and dying as a result. Research also shows that no one should be
hungry. The world does produce enough food to feed each and every one of us.
Why this is still an issue? I’m still uncertain. If we came together to assist
in at least terminating the amount of food wasted, maybe we could improve to
the target the world summit has set. If anyone chose to donate to the people
and children of these countries there are several website that it can be done,
here are selected few, www.universitiesfightingworldhunger.org , http://www.nokidhungry.org, worldhungerrelief.org. Donations don’t have to be made online to
help limit wasted food, remember you can always donate to your local, shelters,
churches or colleges.
Works
Cited
Pelletier
DL, Frongillo EA Jr, Schroeder D, Habicht JP.
The effects of
malnutrition on child mortality in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 1995; 73:
443–48.
http://www.top5ofanything.com/index.php?h=09a17b00
<a href="http://medical- dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Starved+to+death">starvation</a>
Masset,
Edoardo. 2011 In Press
A
review of hunger indices and methods to monitor country commitment to fighting hunger Food Policy.
