World Hunger

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Recommended: The reasons behind world hunger

World hunger has been a constant problem throughout the ages. It is a problem that should be able to be solved easily, yet there are still 1.02 billion undernourished people worldwide. With the world population being 6.7 billion people, and the Earth producing more than enough food for this amount of people, why is it that there are hungry, malnourished people all around the globe?

Hunger is caused by many events, including the poverty trap, natural disasters, war, poor agricultural infrastructure, and over-exploitation of the environment.

The poverty trap is the cycle of poverty that can begin from a limited diet and progress to birthing a baby that is malnourished. This causes the baby to have slower development and poor performance in school, which leads to a low literacy level and a reduced probability of economic success. This can lead back to a limited diet and poor health. It is almost impossible to get out of the poverty trap, so many, many people live in poverty their whole lives.

Natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, tropical storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes, can cause hunger in that they destroy farms, kill livestock and crops, and cause a loss of supplies. Drought, in particular, causes distress for many families worldwide. It is the most common cause of food shortages in the world in that it causes crop failures and loss of livestock. For many poor families, a drought causes them to sell off their livestock in order to make enough money to buy food. Better irrigation plans would help developing countries during droughts and other natural disasters.

War is a cause of hunger because of the migrations it causes. People are displaced from their homes to find safe shelter, though usually their n...

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...eal solution to hunger, but many ways of helping developing countries, and progress has been made in this area. Though the people of poor countries cannot resolve this problem for themselves, there is a way to help: developed countries offering aid through health care, giving donations, and building schools in developing countries.

Works Cited

“SolcomHouse.” http://www.solcomhouse.com/hunger.htm. Online. World Wide Web. July 21, 2010.

“Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/ELCA-World-Hunger/Resources/Hunger-Facts.aspx. Online. World Wide Web. July 21, 2010.

“World Food Programme.” http://www.wfp.org/hunger. Online. World Wide Web. July 21, 2010.

Cranny, Michael, Garvin Moles, et al. Counter Points: Exploring Canadian Issues. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Education Canada Inc., 2001.

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