Main Causes of Food Insecurity free essay sample

What are the main causes of food insecurity in the world today? Outline and evaluate 2 or 3 possible solutions to food insecurity problems. Introduction World Food Summit defines food security as: â€Å"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life†. (World Food Summit, 1996) On the contrary, the food insecurity means the situation people who are lack of food or nutrition. A person who lives in such situation for a very long time cannot access enough nutritious food to be healthy. Additionally, food insecurity can be chronic, seasonal or transitory (FAO, 2000). At present, the problem has been more and more serious and it has caused a series of problems. In some areas where food is abundant, the nation feel adequately secured about food. However, there are still over 925 million people (20%) suffering the chronic hunger in the developing counties in 2010 (FAO, 2010). In the graph below, it show the trend of the number of undernourished people in the world, and in 2009 it reached a peak of over 1000 million. Even though the population of hunger decreased in 2010, it is still a difficulty issue for around the world. pic] In general, there are many causes of food insecurity, for instance, the unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution, or inadequate use of food at the household level (FAO, 2000). However, all these reasons contribute to one same result, undernourishment. As far as I see, these reasons can be related in two main causes: the short supply of grain and people cannot access enough food to keep a healthy life individually. On one hand, the production of grain is easily affected by natural factors. Firstly, the global food output is facing a huge challenge because of climate change. It is thought that global warming is a important reason for decreasing production of food. Based on NCDC’s data, the average temperature has been rising since 1970, and 1995-2005 is the hottest decade by record which greatly affected the production of grain (NOAA, 2006). In this case, it will be probable to have a reduction in food output with an extreme high temperature. For example, in 2002 Italy experienced a record drop, and in France the wheat harvest nearly declined by 21% (Easterling et al, 2007). Secondly, extreme weather happened more frequently in recent years. This May, drought in China has affected 6. million hectares of farmland, and in the US, floods along the Mississippi River and its tributaries have affected approximately 3. 6 million acres of cropland (Bloomberg, 2011). Although the governments can use the international trade to alleviate the pressure of inadequacy of food supply, the reductions in Europe still have a very negative influence on local inhabita nts and add more unstable factors to current shortage of food supply. Then, for a great number of people in some developing areas, such as Asia and Africa, the shortage of water is the main problem for crop production. In some areas, people cannot afford the expensive fee of irrigation machines. However, the overpumping and waste of the water has caused falling of water in China and India which will lead to the shortage of water in the end. Additionally, the backward agricultural methods and tools, unhealthy people and unhealthy soils in these areas are also important causes. On the other hand, if the demand of food is much huger than the supply in one place, their only way is to access them form others. For many places which is suffering from undernourishment, purchasing food from other countries is quiet difficult. Most of these countries are developing countries, whose food security is limited by their wealthy level. In addition, the huge world population is another reason. The chart below indicates the constantly rising trend of population, the number recently has been over 6 million, and it will be more than 9 million based on their prediction. The huge population will certainly bring enormous pressure to the food security. In other words, the huge world population not only decreases the food per capita, but also brings the world more babies which eeds a long time to become available labor. [pic] The last but not the least, high food prices make the situation even worse. According to FAO s data, the population of undernourishment increased by 75 million, which is higher than it in 2003 to 2005. The scientists analyzed it is caused by the rising food price (FAO, 2008). Additionally, in some countries in African, South American and Asia where average income is very low, to achieve the food se curity is almost impossible. For instance, Afghanistan is one of the most food-insecure countries. In Afghanistan, with 80% of the population living in rural place, the agricultural industry is most significant to this country. However, the households in Afghanistan still need to spend over 60 percent of their budgets on food. In 2008, it can be easily found in the chart, the wheat flour price experienced a sharp increase from 15 per kg to 45 per kg, which greatly increased the burden of the inhabitants (D’Souza, 2011). When the flour price rises, the local people will certainly spend more percentage of their incomes on wheat flour rather than some high-quality vegetables and meat. Unreasonable diet structure can directly contribute to lacking nutrition and influence their healthy. As a result, a vicious circle is created and makes the area trap in chronic hunger. [pic] Food insecurity is the result of many factors; the causes of it are complex and interact. In order to solve the issue, I strongly suggest the solutions should be presented based on the current situation. It is necessary to make greater efforts to develop new kinds of agricultural products or technology to avoid the influence of climate change. For example, we can improve the method of irrigation to make it less wasteful and more widespread. At present, most farmers irrigate their crops by flooding their fields or channeling the water down parallel furrows, relying on gravity to move the water across the land. (Postel, 2001) Thus, this method of irrigation absolutely will waste much water and sometimes even cause the soil erosion. In addition, the scientists can use biotechnology to invent a new kind of grain which is more heat-resistant and drought-tolerant. In this way, it will be possible to reduce the influence of extreme weather and product enough food. Then, the problem is seemed to be more serious in some developing countries because of both low agricultural productivity and the high poverty level. Some of them is affected by wars and political instability, while at the same time, some countries are suffering from the long-term lack of labour and disease. In this case, what I suggest is that the developed areas should pay more attentions to these countries and offer more assistence. For example, the grain are particularly important for the hunger population in some African countries which has no ability to product their own food. Without enough labour and suitable weather for growing crops, grain production is quite low in these countries. Additionally, undernourished people there will easier to infected the HIV/AIDS, and develop all the symptoms of the disease more quickly than the healthy people. (Kadiyala S and Gilleapie S, 2003) Therefore, maybe the only way for this area is to seek helps from other countries. Moreover, this kind of assistance also can be used to relieve the problem of domestic poverty. The government can provide some extra service for the poor, such as food assistance, and social security system to make sure the poor can keep their livings. Eventually, high food prices is mainly caused by the shortage of food supply. In order to solve this issue, governments should consider more about the global situation. Stocking up the crops can guarantee the food supply for the local markets. However, it is not so wise to do so in the current time. Limiting the world food exports can eventually lead to rise of food prices. In other words, the total amount of food is divided into many parts by all the counties, which caused the disparity of food distribution at present. If there is a really global market for all of the grain, maybe the situation will become much better. Conclusion To improve the food insecurity is a long-term job for the people all over the world. In general, the people who lives in South Asia, West Asia and Sub-Saharan African may have the most insecurity about food. Refer to all of these solutions, the actions made by the governments may be the most efficient ways. Offering assistance to the poor can relieve the pressure of food shortage in the short run, and help people overcome the crisis. However, the food insecurity fundamentally result from the shortage of food supply, what we should do is to produce enough food and offer the public an appropriate food price.