Famine Prevention
Famine is a crisis where starvation from too little food results in
the sharp increase of distress and death one place. Developing
countries whose food production is dependent on rain fed agriculture
suffer greatly. Climate related problems such as low rainfall, drought
as well as insects and vermin do have a devastating affect on crops
and livelihood but there are many other factors at work. To enable the
prevention of famines, the causes must be addressed; whether famines
will be eradicated from the modern world will take the determination
of all people those directly affected and those who are not. Amartya
Sen takes the stand that famines are not the result of a country's
inability to grow food but from poverty, meaning famine is a product
of poverty. For Sen `People are deprived of the freedom to satisfy
their hunger, to obtain health care, to have a decent life. In a word,
they are robbed of their right to live as human beings`. The name
Ethiopia has become synonymous with misery having suffered terrible
famines due to governmental policies, climate conditions, pressures
from international debt and war, issues that contribute to support
Sens approach.
Prior to the war with Eritrea the Ethiopian government had made great
strides to improving the country with very limited recourses. In the
fight against famine they had stored thousands of tones of grain to
enable an immediate reaction to food shortages, however, stocks were
depleted due to them being redirected to the army. Projects to build
dams along some of its main rivers which would not only have helped in
times of low rains but with irrigation and drou...
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... world debt allegations of corruption, war and misuse of aid distorts
opinions. Early warning systems are essential and contribute to a
strategic plan to eradicate hunger. Peasants on the household level
who observe climate changes and assess information given by rural
travelers are also using `traditional` early warning systems. With the
effects of globalization developing countries have difficulty
competing on the open markets, exports to generate cash to fund and
improve industry and agricultural technology may prove slow. However,
food storage on a national level can go some way to alleviating hunger
in poor productive areas in order to avoid the onset of famine.
www.brad.ac.uk/research/ijas/ijas.htm
www.unitedethopia.org/commentaries/Sep_dec_2003/TheRootCauseofFamine
www.ogaden.com/Drough_war_April_15_03.htm
Human agency is referred to as the individual’s ability to making choices of their own free will. Famine is referred to as extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area. Human agency can be affected by a famine in many different ways.
In this paper I will examine both Peter Singer’s and Onora O 'Neill 's positions on famine relief. I will argue that O’Neill’s position is more suitable than Singer’s extreme standpoint. First I will, present O’Neill’s argument. I will then present a possible counter-argument to one of my premises. Finally I will show how this counter-argument is fallacious and how O’Neill’s argument in fact goes through.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in the years 2010-2012. Ellen Gustafson has spoken in ted talks on the issue of Obesity plus Hunger equals one global food issue. One the main issues Gustafson speaks of is world hunger and how to end it. She also speaks briefly on obesity and how in comes into play with world hunger. Even though some people would argue that there just is not enough food in the world, world hunger and obesity can easily be prevented and eliminated with proper knowledge and programs.
The narrator in “Famine” by Xu XI was raised by her parents A-Ba and A-Ma in Hong Kong. Her Father made her quit school after her primary school was over which was the through the sixth grade. She was then forced to take care of her aging parents till they died in their mid-nineties. Her father was abusive and very controlling over everything in her life while her mom chose to do nothing about it. She was rarely aloud out with friends or to have much fun at all she never experienced much in life. She wanted to do something she really wanted to learn, but her father said no in order to continue her education to become an English teacher she went on several hunger strikes to rebel her father wants. Food seemed herd to come by in her house particularly, they were forced vegetarians by A-Ba’s decision, they ate very little and the food was also bland. A-Ba and A-ma were not very loving parents, they expected a lot out of their
An Introduction to The Great Famine After a warm, uninterrupted summer, the late summer beckoned, and at the beginning of September, when the potatoes were to be harvested, it became clear that entire crops were diseased and unfit for consumption by either man or animal. Within months the disease had spread and the Irish were in the grip of a dire potato blight, which within months had wiped out three quarters of the entire potato crop in Ireland. It should not be thought that the potato blight was the only reason for the famine, granted it was a primary factor, however when coupled with a huge inflation within the Irish population, and that meant due to this, people had significantly less land to grow and harvest crops, this when coupled with the potato blight made it neigh on impossible to prevent the starvation of an entire country. "Our accounts from the northern parts of this country are most deplorable. What the poor people earn on the public works is barely sufficient to support them.
(Reuters, 2014) The mortality occurs with the incidence of the Ebola and the starvation happens in disaster area. As nearly 200,000 people are having problem of getting food because of the Ebola outbreak (Ebola facts, 2014), fewer and fewer people can get clear foods to feed themselves. Sen’s (2000) view over mortality, “a good deal of mortality associated with famine results from diseases unleashed by debilitation, breakdown of sanitary arrangements, population movements, and infectious spread of disease endemic in the region.”(Sen, 2000, p.169) Person loses the capability of choosing to be nutritional and nourished under the circumstance of famine, which caused by diseases. It is apparent to show that those people cannot use the resource freely like free to be fed or
In response to the recent failure of the international community to prevent the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa since July 2011, Suzanne Dvorak the chief executive of Save the Children wrote that, “We need to provide help now. But we cannot forget that these children are wasting away in a disaster that we could - and should - have prevented” she added, “The UN estimates that every $1 spent in prevention saves $7 in emergency spending.” (Dvorak, 2011).
The correlation between over-population and growing world hunger has become a controversial topic in today’s society. Concerns of population expansion, world starvation, and environment destruction are matters of debate and are of much concern for their outcomes affect everyone of society. The world is home to an estimated 6 billion people with more than 80 million additions every year. With this astonishing growing rate of population it is necessary to address the matter of world hunger before it is too late. The three main theories of world population and the correlation to world hunger are debatable; however, it is ultimately left to an individual to determine the truth/ answer to such theories of world hungers origin.
What do you think about when someone says world hunger? When we look at the words, world hunger, we see more than just a problem, we see a major issue for the world as a whole. The Word hunger, is derived from three terms. Webster mainly defines hunger as, "The uneasy or painful sensation caused by the want or craving for food." This being said we see hunger in the USA as a small ordeal. When our belly rumble we tend to go to a vending machine, or McDonalds, or our favorite eating diner. However, world hunger is a big issue, where there is no simply trip to a vending machine or McDonalds solutions. Not only does world hunger affect a large amount of the world and the children, but there are even more cases where this hunger can lead to many dangerous things such as death.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
1: The social problem I decided to do research upon was world hunger and its impact on poverty. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 were initially created by Obama to end the recession. When this policy was introduced it focused mainly on ensuring that Americas could economically bounce back from this recession, mainly the low-income families that were the most devastated by this. However, after this policy was successful it started to grow. It helped increase jobs, helped with healthcare; also it created a program to address the problem of world hunger. This program was called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program. Since the resources needed to provide for ideal agriculture conditions are diminishing, genetic engineering of food is the best option. As this program is heavily funded and approved by the government, it is on a path to fix all the glitches of genetic engineering. The world hunger situation is a big one, because resources needed are on a decline as the need grows. By advancing this technology, it will help the community not go hungry, by helping low income families as well others to save money, by turning their regular habits (consuming food), into a more environmentally sufficient method. Genetic engineering is projected to be cheaper and as healthy, if so even healthier than normal farming will eventually help low income families to put food on their table. To conclude, this policy was created to make America more efficient, and avoid the end of any resource whether it is money or food. The work this policy is doing to advance technology will help lower costs, and will still fulfill the resources the common family needs.
When the topic of world hunger is broached, the majority of people’s minds will automatically equate the two words with an impossible-to-solve problem affecting only Africa. However, to make that connection is inaccurate, and ultimately damaging to the actual efforts being made towards eradicating hunger. There are more than 870 million individuals in the world who suffer from chronic undernourishment, with the majority of undernourished individuals residing in Asia or the Pacific. While Africa understandably rises to the forefront of the mind when hunger is discussed, the statistics prove that hunger permeates into a plethora of regions, and affects a wide range of countries, cultures, and age groups. Despite its wide reach, global hunger is a solvable problem. The fact that a solution has not yet been implemented speaks loudly to the lack of cooperation being exhibited throughout the world. There is more than enough food to end world hunger; it is merely a lack of proactivity and cooperation among those in power that continues to allow the problem to grow. Solving world hunger may seem to be a daunting task, but a solution is within reach as long as a more cohesive semblance of cooperation throughout the globe (including both developed and developing countries) is achieved. This cooperation would embrace the sharing of excess goods to countries in need of them, as well the establishment of sustainable agricultural systems in countries currently lacking them—goals which are only achievable through recognition of the problem and an increased involvement by the entire globe.
Food insecurity defined, is ‘the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food’ (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014). This in turn leads to hunger, which can have three possible meanings; 1) ‘the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite, also the exhausted condition caused by want of food’, 2) ‘the want or scarcity of food in a country’, and 3) ‘a strong desire or craving’ (Worldhunger.org, 2014). Food insecurity also leads to malnutrition, with 870 million people in the world or one in eight, suffering from chronic undernourishment (Fao.org, 2014). From this alarmingly high figure, 852 million of these people live in developing countries, making it evident that majority of strategies used to solve this problem should be directed at them (Fao.org, 2014). The world produces enough food to feed everyone, with an estimated amount of 2,720 Kcal per person a day (Worldhunger.org, 2014). The only problem is distri...
World Hunger The persistence of hunger in a world of plenty is immoral. In a world of 5 billion people, more than 1 billion are desperately poor and face food insecurity. 800 million are chronically malnourished. Every day, 35,000 children under age five (14 million a year) die of malnutrition and related preventable diseases. Millions more become blind, retarded or suffer other disabilities that impair functioning for lack of vitamins and minerals (micro-nutrients), robbing the human community of valuable gifts and talents. Hunger increases pressures that lead to a growing tide of refugees and migrants. Hunger and poverty are at the base of much political turmoil and armed conflict.
Entitlement failures are the most common cause of famines according to Sen. Sen defines entitlement as “the commodities over which she can establish her ownership and command” (162). He says “people suffer from hunger when they cannot establish their entitlement over an adequate amount of food” (162). Sen cites three influences on entitlements that affect famines: endowment, production possibilities, and exchange conditions. Famine occurs when many people simultaneously experience declines in their entitlements that cause them to be deprived of adequate food for survival. Sen argues that it is not a lack of food supplies that leads to famines, as the Malthusian would say “too many people, too little food”, but rather the inability of a group