Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
MWF 9am
33 comments:
Andrew Davis
said...
I cannot “bring this problem home” as well as others may be able to, since I am American, born and raised. However, being American means that I am part of the problem of international suffering and shortage of food. As Americans, we consume far more than we need, with little consideration for others who actually do need the sustenance. An initial step toward decreasing international food shortages might well be steeper food prices for those in developed countries (like Europe or America) who obviously eat more than they need to. The excess food, as hopefully its purchase might go down after its prices go up, can be sent to needy areas, like Sub-Saharan Africa. However, this approach has political and social repercussions, and will not be readily accepted by the American people. One very plausible and strong method that could be used to increase food supply is to decrease the use of ethanol as corn. Switchgrass, for instance, is an incredible source of energy that could be used instead of ethanol fuel. The corn saved from being transformed into corn oil could obviously then make a huge impact on the lives of those that need it. Switchgrass also makes less of a nitrite impact on the soil it is grown in (it doesn’t deplete the nutrients as much as corn), so that same soil could be used later on to grow crops to feed the under-developed nations of our planet.
Being American, as I am, I know that I am extremely lucky to have the food quantity and quality that is available for my consumption. However, countries all across the world don’t have the benefit that large, developed countries have in terms of food abundance. So, as Americans, we should cut our wastage of food by sending it to more needy nations, like those in Sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that free or subsidized seeds or fertilizers for farmers in areas of need would help increase food production and in turn, drop prices. Lack of education is another major issue that leads to the drastic deficit in food for underdeveloped nations. If we made the peoples of these nations aware of better food and growing practices, then they would be able to grow more crops. Also, an addition of micronutrients that is insufficient in many of the diets around the world can give an added boost and would aid in diminishing the frequency of famine across the world. All in all, the transition from food shortage is an ongoing process that includes every nation, whether developed or developing, it is a problem that affects all of us.
Countries such as, America and Europe, who are developed, have the opportunity to consume food without having the worries of where their next meal was going to come from. Instead we over eat because we can and well because we need to feed our bodies. Unfortunately, us as humans cannot stop eating because others are starving. As children we are raised to have some sort of knowledge and conception of others in hunger. When we don’t eat all our food our parents usually say to us “Eat all your food or don’t throw away food, there are kids in Africa starving who will kill to eat that.” But with that said people usually do not grip a hold of the reality of the situations. The countries who suffer from food shortage are underdeveloped and face poverty with a lack of knowledge and health in order to rise above the conditions. We can come together and concentrate on reducing the amount of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and further sources of pollution in order to stop global warming from worsening. Mean while, people can continue giving a hand and educating those less fortunate and in need of help.
The problem of poverty as it relates to sustainability is not a new one. In fact, philosopher Thomas Malthus, realized this problem about hundreds of years ago. Through the use of statistics, he noticed that while human population can increase geometrically, food supply can only increase arithmetically. His findings reveal that if human population is left unchecked, it could lead to severe problems such as hunger, poverty, and starvation. Education is the first step in order to deal with this problem. When we understand its repercussion, then we will be able to make wiser decisions, and guide those in need. By increasing awareness of birth control methods in underdeveloped countries we can aim at a reduced population growth rate. China’s “one child policy” has also proven to reduce its increasingly population growth. While agriculture might seem as a promising solution to the problem, it is in fact creating even more insidious ones that also need to be addressed. By planting a tree in our backyard, by using less harmful sources of energy, by carefully monitoring fertilizers, and keeping them away from lakes, and water supplies, we could aspire for sustainability, while trying to diminish poverty as much as possible.
Being the fact that I was born in the United States, I can not relate to the other countries that are facing poverty, lack of education, lack of infrastructure, poor or non-existent public health. Pulitzer prize winning writer Thomas Friedman writes “In few years we may be looking back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking?.” I agree with Friedman, the world wasn’t so over populated several years back but now were growing at a fast rate. What can we do? Its really nothing we can do. Population is one of the big issue and it will increase pressure on land and water resources. There are not infinite resources. However, there are too many people that are using those resources soon we’ll run out. Can we stop the population from growing??
Living in the United States has good benefits but it can also lead to bad ones. The United States is an enormous country that is extremely populated there is people from all over the world different cultures ect. By living in the United States it doesn’t mean that we are rich. The United Sates has opportunities for many people. We have some source of facilities to go to the supermarket and buy our foods and products that we need to survive. In the same hand there are some people that although they live here they can`t do this. It might be because they don`t have money to buy food. For example many of us think that water will always be available. This is not true water is not always going to be around we need to start making good use of our water and save. The majority of us make bad use of the water we leave the water rinsing when we are doing the dishes, taking a bath, washing the car. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do. We can avoid population by preventing teenager pregency Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. Teen pregnancy can be avoided by going to a clinic and obtaining accurate information about avoid pregnancy. This will reduce the population that we have going on. Natural resources are something of value people get from the environment, such as air, water, plants, and animals, Rocks, and minerals. Some resources are renewable, which means they can be replaced or grown back. For example, many crops are renewable natural resources. After they are harvested, more seeds can be planted and grown. Wind power is a renewable resource that has been used for thousands of years to pump water, irrigate crops, and also sail boats. Other resources, however, are non-renewable. They cannot be replaced or they take a very, very long time to be replaced or grown back. Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There are three major forms of fossil fuels; coal, oil, and natural gas. Natural resources take time to replace, so it is important that we use them wisely. We can conserve water be taking shorter showers, turning off faucets when we do not need running water, and fixing leaky pipes. We can recycle glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. These are all ways that we can help around. Making good use of our food is also really important for all of us.
Living in the United States has good benefits but it can also lead to bad ones. The United States is an enormous country that is extremely populated there is people from all over the world different cultures ect. By living in the United States it doesn’t mean that we are rich. The United Sates has opportunities for many people. We have some source of facilities to go to the supermarket and buy our foods and products that we need to survive. In the same hand there are some people that although they live here they can`t do this. It might be because they don`t have money to buy food. For example many of us think that water will always be available. This is not true water is not always going to be around we need to start making good use of our water and save. The majority of us make bad use of the water we leave the water rinsing when we are doing the dishes, taking a bath, washing the car. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do. We can avoid population by preventing teenager pregency Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. Teen pregnancy can be avoided by going to a clinic and obtaining accurate information about avoid pregnancy. This will reduce the population that we have going on. Natural resources are something of value people get from the environment, such as air, water, plants, and animals, Rocks, and minerals. Some resources are renewable, which means they can be replaced or grown back. For example, many crops are renewable natural resources. After they are harvested, more seeds can be planted and grown. Wind power is a renewable resource that has been used for thousands of years to pump water, irrigate crops, and also sail boats. Other resources, however, are non-renewable. They cannot be replaced or they take a very, very long time to be replaced or grown back. Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There are three major forms of fossil fuels; coal, oil, and natural gas. Natural resources take time to replace, so it is important that we use them wisely. We can conserve water be taking shorter showers, turning off faucets when we do not need running water, and fixing leaky pipes. We can recycle glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. These are all ways that we can help around. Making good use of our food is also really important for all of us.
Honestly,after reading this post, it makes me appreciate the food that is presented to me on a weekly bases. We as Americans should all appreciate all the food that is presented to us. I understand that in areas like Sub-Sahara, food prices as well as food resources are very little, so in areas like America, we should take the time out to donate food monthly, maybe even weekly, to show our appreciation and to also show that we do care and we are not selfish. To read this post really opened my eyes that people are here complaining about gas prices and food prices here, but we have the money to for food but just don't want to pay for it because we want to raise a very irrelevant issue. Americans eat healthy on a daily bases and have plenty nerve to complain about the food that they are consuming while in many parts of the world like Sub-Sahara are dying and wishing and praying just for the straps of food that we do have.
Well i feel like if the world need to come together beacuse a lot of people need to eat. The population explosion rising food prices and sustaninability, the demand for food has been rising as people in fast.Developing countries, such as india and china, have been buying more groceries. It's was food trade policies and financial speculation in commodities markets. The policy energy was ethanol markers are using more corn to produce fuel. This world is too much problems such population, and food production. The increasing of politicians, economcists, sociologists and phiosophers is problem. I think the world need to stop having wars and help people and other nations in their everyday life.
As I read this article I realized(one more time)how lucky we are to be able to obtain food just by going to the supermarket. This is not true for some countries. Some south american countries don't have this priviledge. People that live in Cuba for instance wait a whole year to eat guavas, since it's only cultivated during summer. As for us, we can go in winter time to the market and still find fresh and ready to eat guavas. As Americans we have the priviledge that this country exports and imports lots of food. We receive fruits and vegetables from all around the world. We should take action and preserve what we have now because it will not last forever and we don't want future generations to die for something that we have plenty of now. For example, China is one of those overpopulated countries, but thet have started to do something that might be helpful, women now are only allow to have one child. Not many of us might like this idea but if it helps we should do everything that is in our hands to reduce population in order for food to be avalaible for all of us.
As Americans we realize how severe poverty is, due to the privileges we are given. Therefore, we recognize the many things we can do to help put an end to poverty. The only problem we are faced with is “where do we begin? True enough cutting down the amount of food we eat as a nation is a start, but let’s be realistic, people in places such as America and Europe are set in their lifestyles, and so minimizing their diet will be a challenging task. Taking away from these developed places is not the key, and won’t get us anywhere in ending poverty. What we need to do is find the source, which I believe is education. Poverty is not only the lack of money and food but more so, the lack of education which leads to the lack of jobs, which leads to the lack of money, then poor infrastructure, food supply and of course heath. Instead of spending time taking from away from privileged countries we should be spending time traveling to these undeveloped countries and educate. Educate people on how to grow crops, build houses, schools, obtain jobs, reduced the population and in some cases learn to read and write. The more uneducated citizens are the more corruption in the government. With that being said, education is the key to unlocking many doors in the matter of poverty.
Food availability is essential for the wellbeing and productivity of all people. The depletion, exhaustion of resources and the worsening ecological environment, are grave impediments in a nation’s economic and social development, population growth and global warming create food prices to increase and cause political instability. “According to the Global Footprint Network we are currently growing at a rate that is using up the Earth's resources far faster than they can be sustainably replenished, so we are eating into the future. Right now, global growth is using about 1.5 Earths. 'Having only one planet makes this a rather significant problem,' says Paul Gilding. 'We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model”. The U.S has always been the #1 leading country helping poverty and starvation, in spite all of this efforts it’s impossible for one country to change that. That’s when governments “ countries” have to realized that they have to come together to help each other and leave behind for once money and all that is going to bring just profit to them, instead they should invest money on their people
In my opinion, the rising food prices, the population explosion etc. affect everyone indirectly or directly; some people Is suffering for not having food to eat at the next day, other people is affected in the terms of money, normally people look for cheap things. This post is a perfect example of my country Colombia many people suffering of hungriness, bad education and a lot of kids with malnutrition. Colombia is a country that export a lot of things to other countries, the weather is been doing tragedies with lots of storms all over; also suffered a lot of flooding that make a huge lost of crops and lots of fruits, isn’t only Colombia is all the undeveloped countries that are suffering. So now the question is what can we do? I think people need to help others, the lack of education is one of the biggest issues, and countries that are potential should help these others countries teaching them a good system of education that make the poor people an access to learn. We can contribute to many issues, don’t wasting food, recycling, use the energy and water necessary. Also we are over populating the world; we need to teach that teenagers that have so many kids, for don’t having good information about pregnancy. All of us that have food, education we need to appreciate what we have and all the opportunities that this country US bring to us.
As the population of the world increases, so does the need and demand for food creating a problem that affects millions around the globe, unfortunately, we have reached a point on which we, humans, have grown too big for the vessel that is this planet. Overpopulation has led us to scarcity; in order to feed the habitants of growing cities we have turned to new ways of fertilizing crops, growing them faster, but, in return slowly destroying the soil and the atmosphere and polluting the air, oceans and rivers, changing the climate which then affects the very crops. To top things up, the price of oil raises rapidly, so transportation costs increases (soon a tomato will cost an arm). I think that very little can be done to solve the problem; so far, finding new sources of energy have not paid off, the growing of masses cannot be stopped even with regulations, and what makes matters worse is the fact that the earth has been so abused and damaged that it would take an awful amount of time to recuperate; an amount of time, a luxury that sadly we cannot afford. It’s just out of our hands. JULIO RECONCO
While I was reading this post I could only think about my country, Honduras. A country where the supply of food has dimished in certain areas because of the severe droguhts just like in Russia, Ukraine, and Argentina. A country where there’s a lot of homeless people that are suffering from hunger. Day by day theres is thousands of people that don’t have anything to eat. Lots of kids are sufferting from malnutrition and due to the lack of vitamins and food they get really sick and end up dying, and no one does anything, the society doesn’t help at all. Unlike Honduras, the United States is a wealthy country where people that have financial problems are being helped by the community, a country where there is places where homeless people can go and have a meal. Countries Like the United States and Europe have a lot of good resources and I think they can be capable of helping other countries that really need the help and support from them. Another issue is that population is increasing and the people that are having more kids is the people that can’t support them, and this causes more problems. Kids grow with malnutrition because they never get the food, vacciness, or vitamins they need due to the situation of their parents, so I strongly believe that the situation can be better if people who are not able to support another kid would stop having them. Other than kids not having what to eat, there is lack of education in many countries because of the same reason that parents are not able to afford their kids their education, but still they keep giving birth. I think people should start reasoning more so sitations like this one stop happening.
I believe that we have an even bigger problem than the actual population explosion on our planet; that problem being the inequality between the rich and the poor. This over population is only a bigger problem in under developed countries such as China and India just to name a couple. This is due to a lack of education besides other factors. As these countries have grown into up and coming World powers there has been even more inequality in the social classes, just like there is in America. Interestingly enough, I just happened to watch Zeitgeist, which is a film that addresses these issues as well as our economic crisis around the globe. What I found most interesting about this film is that not only does it address all the different aspects of how we have come to where we are as a planet, but it also does offer a few theories on how to solve them. For anybody that is aware of these problems, I would highly recommend watching this film, which is available for free on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w Alberto Jack
I come from a third world country, the Dominican Republic. I believe that the problem is not just the economy but also the demand of the people in each country. As far my own experience goes I come from a society where u can’t always get what you need because the demands are so high. Another problem is that we keep asking for so much food and supplies and we have not even control the grown of the world population. Also u have to take into consideration the fact that of underdevelopment in most countries with very high demand. And furthermore most countries are affected by the trade legislation; also most countries don’t have the energy or the resources to be able to get the supplies on their own and some countries have to do with what they have and some don’t even get help the they need from other countries.
While I was reading the blog, I reflected on my home country Colombia. A developing nation where food supplies are becoming limited in certain areas. This is happening because of the intense flooding and droughts just like in Russia, Argentina, Pakistan and Australia. The rapid changes in the climate contribute to the diminishing of food supplies, not only for Colombians but for the rest of the world. In order to obtain our food we are using a lot of our resources to get our food, such as water and soil. We start by looking for different ways to substitute foods and also healthier and cheaper ways to get our food supply. We think that water is going to always be at our service, but we are wrong. We need to start taking care of it and making a better use of this resource because the majority of us make bad use of the water. We need to start conserving water by taking shorter showers, turning off faucets, and recycling it when is needed. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do. Another factor that contributes to this problem is the lack education resulting in teen pregnancy. We can avoid over population by preventing teen pregnancy because by reducing pregnancy in teens we are helping to keep a balance in our population. We can evade this problem by giving accurate information about how to avoid and prevent pregnancy in schools and to teens that do not have the opportunity to have access to this kind of information and help. I think that we can all help little by little to stop this growing problem by recycling glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. Another way to help is by making a good use of our food supplies and by looking for healthier ways to get our food and not harming our environment.
There are many things that can be said about this situation. It is saddening that our planet Earth has come to this. The human species has become a parasite if anything else concerned only with power and money. We have been taking and consuming more than we need from our planet for many years now. The fact that we are getting closer and closer to running out of resources is inevitable. Wars may soon rise due to the shortages and if they do then the end of life as we know it is very close to its extinction. Luckily if humanity can come to terms we may be able to use science to solve many of these problems. Scientists have already cloned not only live stock but also food. If wars over food, water, and other resources do not occur and instead the scientific approach is taken humanity might be able to avoid a horrible future. Sadly corporations rule the world and humans are incapable beings so most likely we will all perish.
Rising food prices are having impacts across the world, but especially among poor people in the low-income developing countries. High food prices have resulted in social unrest and riots in Egypt, Ethiopia, Philippines, and elsewhere. In Haiti where I’ve visited last year I’ve saw world class poverty. Several deaths have resulted from violent protests of price increases for staple food. In my opinion there are a lot of factors for the rising food prices, for example rising oil and energy prices because you need transportation to bring those food to the grocery store. Also lack of infrastructure and sometimes it’s even lack of government that causes the things to be the way they are. We need to educate the people more and find a solution to this growing problem. Tania Joseph
The fact that the rate of the earth’s population is rapidly outgrowing food sources is undeniable. In addition to this fact, earth’s climate phenomenon such as droughts and floods, the increasing rates in gasoline, the difficulties for small scale farmers and the lack of lands for sustainable agriculture and livestock sustainability all around the world make the production and transportation of products to selling points even more expensive. Is each country responsible to feed its own people? however , if not enough resources, who is responsible for feeding this country’s population? And in case of famine is, for instance, the United States to blame for over feeding Americans for over supplying food? Alternatives as intensive farming in order to feed a large population damage the ecosystem permanently, the use of pesticides and chemicals on fruits and vegetables and the use of growth hormones on livestock and poultry to keep the supply of meat flowing have shown health problems on the same population that its supposed to be fed; and controlling the rate of population will contradict individual rights. Colombia is rich in agriculture and livestock; however, not many people have the same access to as many food sources as other do; bureaucracy, geographical location, and income are some of the reasons that may contribute to make accessing food sources more difficult Government has implemented several programs including communal dinners managed by parents for kids from low income families all over the country as well as university programs for single mothers in order to improve social conditions and fight malnourishment. Yet in the United States, families are struggling to meet their needs when it comes to feeding. Bibiana Ramos
Well there is a lot of things that we can do about this problem, but, first of all I want to say that the major problem is that we are not being responsible in the way we manage our resources, whit this I’m trying to say that we are consuming resources faster that they can grow, and most of them like non-renewable natural resources (like fossil fuel) that can’t grow back. This is a problem that involves the whole world we all have to work together son we can stop this from continue to happening. A few things we can do at home is unplug electronics we are not using, turning lights of when not needed, fix any licking pipe if any so we save water. All this minimum things might look like nothing but if a lot of people start doing it I will take a big impact in the way we manage the consumption of our resources. There is a lot of websites and places that offer information about what can we do. If we don’t do something about it now it might get to the point that we going to suffer shortage of food all around the world.
s an American, I can only vicariously experience the suffering and starvation that depraved, underdeveloped countries endure. We should reduce waste of edibles by providing poor nations with our surpluses. If people, of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, were taught how to grow efficiently, then food production would increase. To aid them even further, we can provide free or cheaper fertilizers/equipment. Subsidized vitamins and minerals could be distributed to the malnourished of the world. Americans eat excessively, when people in deprived places are on the other side of the weight spectrum. Tariffs could be placed on good imported from failing states to bring in revenue. Also, if more democratic/just governments were established in some nations like Nigeria, the access to food might be more evenly distributed. Decrease of the use of corn-ethanol will also benefit those in dire need of nourishment.
As an American, I can only vicariously experience the suffering and starvation that depraved, underdeveloped countries endure. We should reduce waste of edibles by providing poor nations with our surpluses. If people, of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, were taught how to grow efficiently, then food production would increase. To aid them even further, we can provide free or cheaper fertilizers/equipment. Subsidized vitamins and minerals could be distributed to the malnourished of the world. Americans eat excessively, when people in deprived places are on the other side of the weight spectrum. Tariffs could be placed on goods imported from failing states to bring in revenue. Also, if more democratic/just governments were established in some nations like Nigeria, the access to food might be more evenly distributed. Decrease of the use of corn-ethanol will also benefit those in dire need of nourishment.
Nearly all these problems are prominent in the underdeveloped world. Underdeveloped countries are defined by issues such as poverty, lack of education, infrastructure, adequate health care , corrupt regimens , and in some cases anarchy . We have our own problems. We must learn how and why weaker nations fall, and deal with the situations like such, and tackle the problems that handicaps us. We must capitalize on our position as a world power. Once we have secured ourselves it would allow us to teach our children not to be wasteful, as well as helping other nations that can’t overcome the obstacles by themselves. But until that day when the U.S. has adequate security and solved all our own problems, that’s when we would be really able to lend a hand .In order for this to happen, we must be more efficient and competitive to be able to make the most of our natural, and human resources for our own benefit and that of all mankind. And export our expertise and organizational skills to places in world where they are needed.
In the United States most of us have been fortunate enough to say we have never experienced a day being hungry, right? Most people should agree. The answer is not necessarily true because when discussing poverty we should not look as far as poor countries in Africa. There are actually many people in the United States that do not have full meals everyday, the reason might simply be that the people who are fortune enough to have meals for their families every day are too greedy to even think of helping the needy. These "fortunate" people think they are making the world a better place by sending money to organizations to feed hungry poor people when the population in these less developed countries is so great that the food being provided to an individual is much less than expected. We can solve this by helping our own people first and making our country a better place, enough to eventually help other less fortunate countries in poverty. Food prices will keep going up but nothing out of the ordinary. We, the people, of the United States are very powerful individuals and have every ability to lower food transporting costs.
The fact rises in the ignorance of the people. The example is similar to what Plato explains in the man in the cave, since they have not seen anything different neither they can establish comparisons between right and wrong. The issue here is teaching them that there are birth control methods that will help them not only prevent unwanted child but also sexual transmitted diseases. Governments of developed countries must touch their inner senses and come up with real help to whom in deep are crying for it. For example, if the US instead of spending 2 billion dollars weekly in war intended to meet the hunger of thousands, then there would be a change, and how about a truly international organization that instead of stealing the money, distributes it to fight diseases and help the poorest? But not only economic aid is needed, develop countries also can provide education in the agricultural field, in that way they are giving tools to help them overcome problems. These problems affects every single corner in the world, so it’s not a matter of only the undeveloped countries, is about everyone of us.
In my opinion, I believe that the first problem at hand that we should try to resolve is creating a way to contain the rate of human reproduction. Since these underdeveloped countries have a lack of education among other factors that contribute to the nationwide problem, a system of contraceptive awareness should be created. Having this system created, can help decrease the size of population with the help of various ways to go about it such as birth control or proper use of condoms, which will then lead to the decrease in demand. With a decreased demand, the supply can last longer. If we can maintain and/or manage the rate of population, we would be able to manage the food production which can then catch up and eventually be at the same rate as the population and not below like it currently is.
As Americans, we consume far more than we need, with little consideration for others who actually do need the sustenance. An initial step toward decreasing international food shortages might well be steeper food prices for those in developed countries for instance like Europe or America who obviously eat more than they need to. I also believe that the Lack of education is another major issue that leads to the drastic deficit in food for underdeveloped nations. after thinking about what this article was talking about i really feel bad cuz im always wasting food i never really paid attention to the poverty of others.this article changes my perspective on food
There are countless ways we could attempt to solve our planet’s food shortage. People in developed countries could learn to eat only what they need, allowing the surplus to be shipped where people have less food. Corn farmers could stop selling their crop to Ethanol manufacturers and use their farmland to actually feed people. We could find different plants and/or animals to eat that will not take up more time and space than we can afford to cultivate. We could even resort to extreme measures by exterminating a large amount of the human population, with fewer people in the world there will be more food to go around. While many of those ideas (apart from mass extermination) could very likely help solve the problem of a worldwide food shortage we will still continue to have a growing population and the amount of food we produce may never catch up to the number of people in the world. I believe one of the first steps we should take is to control the world’s population. Not by forcing a limit on the number of children a couple is allowed, but by making birth control options more readily available. It all comes down to education, if we educate men and women about their family planning options they will be empowered to have children only when they know they are ready to support children. Fewer unplanned pregnancies will result in fewer hungry children. A combination of slowing the world’s population growth and increasing the food supply could help to ensure nobody ever goes to sleep hungry.
In this case we have to get to the root of the problem, too many children are being born into a bad economic situation. Americans are know for being consumed in consumer culture (no pun intended). So the more food that is produced, the more food that americans are consuming. Because we have a consumer based culture and it is all around us, there is no easy way to fix it. This is a starch contrast to things that are occurring in sub-Saharan africa.
Places that are in need of food, and because of the overhyped need for american currency, they are unable to get what they need. The top countries are not willing to intervene and lower food prices. This is understanding as there will be a large increase in deflation as the money that is outputted can buy too much. There needs to be a balance. But because our governments are either unable or not interested in helping, it is up to the masses to get educated and step in. We need to realize the food shortages are real issues and can be stopped. With our help, and many others we can mobilize a movement that will change the world’s outlook of the “Americans”.
This issue disgusts me. First and foremost, the scarcity of fossil fuels has caused the rise in oil prices. The oil industry has past its peak oil production which means that we may never produce as much oil as we used to. As oil prices are on the rise, farmers have no choice but to raise food prices in order to operate heavy cultivating and harvesting machinery that require oil. Higher oil prices correlate with higher energy bills because many of the world's energy resources are obtained through coal which must be produced by oil operated machinery. Another issue why food prices are so high is because the cost of transporting food is more expensive since oil is higher in price. Furthermore, I believe the concept of ethanol is complete garbage. Of course, I know what you may be thinking: "How can you be so ignorant? Ethanol is cleaner energy and is good for the earth." Well obviously it is much better for the earth but that's not the point here. The ethanol industry is wasting their time trying to produce a clean energy resource without all the great benefits of making it in the first place. Why do I say this you might ask? Well its quite simple. It requires much more time, energy, and space to produce a clean energy than the oil based energy we consume. Of course we produce our ethanol by using oil based machinery to harvest our corn. If we were to just dedicate that farm of corn not toward clean energy, but more towards feeding more mouths around the globe then maybe we wouldn't have such a hungry world out there. Do you want to know whats one of the leading causes of death in America? Obesity. OBESITY! They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic like its polio or something like we'll be telling our grandchildren about it "The Great Obesity Epidemic." If America were to eat less than the demand of food would fall and food prices would decline. Every penny counts when it comes to 800,000,000 people. The process, however, starts with us.
Here is an example of gluttony:(exercise caution; mature content; cursing and alcoholic activities) http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/2/g6I8Fc3kw60
The world unlimited, term elderly from very remote ages of our era. Word which would be good for the recent problematic of high food prices and global overpopulation. But due to the absence of such a term for anything on this planet other approaches must be made. Questions like; should people have less children or should people use less resources, pollute less?. What about both ?. Or should one problem have priority over the other?. The world population if not taken into account that natural resources are depleted more each day. Therefore, the manifestation by various means it is a key step towards the solution of the problem. The delicate situation between the consumption of the rich and poor countries plays an important role in this solution calling for less consumption by the rich, fact that will lower the quality of life, which makes this issue so controversial, and wait for poor countries to recover and achieve an equal part with the rest of the world.
33 comments:
I cannot “bring this problem home” as well as others may be able to, since I am American, born and raised. However, being American means that I am part of the problem of international suffering and shortage of food. As Americans, we consume far more than we need, with little consideration for others who actually do need the sustenance. An initial step toward decreasing international food shortages might well be steeper food prices for those in developed countries (like Europe or America) who obviously eat more than they need to. The excess food, as hopefully its purchase might go down after its prices go up, can be sent to needy areas, like Sub-Saharan Africa. However, this approach has political and social repercussions, and will not be readily accepted by the American people. One very plausible and strong method that could be used to increase food supply is to decrease the use of ethanol as corn. Switchgrass, for instance, is an incredible source of energy that could be used instead of ethanol fuel. The corn saved from being transformed into corn oil could obviously then make a huge impact on the lives of those that need it. Switchgrass also makes less of a nitrite impact on the soil it is grown in (it doesn’t deplete the nutrients as much as corn), so that same soil could be used later on to grow crops to feed the under-developed nations of our planet.
Being American, as I am, I know that I am extremely lucky to have the food quantity and quality that is available for my consumption. However, countries all across the world don’t have the benefit that large, developed countries have in terms of food abundance. So, as Americans, we should cut our wastage of food by sending it to more needy nations, like those in Sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that free or subsidized seeds or fertilizers for farmers in areas of need would help increase food production and in turn, drop prices. Lack of education is another major issue that leads to the drastic deficit in food for underdeveloped nations. If we made the peoples of these nations aware of better food and growing practices, then they would be able to grow more crops. Also, an addition of micronutrients that is insufficient in many of the diets around the world can give an added boost and would aid in diminishing the frequency of famine across the world. All in all, the transition from food shortage is an ongoing process that includes every nation, whether developed or developing, it is a problem that affects all of us.
Chris Craven
Countries such as, America and Europe, who are developed, have the opportunity to consume food without having the worries of where their next meal was going to come from. Instead we over eat because we can and well because we need to feed our bodies. Unfortunately, us as humans cannot stop eating because others are starving. As children we are raised to have some sort of knowledge and conception of others in hunger. When we don’t eat all our food our parents usually say to us “Eat all your food or don’t throw away food, there are kids in Africa starving who will kill to eat that.” But with that said people usually do not grip a hold of the reality of the situations. The countries who suffer from food shortage are underdeveloped and face poverty with a lack of knowledge and health in order to rise above the conditions. We can come together and concentrate on reducing the amount of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and further sources of pollution in order to stop global warming from worsening. Mean while, people can continue giving a hand and educating those less fortunate and in need of help.
Krystal Gonzalez
The problem of poverty as it relates to sustainability is not a new one. In fact, philosopher Thomas Malthus, realized this problem about hundreds of years ago. Through the use of statistics, he noticed that while human population can increase geometrically, food supply can only increase arithmetically. His findings reveal that if human population is left unchecked, it could lead to severe problems such as hunger, poverty, and starvation. Education is the first step in order to deal with this problem. When we understand its repercussion, then we will be able to make wiser decisions, and guide those in need. By increasing awareness of birth control methods in underdeveloped countries we can aim at a reduced population growth rate. China’s “one child policy” has also proven to reduce its increasingly population growth. While agriculture might seem as a promising solution to the problem, it is in fact creating even more insidious ones that also need to be addressed. By planting a tree in our backyard, by using less harmful sources of energy, by carefully monitoring fertilizers, and keeping them away from lakes, and water supplies, we could aspire for sustainability, while trying to diminish poverty as much as possible.
Being the fact that I was born in the United States, I can not relate to the other countries that are facing poverty, lack of education, lack of infrastructure, poor or non-existent public health. Pulitzer prize winning writer Thomas Friedman writes
“In few years we may be looking back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking?.” I agree with Friedman, the world wasn’t so over populated several years back but now were growing at a fast rate. What can we do? Its really nothing we can do. Population is one of the big issue and it will increase pressure on land and water resources. There are not infinite resources. However, there are too many people that are using those resources soon we’ll run out. Can we stop the population from growing??
Living in the United States has good benefits but it can also lead to bad ones. The United States is an enormous country that is extremely populated there is people from all over the world different cultures ect. By living in the United States it doesn’t mean that we are rich. The United Sates has opportunities for many people. We have some source of facilities to go to the supermarket and buy our foods and products that we need to survive. In the same hand there are some people that although they live here they can`t do this. It might be because they don`t have money to buy food. For example many of us think that water will always be available. This is not true water is not always going to be around we need to start making good use of our water and save. The majority of us make bad use of the water we leave the water rinsing when we are doing the dishes, taking a bath, washing the car. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do. We can avoid population by preventing teenager pregency Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. Teen pregnancy can be avoided by going to a clinic and obtaining accurate information about avoid pregnancy. This will reduce the population that we have going on. Natural resources are something of value people get from the environment, such as air, water, plants, and animals, Rocks, and minerals. Some resources are renewable, which means they can be replaced or grown back. For example, many crops are renewable natural resources. After they are harvested, more seeds can be planted and grown. Wind power is a renewable resource that has been used for thousands of years to pump water, irrigate crops, and also sail boats. Other resources, however, are non-renewable. They cannot be replaced or they take a very, very long time to be replaced or grown back. Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There are three major forms of fossil fuels; coal, oil, and natural gas. Natural resources take time to replace, so it is important that we use them wisely. We can conserve water be taking shorter showers, turning off faucets when we do not need running water, and fixing leaky pipes. We can recycle glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. These are all ways that we can help around. Making good use of our food is also really important for all of us.
Living in the United States has good benefits but it can also lead to bad ones. The United States is an enormous country that is extremely populated there is people from all over the world different cultures ect. By living in the United States it doesn’t mean that we are rich. The United Sates has opportunities for many people. We have some source of facilities to go to the supermarket and buy our foods and products that we need to survive. In the same hand there are some people that although they live here they can`t do this. It might be because they don`t have money to buy food. For example many of us think that water will always be available. This is not true water is not always going to be around we need to start making good use of our water and save. The majority of us make bad use of the water we leave the water rinsing when we are doing the dishes, taking a bath, washing the car. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do. We can avoid population by preventing teenager pregency Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. Teen pregnancy can be avoided by going to a clinic and obtaining accurate information about avoid pregnancy. This will reduce the population that we have going on. Natural resources are something of value people get from the environment, such as air, water, plants, and animals, Rocks, and minerals. Some resources are renewable, which means they can be replaced or grown back. For example, many crops are renewable natural resources. After they are harvested, more seeds can be planted and grown. Wind power is a renewable resource that has been used for thousands of years to pump water, irrigate crops, and also sail boats. Other resources, however, are non-renewable. They cannot be replaced or they take a very, very long time to be replaced or grown back. Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There are three major forms of fossil fuels; coal, oil, and natural gas. Natural resources take time to replace, so it is important that we use them wisely. We can conserve water be taking shorter showers, turning off faucets when we do not need running water, and fixing leaky pipes. We can recycle glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. These are all ways that we can help around. Making good use of our food is also really important for all of us.
Katherine Toruno
Honestly,after reading this post, it makes me appreciate the food that is presented to me on a weekly bases. We as Americans should all appreciate all the food that is presented to us. I understand that in areas like Sub-Sahara, food prices as well as food resources are very little, so in areas like America, we should take the time out to donate food monthly, maybe even weekly, to show our appreciation and to also show that we do care and we are not selfish. To read this post really opened my eyes that people are here complaining about gas prices and food prices here, but we have the money to for food but just don't want to pay for it because we want to raise a very irrelevant issue. Americans eat healthy on a daily bases and have plenty nerve to complain about the food that they are consuming while in many parts of the world like Sub-Sahara are dying and wishing and praying just for the straps of food that we do have.
Well i feel like if the world need to come together beacuse a lot of people need to eat. The population explosion rising food prices and sustaninability, the demand for food has been rising as people in fast.Developing countries, such as india and china, have been buying more groceries. It's was food trade policies and financial speculation in commodities markets. The policy energy was ethanol markers are using more corn to produce fuel. This world is too much problems such population, and food production. The increasing of politicians, economcists, sociologists and phiosophers is problem. I think the world need to stop having wars and help people and other nations in their everyday life.
As I read this article I realized(one more time)how lucky we are to be able to obtain food just by going to the supermarket. This is not true for some countries. Some south american countries don't have this priviledge. People that live in Cuba for instance wait a whole year to eat guavas, since it's only cultivated during summer. As for us, we can go in winter time to the market and still find fresh and ready to eat guavas. As Americans we have the priviledge that this country exports and imports lots of food. We receive fruits and vegetables from all around the world. We should take action and preserve what we have now because it will not last forever and we don't want future generations to die for something that we have plenty of now. For example, China is one of those overpopulated countries, but thet have started to do something that might be helpful, women now are only allow to have one child. Not many of us might like this idea but if it helps we should do everything that is in our hands to reduce population in order for food to be avalaible for all of us.
As Americans we realize how severe poverty is, due to the privileges we are given. Therefore, we recognize the many things we can do to help put an end to poverty. The only problem we are faced with is “where do we begin? True enough cutting down the amount of food we eat as a nation is a start, but let’s be realistic, people in places such as America and Europe are set in their lifestyles, and so minimizing their diet will be a challenging task. Taking away from these developed places is not the key, and won’t get us anywhere in ending poverty. What we need to do is find the source, which I believe is education. Poverty is not only the lack of money and food but more so, the lack of education which leads to the lack of jobs, which leads to the lack of money, then poor infrastructure, food supply and of course heath. Instead of spending time taking from away from privileged countries we should be spending time traveling to these undeveloped countries and educate. Educate people on how to grow crops, build houses, schools, obtain jobs, reduced the population and in some cases learn to read and write. The more uneducated citizens are the more corruption in the government. With that being said, education is the key to unlocking many doors in the matter of poverty.
Food availability is essential for the wellbeing and productivity of all people. The depletion, exhaustion of resources and the worsening ecological environment, are grave impediments in a nation’s economic and social development, population growth and global warming create food prices to increase and cause political instability. “According to the Global Footprint Network we are currently growing at a rate that is using up the Earth's resources far faster than they can be sustainably replenished, so we are eating into the future. Right now, global growth is using about 1.5 Earths. 'Having only one planet makes this a rather significant problem,' says Paul Gilding. 'We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model”. The U.S has always been the #1 leading country helping poverty and starvation, in spite all of this efforts it’s impossible for one country to change that. That’s when governments “ countries” have to realized that they have to come together to help each other and leave behind for once money and all that is going to bring just profit to them, instead they should invest money on their people
In my opinion, the rising food prices, the population explosion etc. affect everyone indirectly or directly; some people Is suffering for not having food to eat at the next day, other people is affected in the terms of money, normally people look for cheap things. This post is a perfect example of my country Colombia many people suffering of hungriness, bad education and a lot of kids with malnutrition. Colombia is a country that export a lot of things to other countries, the weather is been doing tragedies with lots of storms all over; also suffered a lot of flooding that make a huge lost of crops and lots of fruits, isn’t only Colombia is all the undeveloped countries that are suffering. So now the question is what can we do?
I think people need to help others, the lack of education is one of the biggest issues, and countries that are potential should help these others countries teaching them a good system of education that make the poor people an access to learn. We can contribute to many issues, don’t wasting food, recycling, use the energy and water necessary. Also we are over populating the world; we need to teach that teenagers that have so many kids, for don’t having good information about pregnancy. All of us that have food, education we need to appreciate what we have and all the opportunities that this country US bring to us.
As the population of the world increases, so does the need and demand for food creating a problem that affects millions around the globe, unfortunately, we have reached a point on which we, humans, have grown too big for the vessel that is this planet. Overpopulation has led us to scarcity; in order to feed the habitants of growing cities we have turned to new ways of fertilizing crops, growing them faster, but, in return slowly destroying the soil and the atmosphere and polluting the air, oceans and rivers, changing the climate which then affects the very crops. To top things up, the price of oil raises rapidly, so transportation costs increases (soon a tomato will cost an arm). I think that very little can be done to solve the problem; so far, finding new sources of energy have not paid off, the growing of masses cannot be stopped even with regulations, and what makes matters worse is the fact that the earth has been so abused and damaged that it would take an awful amount of time to recuperate; an amount of time, a luxury that sadly we cannot afford. It’s just out of our hands. JULIO RECONCO
While I was reading this post I could only think about my country, Honduras. A country where the supply of food has dimished in certain areas because of the severe droguhts just like in Russia, Ukraine, and Argentina. A country where there’s a lot of homeless people that are suffering from hunger. Day by day theres is thousands of people that don’t have anything to eat. Lots of kids are sufferting from malnutrition and due to the lack of vitamins and food they get really sick and end up dying, and no one does anything, the society doesn’t help at all. Unlike Honduras, the United States is a wealthy country where people that have financial problems are being helped by the community, a country where there is places where homeless people can go and have a meal. Countries Like the United States and Europe have a lot of good resources and I think they can be capable of helping other countries that really need the help and support from them. Another issue is that population is increasing and the people that are having more kids is the people that can’t support them, and this causes more problems. Kids grow with malnutrition because they never get the food, vacciness, or vitamins they need due to the situation of their parents, so I strongly believe that the situation can be better if people who are not able to support another kid would stop having them. Other than kids not having what to eat, there is lack of education in many countries because of the same reason that parents are not able to afford their kids their education, but still they keep giving birth. I think people should start reasoning more so sitations like this one stop happening.
Maria Castellanos
I believe that we have an even bigger problem than the actual population explosion on our planet; that problem being the inequality between the rich and the poor.
This over population is only a bigger problem in under developed countries such as China and India just to name a couple. This is due to a lack of education besides other factors. As these countries have grown into up and coming World powers there has been even more inequality in the social classes, just like there is in America.
Interestingly enough, I just happened to watch Zeitgeist, which is a film that addresses these issues as well as our economic crisis around the globe. What I found most interesting about this film is that not only does it address all the different aspects of how we have come to where we are as a planet, but it also does offer a few theories on how to solve them.
For anybody that is aware of these problems, I would highly recommend watching this film, which is available for free on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
Alberto Jack
I come from a third world country, the Dominican Republic. I believe that the problem is not just the economy but also the demand of the people in each country. As far my own experience goes I come from a society where u can’t always get what you need because the demands are so high. Another problem is that we keep asking for so much food and supplies and we have not even control the grown of the world population. Also u have to take into consideration the fact that of underdevelopment in most countries with very high demand. And furthermore most countries are affected by the trade legislation; also most countries don’t have the energy or the resources to be able to get the supplies on their own and some countries have to do with what they have and some don’t even get help the they need from other countries.
While I was reading the blog, I reflected on my home country Colombia. A developing nation where food supplies are becoming limited in certain areas. This is happening because of the intense flooding and droughts just like in Russia, Argentina, Pakistan and Australia. The rapid changes in the climate contribute to the diminishing of food supplies, not only for Colombians but for the rest of the world. In order to obtain our food we are using a lot of our resources to get our food, such as water and soil. We start by looking for different ways to substitute foods and also healthier and cheaper ways to get our food supply.
We think that water is going to always be at our service, but we are wrong. We need to start taking care of it and making a better use of this resource because the majority of us make bad use of the water. We need to start conserving water by taking shorter showers, turning off faucets, and recycling it when is needed. For instance there are lots of other country in South America, North America that don`t have fresh and clean water as we do.
Another factor that contributes to this problem is the lack education resulting in teen pregnancy. We can avoid over population by preventing teen pregnancy because by reducing pregnancy in teens we are helping to keep a balance in our population. We can evade this problem by giving accurate information about how to avoid and prevent pregnancy in schools and to teens that do not have the opportunity to have access to this kind of information and help.
I think that we can all help little by little to stop this growing problem by recycling glass, metal, paper, and plastic to conserve and protect our natural resources. Another way to help is by making a good use of our food supplies and
by looking for healthier ways to get our food and not harming our environment.
There are many things that can be said about this situation. It is saddening that our planet Earth has come to this. The human species has become a parasite if anything else concerned only with power and money. We have been taking and consuming more than we need from our planet for many years now. The fact that we are getting closer and closer to running out of resources is inevitable. Wars may soon rise due to the shortages and if they do then the end of life as we know it is very close to its extinction. Luckily if humanity can come to terms we may be able to use science to solve many of these problems. Scientists have already cloned not only live stock but also food. If wars over food, water, and other resources do not occur and instead the scientific approach is taken humanity might be able to avoid a horrible future. Sadly corporations rule the world and humans are incapable beings so most likely we will all perish.
Rising food prices are having impacts across the world, but especially among poor people in the low-income developing countries. High food prices have resulted in social unrest and riots in Egypt, Ethiopia, Philippines, and elsewhere. In Haiti where I’ve visited last year I’ve saw world class poverty. Several deaths have resulted from violent protests of price increases for staple food. In my opinion there are a lot of factors for the rising food prices, for example rising oil and energy prices because you need transportation to bring those food to the grocery store. Also lack of infrastructure and sometimes it’s even lack of government that causes the things to be the way they are. We need to educate the people more and find a solution to this growing problem.
Tania Joseph
The fact that the rate of the earth’s population is rapidly outgrowing food sources is undeniable. In addition to this fact, earth’s climate phenomenon such as droughts and floods, the increasing rates in gasoline, the difficulties for small scale farmers and the lack of lands for sustainable agriculture and livestock sustainability all around the world make the production and transportation of products to selling points even more expensive. Is each country responsible to feed its own people? however , if not enough resources, who is responsible for feeding this country’s population? And in case of famine is, for instance, the United States to blame for over feeding Americans for over supplying food? Alternatives as intensive farming in order to feed a large population damage the ecosystem permanently, the use of pesticides and chemicals on fruits and vegetables and the use of growth hormones on livestock and poultry to keep the supply of meat flowing have shown health problems on the same population that its supposed to be fed; and controlling the rate of population will contradict individual rights. Colombia is rich in agriculture and livestock; however, not many people have the same access to as many food sources as other do; bureaucracy, geographical location, and income are some of the reasons that may contribute to make accessing food sources more difficult Government has implemented several programs including communal dinners managed by parents for kids from low income families all over the country as well as university programs for single mothers in order to improve social conditions and fight malnourishment. Yet in the United States, families are struggling to meet their needs when it comes to feeding.
Bibiana Ramos
Well there is a lot of things that we can do about this problem, but, first of all I want to say that the major problem is that we are not being responsible in the way we manage our resources, whit this I’m trying to say that we are consuming resources faster that they can grow, and most of them like non-renewable natural resources (like fossil fuel) that can’t grow back. This is a problem that involves the whole world we all have to work together son we can stop this from continue to happening. A few things we can do at home is unplug electronics we are not using, turning lights of when not needed, fix any licking pipe if any so we save water. All this minimum things might look like nothing but if a lot of people start doing it I will take a big impact in the way we manage the consumption of our resources. There is a lot of websites and places that offer information about what can we do. If we don’t do something about it now it might get to the point that we going to suffer shortage of food all around the world.
s an American, I can only vicariously experience the suffering and starvation that depraved, underdeveloped countries endure. We should reduce waste of edibles by providing poor nations with our surpluses. If people, of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, were taught how to grow efficiently, then food production would increase. To aid them even further, we can provide free or cheaper fertilizers/equipment. Subsidized vitamins and minerals could be distributed to the malnourished of the world. Americans eat excessively, when people in deprived places are on the other side of the weight spectrum. Tariffs could be placed on good imported from failing states to bring in revenue. Also, if more democratic/just governments were established in some nations like Nigeria, the access to food might be more evenly distributed. Decrease of the use of corn-ethanol will also benefit those in dire need of nourishment.
As an American, I can only vicariously experience the suffering and starvation that depraved, underdeveloped countries endure. We should reduce waste of edibles by providing poor nations with our surpluses. If people, of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, were taught how to grow efficiently, then food production would increase. To aid them even further, we can provide free or cheaper fertilizers/equipment. Subsidized vitamins and minerals could be distributed to the malnourished of the world. Americans eat excessively, when people in deprived places are on the other side of the weight spectrum. Tariffs could be placed on goods imported from failing states to bring in revenue. Also, if more democratic/just governments were established in some nations like Nigeria, the access to food might be more evenly distributed. Decrease of the use of corn-ethanol will also benefit those in dire need of nourishment.
Nearly all these problems are prominent in the underdeveloped world. Underdeveloped countries are defined by issues such as poverty, lack of education, infrastructure, adequate health care , corrupt regimens , and in some cases anarchy . We have our own problems. We must learn how and why weaker nations fall, and deal with the situations like such, and tackle the problems that handicaps us. We must capitalize on our position as a world power. Once we have secured ourselves it would allow us to teach our children not to be wasteful, as well as helping other nations that can’t overcome the obstacles by themselves. But until that day when the U.S. has adequate security and solved all our own problems, that’s when we would be really able to lend a hand .In order for this to happen, we must be more efficient and competitive to be able to make the most of our natural, and human resources for our own benefit and that of all mankind. And export our expertise and organizational skills to places in world where they are needed.
Xabier Martinez-Cid
In the United States most of us have been fortunate enough to say we have never experienced a day being hungry, right? Most people should agree. The answer is not necessarily true because when discussing poverty we should not look as far as poor countries in Africa. There are actually many people in the United States that do not have full meals everyday, the reason might simply be that the people who are fortune enough to have meals for their families every day are too greedy to even think of helping the needy. These "fortunate" people think they are making the world a better place by sending money to organizations to feed hungry poor people when the population in these less developed countries is so great that the food being provided to an individual is much less than expected. We can solve this by helping our own people first and making our country a better place, enough to eventually help other less fortunate countries in poverty. Food prices will keep going up but nothing out of the ordinary. We, the people, of the United States are very powerful individuals and have every ability to lower food transporting costs.
The fact rises in the ignorance of the people. The example is similar to what Plato explains in the man in the cave, since they have not seen anything different neither they can establish comparisons between right and wrong. The issue here is teaching them that there are birth control methods that will help them not only prevent unwanted child but also sexual transmitted diseases.
Governments of developed countries must touch their inner senses and come up with real help to whom in deep are crying for it. For example, if the US instead of spending 2 billion dollars weekly in war intended to meet the hunger of thousands, then there would be a change, and how about a truly international organization that instead of stealing the money, distributes it to fight diseases and help the poorest? But not only economic aid is needed, develop countries also can provide education in the agricultural field, in that way they are giving tools to help them overcome problems.
These problems affects every single corner in the world, so it’s not a matter of only the undeveloped countries, is about everyone of us.
In my opinion, I believe that the first problem at hand that we should try to resolve is creating a way to contain the rate of human reproduction. Since these underdeveloped countries have a lack of education among other factors that contribute to the nationwide problem, a system of contraceptive awareness should be created. Having this system created, can help decrease the size of population with the help of various ways to go about it such as birth control or proper use of condoms, which will then lead to the decrease in demand. With a decreased demand, the supply can last longer. If we can maintain and/or manage the rate of population, we would be able to manage the food production which can then catch up and eventually be at the same rate as the population and not below like it currently is.
As Americans, we consume far more than we need, with little consideration for others who actually do need the sustenance. An initial step toward decreasing international food shortages might well be steeper food prices for those in developed countries for instance like Europe or America who obviously eat more than they need to. I also believe that the Lack of education is another major issue that leads to the drastic deficit in food for underdeveloped nations. after thinking about what this article was talking about i really feel bad cuz im always wasting food i never really paid attention to the poverty of others.this article changes my perspective on food
yves dessin
There are countless ways we could attempt to solve our planet’s food shortage. People in developed countries could learn to eat only what they need, allowing the surplus to be shipped where people have less food. Corn farmers could stop selling their crop to Ethanol manufacturers and use their farmland to actually feed people. We could find different plants and/or animals to eat that will not take up more time and space than we can afford to cultivate. We could even resort to extreme measures by exterminating a large amount of the human population, with fewer people in the world there will be more food to go around.
While many of those ideas (apart from mass extermination) could very likely help solve the problem of a worldwide food shortage we will still continue to have a growing population and the amount of food we produce may never catch up to the number of people in the world. I believe one of the first steps we should take is to control the world’s population. Not by forcing a limit on the number of children a couple is allowed, but by making birth control options more readily available. It all comes down to education, if we educate men and women about their family planning options they will be empowered to have children only when they know they are ready to support children. Fewer unplanned pregnancies will result in fewer hungry children. A combination of slowing the world’s population growth and increasing the food supply could help to ensure nobody ever goes to sleep hungry.
-Elizabeth Brady
In this case we have to get to the root of the problem, too many children are being born into a bad economic situation. Americans are know for being consumed in consumer culture (no pun intended). So the more food that is produced, the more food that americans are consuming. Because we have a consumer based culture and it is all around us, there is no easy way to fix it. This is a starch contrast to things that are occurring in sub-Saharan africa.
Places that are in need of food, and because of the overhyped need for american currency, they are unable to get what they need. The top countries are not willing to intervene and lower food prices. This is understanding as there will be a large increase in deflation as the money that is outputted can buy too much. There needs to be a balance. But because our governments are either unable or not interested in helping, it is up to the masses to get educated and step in. We need to realize the food shortages are real issues and can be stopped. With our help, and many others we can mobilize a movement that will change the world’s outlook of the “Americans”.
-Angelica Louis-Jeune
This issue disgusts me. First and foremost, the scarcity of fossil fuels has caused the rise in oil prices. The oil industry has past its peak oil production which means that we may never produce as much oil as we used to. As oil prices are on the rise, farmers have no choice but to raise food prices in order to operate heavy cultivating and harvesting machinery that require oil. Higher oil prices correlate with higher energy bills because many of the world's energy resources are obtained through coal which must be produced by oil operated machinery. Another issue why food prices are so high is because the cost of transporting food is more expensive since oil is higher in price. Furthermore, I believe the concept of ethanol is complete garbage. Of course, I know what you may be thinking: "How can you be so ignorant? Ethanol is cleaner energy and is good for the earth." Well obviously it is much better for the earth but that's not the point here. The ethanol industry is wasting their time trying to produce a clean energy resource without all the great benefits of making it in the first place. Why do I say this you might ask? Well its quite simple. It requires much more time, energy, and space to produce a clean energy than the oil based energy we consume. Of course we produce our ethanol by using oil based machinery to harvest our corn. If we were to just dedicate that farm of corn not toward clean energy, but more towards feeding more mouths around the globe then maybe we wouldn't have such a hungry world out there. Do you want to know whats one of the leading causes of death in America? Obesity. OBESITY! They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic like its polio or something like we'll be telling our grandchildren about it "The Great Obesity Epidemic." If America were to eat less than the demand of food would fall and food prices would decline. Every penny counts when it comes to 800,000,000 people. The process, however, starts with us.
Here is an example of gluttony:(exercise caution; mature content; cursing and alcoholic activities)
http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/2/g6I8Fc3kw60
The world unlimited, term elderly from very remote ages of our era. Word which would be good for the recent problematic of high food prices and global overpopulation. But due to the absence of such a term for anything on this planet other approaches must be made. Questions like; should people have less children or should people use less resources, pollute less?. What about both ?. Or should one problem have priority over the other?. The world population if not taken into account that natural resources are depleted more each day. Therefore, the manifestation by various means it is a key step towards the solution of the problem. The delicate situation between the consumption of the rich and poor countries plays an important role in this solution calling for less consumption by the rich, fact that will lower the quality of life, which makes this issue so controversial, and wait for poor countries to recover and achieve an equal part with the rest of the world.
Carlos A. Vazquez
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