Population and World Hunger Essay Example

Introduction

Population growth and world hunger are not a menace anymore since the world's farmers produce adequate food. I disagree with this opinion because according to statistics, 50 million people go to bed hungry (Green, 2012). The world hunger is however not caused by an increase in population or lack of enough food. There is enough food globally to feed the world. Wastage of food is a drawback due to lack of efficient transportation and good infrastructure.

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The Reality of Global Hunger

There are very high levels of inequality in the world considering the number of people suffering from obesity. Worldwide, number of people who are overweight almost equal to the number of people (Ellis, 2013). Therefore, this shows that lack of equality is a huge contributor to the increase in hunger globally.

World hunger is not a disaster that cannot be eradicated. Statistics say that 7 billion people (Schaeffer, 2011) can easily be well fed with the food that we have. Over the years, technology has improved, and this should, therefore, act as a plus to the number of people who go hungry in the world. However, this has not been the case. Most of the people, who are affected by hunger, are the people with little to no say in the world. Hunger is deemed as a political problem.

Poverty as a Key Contributor to Hunger

Poverty has highly contributed to hunger. The poor have nobody to represent them. The blame being the government, it would not be wrong to say that if the government took world hunger more seriously, it would be a thing of the past. The world's population is expected to increase to almost 10 billion by the year 2050 (Ruiz, 2017). With that same pace of growth, the lands that are there will not be able to sustain the population. As much as the population increases, food is not lacking but being poorly controlled.

Population Growth and Food Control

Population growth is not the main cause of hunger. Farmers in rural places in Africa and Asia lack good means to maximize their produce, therefore, leading to waste of land. Productivity can, however, increase through training and the provision of better facilities.

Most foods are produced in rural areas and on the contrary to this, farmers at rural areas are the ones affected by hunger. The production in the rural areas is not at in a very good pace. The production that is there currently is enough for 9 billion people (Ruiz, 2017). Researchers therefore, believe that it is possible to reduce hunger by a percentage.

Climate Change and its Role in Hunger

There has been an observation that climate change has played a part in world hunger. World food program had an estimation that the risk of malnutrition will increase by 20% by the year 2050 (Ellis, 2013). It is therefore, the duty of the countries that are more industrialized to help curb this problem. Technological innovation at a certain point could help bring a solution however at the same time; small scale farmers should be given support so that in the end they get to produce in large scales.

Responsibilities of Industrialized Countries

Countries like India have a rapid growth of 8% per year and therefore, need to take responsibility faster for the increase in the people who end up sleeping hungry (Green, 2011). The rich countries are part of solutions. Europe and USA are working towards reducing their dependence on oil, therefore, leading to a reduction in their subsidies. This competes with the production of food production affecting the poor due to a hike in prices.

Four Categories of People Contributing to World Hunger

There are four categories of people who make the world hungry. Landowners are leaders in this category where they depend on less than 1.5 hectares for themselves. The group is termed to be farming yet hungry. Majority of these people are women producing food for themselves and families on small pieces of land mostly in areas that are remote.

Most of the times they are located in areas far from markets, and they end up not selling their products. In the end, most of their produce end up get wasted. With a little help from the government to improve their farming techniques and increase in their produce, this would be of great help to the improvement of hunger in the world.

Agricultural laborers follow the list with around 450 million laborers working in the plantation. Among them, 200 million are hungry working on the plantations on seasonal terms without any formal contract. Artisan farmers comprise of indigenous people who have no ownership of land or employment. They depend on activities like fishing and keeping livestock. The group consists of about 10% to 15% of the people in the world ending up hungry (Daly, Pyke &Regan).

The urban poor is a rapidly increasing group worldwide. Most of the people are forced to move to urban areas from rural areas for reasons such as employment, search for new opportunities, forced migration as well as education purposes. The problem with this is that access to food in urban areas relies on the cash purchase affecting more people who have no income. The other problem is that food in urban areas is not of high quality and nutritional as the ones coming directly from rural areas.

Advantages of Ending World Hunger

There are so many advantages that come from ending the world hunger. Among the many pros that come from it includes the fact that it can help reduce the level of poverty in underdeveloped countries. According to the study, if rich countries work hand in hand with each other, then this can aid solve the hunger problem. They can do this through training on better farming methods, equality among countries as well as assistance in their medical state.

Foreign Aid as a Solution

Giving foreign aid is an option to help reduce the level of poverty in under-developed countries. This in turn gets to benefit the donor as well as the recipient. This is because through the interaction of helping, good relations are created between the two countries. As much as rich countries might seem to have it all, there might be a certain point where the rich country needs their help. Helping other countries helps in encouraging them to be more independent in times to come.

Conclusion

The drawback to foreign aid is that due to the increase in corruption in the world, foreign aid ends up no going to the people it was intended for. Under- developed countries, especially those with officials who are corrupt end up using the aid to their own benefit or for those who need it the least. Critics say that at times foreign aid is given to countries that can in return be beneficial to the donor instead of countries that are in dire need of the help.

The other drawback to foreign aid is that when rich countries help under- developed countries by giving them loans, is that they end up with big debts which in the end might be difficult for them to pay. In the end, they become poorer than they were due to debts.

Reference List

Green, D. (2012, Feb 15th). Ending world hunger is possible- so why hasn't it been done? Retrieved from www.the guardian.com

Ellis, E.C. (2013, Sept 13th). Overpopulation is not the problem. Retrieved from nytimes.com

Schaeffer, U. (2011, October 31st). Hunger is a political problem. Retrieved from m.dw.com

Daly, T., Pyke, T., Regan, C., Regan, C. (2013, Nov 1st). Debating world hunger. Retrieved from developmenteducation.ie

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Essay:

Can Technology and Innovation Contribute to Reducing World Hunger?

Answer: Yes, technological and innovative advancements hold great promise for helping reduce world hunger. Improved agricultural techniques, access to better facilities and training can increase productivity while decreasing waste while technological developments may help address climate change challenges by increasing food production efficiency as well as distribution systems.

How Does Inequality Contribute to World Hunger?

Answer: Inequality is one of the key contributors to world hunger. You can see it clearly illustrated by the contrast between people experiencing obesity and those experiencing hunger, as well as unequal access to resources, opportunities, and education resulting in poverty and food insecurity, leading to imbalanced distribution and availability.

What are the potential advantages of ending global hunger?

Answer: Ending world hunger could bring many advantages. It can significantly decrease poverty in underdeveloped nations, improve global health outcomes and build stronger international ties between nations as they work together towards ending hunger - not to mention that providing adequate and nutritious food sources has significant positive ramifications on economic growth, social stability and overall human well-being.