Where is Your Next Meal Coming From?

As I look out my window, I can see four different fields without even moving from my spot.  Some contain corn, while others contain beans.  If I drive down the road a few miles I would notice a hay field as well as some wheat, and many fields of corn and beans in between.  Living in an environment like this it is hard to think how people could say that the agricultural business is lagging behind in many areas of the world.  However, an article published on September 16, 2012 in the New York Times claims that agriculture in many areas of the world, including many countries in Africa, is far more expensive to produce than what people realize (Cowen, 2012).  The article blames many different areas for this expense, including extremely high fertilizer prices, sub-par soil, and tight restrictions on agricultural products.  In a time when many are trying to fight world hunger, these problems aren't helping.  Africa has often been known for some of the poorest countries in the world (Sizer & Whitney, 2013).  These countries are also the places that have some of the worst soil, but are paying two to four times more for fertilizer than the rest of the world (Cowen, 2012). As many people work to fix this problem, Tyler Cowen, author of the article published in the New York Times,suggests that we quit using our corn to make bio-fuels to run our cars.  He claims that, when all other costs are taken into consideration, the savings to the global environment are nearly insignificant, and that using corn in this way is adding to the cause of rising corn prices.  He argues that the corn that is being used to fuel our cars would be better used to feed people around the world.

Another study, which was published in New Biotechnology on November 30, 2010, claims that even though the Global Hunger Index, or GHI, fell from 18.7% in 1990 to 15.2% in 2008, there in still a lot of work to be done.  In 1990 there was an estimated 823 million people undernourished in developing countries.  However, in a study done from 2002-2005, that number increased to an estimated 848 million people (Von Braun, 2010).  According to the article, the price of wheat and maize tripled from 2003 to 2008, making it even more difficult for those in developing countries to get the food that they needed at a reasonable cost.  In some countries of the world, it takes everything that a family has in order to find food to eat that day (Sizer & Whitney, 2013).  Unlike many things that we take for granted in the United States, such as air conditioning, running water, and toilets, food is something that people cannot live without.  If we can't find a way to help those undernourished people find food, wherever they are in the world, we are going to be facing an increased number of mortality rates due to starvation. 

Many of us, including myself, don't know what it's like to not know where the next meal is going to come from.  When we get hungry we simply open the fridge and see what there is to eat.  However, many people in parts of the world don't even know what a refrigerator is, let alone are they able to afford one.  Living in the Midwest it is also hard to imagine how agricultural products, such as corn and beans, can be a rarity.  However, in other parts of the world, where the cost to produce these products is too high to afford, they don't know what it's like to have a farm in their back yard.  The world must come together as one and put more emphasis on finding a solution to world hunger, or we will simply continue to watch more and more people die because they can't find the money to afford their next meal.

Lastly, staggering statistics of the "poorest poor" can be found in our textbook.  The "poorest poor" survive on less than two dollars a day, and spend nearly 80% of their total income on food.  Even with spending that much, they are still malnourished (Sizer & Whitney, 2013).  A statistic published in Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies in 2013 states that, "the average U.S. house cat eats twice as much protein every day as one of these people, and the yearly cost of keeping that cat is greater than that person's annual income" (Sizer & Whitney, 2013).  Statistics like these are eye opening.  It is a slap in the face to many of us in the United States that it is time to stand up and start doing something to end the fight against hunger. 

   

Cowen, T. (September 12, 2012). World Hunger: The Problem Left Behind. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/business/world-hunger-the-problem-left-behind-economic-view.html?_r=0

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2013). Nutrition: concepts & controversies (13th ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Von Braun, J. (November 30, 2010). Food Insecurity, Hunger and Malnutrition: Necessary Policy and Technology Changes. New Biotechnology, 27(5). Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871678410005546