Diving In the Dumps

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

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Starvedtodeath

            <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.

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm