World hunger has been a tale as old as time. Learn more about it, and why we want to stop it and give food for all.
How did we get here? And where do we go now?
Here’s some things to know.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, food insecurity is a limited and insufficient supply of nutritionally satisfactory foods or the inability to access adequate foods in socially accepted circumstances. Interestingly, in history, food scarcity was due to the lack of food. However, in the last decade, food insecurity doesn’t entail the lack of food but the lack of access to food sources. Today, it’s obvious that there is plenty of food to feed the people on this planet, the issue is access, and in some cases, it’s technological issues. We as humans are so wasteful and more specifically a THIRD of food production is inevitably wasted.
What can be done to stop it? There are issues large and small that need to be addressed for this issue to be resolved. Unfortunately, there are circumstances like climate change, war, and economic changes, that have larger contexts and causes. However, others can be contributive to food scarcity. Not only do people waste the food they’re eating, but farmers experience the waste of food as well. One of the most important steps is to provide farmers and food distributors with proper equipment like air-tight containers and silos, freezing food, and leftover food to prevent waste. Within that same vein, implementing more social safety nets and programs that can make resources available to those who are struggling with poverty and food scarcity need to be implemented. Of course, food scarcity is by no means an easy issue or have an easy answer. That’s why the team at Food for All are not deterred and continue to work towards change.
In the 20th century and present day, there is climate change and higher temperatures affecting agriculture, rising food prices and income disparity, loss of biodiversity, urbanization, the prevalence of chemicals, and most importantly, a large portion of food is wasted and thrown out. Not to mention the unfortunate and persistent conflict and violence. Military conflicts have triggered food shortages and disrupted infrastructure that allows for food availability. For example, the current devastation in Ukraine has affected food production on a global scale, and according to the USA World Food Program, “the country was once considered a breadbasket of the world, producing enough food to feed 400 million a year.”
