Script for Geography
Good morning/afternoon
Today I will talk about food security in the Democratic Republic of Congo. DR Congo is an African country that consists of over 2,300,000 square kilometres (Central Intelligence Agency (US), 2013). The population in DR Congo is around seventy-five and a half million people with an average life expectancy of 56 years, a lot shorter than Australians (Central Intelligence Agency (US), 2013). The religion consists of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslims plus some other smaller religions (Central Intelligence Agency (US), 2013). The capital city is called Kinshasa, with other large cities called Lubumbashi, Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga (Central Intelligence Agency (US), 2013). The Democratic Republic of Congo is very poor and the value of goods produced per capita is only $231, but on the rise (Knoema Atlas , 2012). In this poor country it is expected that it has a high poverty rate and it does, with over 70% of the population living in poverty (Central Intelligence Agency (US), 2013). In addition the urbanisation rate is only 35% (US State Department, 2009). The climate in DR Congo is hot and humid as it is close to the equator. There is (United Nations Environment Programme, 2012)very little rainfall near the coast but increases as you go inland (Lonely Planet, 2014). This country is located in the central part of Africa. In DR Congo there are two main types of biomes, tropical rainforest and moist savannah (United Nations Environment Programme, 2012). Tropical rainforests exist in central and northern parts of DR Congo, while the moist savannah mainly exists in the southern parts of DR Congo (United Nations Environment Programme, 2012). Tropical rainforests are normally hot and humid and hav...
... middle of paper ...
...ease of wealth in the country, more people would be able to invest in more things to create a better lifestyle. The only problem with this plan is that when there are good roads more cars will use it, making more pollution. My second way of fixing DR Congo’s world ranking is to improve the framing incentives for all involved with production of food in this country. This would encourage people from other countries to come over to DR Congo and farm, helping produce more food. The down side with this is that some people might make their wealth and then leave, making us return to square one. After doing this report I believe that the better way to heal these problems is my first idea. This is because I think strategy A has more potential and the advantages out way the disadvantages as seen on my decision making matrix. I expect you have learnt something from my speech.
How often does one think about when his/her next meal will be? If you are the average American, the answer will most likely be “in a couple of hours”; however, there is a good chance that you might also be one of the fifty million Americans that would most likely answer “I don’t know… whenever I can afford it, I guess.” Roughly every one in six Americans would have some sort of response like the one presented because that is how many are considered food insecure. This is obviously one of the most important social problems afflicting America in modern times, but what can be done about it? A Place at the Table displays three scenarios: Barbie, a struggling mother of two; Rosie, a fifth grader living meal
... attention allowed economic exploitation in the Congo and its people devastated by human rights abuses, and even today the lack of international attention has caused many conflicts in and around the Congo. The economic exploitation of the Congo during colonial times robbed the country of wealth which could have been used to develop the land, and the lack of wealth has contributed to Congo’s poor standing in the world today. Lastly, the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State contributed to economic and political troubles during the colonial period and has continued into the present day, as human rights abuses are still prevalent in that region of Africa. Due to the lack of international attention, economic exploitation, and human rights abuses, the Congo Free State was harmful to the Congo region of Africa and its legacy continues to harm that region of Africa.
World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf
The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more then 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country everyday. The people of Congo are being pushed farther into poverty and starvation can't handle the fighting for very much longer. I propose that the solution to the post-Civil War violence in Congo is to rid the country of all foreign nations and their problems, namely the Rwandans, and to get combatants inside of the country to hold a summit and find a peaceful and fair resolution to the problem, with a superpower like the United States acting as host and mediator. Once all quarrels are amended, the Congolese can start to focus on a economic strategy for rebuilding the country.
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...
In this world there are many different types of challenges faced but individuals in different countries, as people work together to find a way to stop or solve these challenges there are also some challenges or situations that individuals, even as a group, cannot eliminate. The race to reach conclusions of situations is very desirable and is being worked on very efficiently, but one issue that people have mistaken into accomplishing is hunger. Hungry is present everywhere and not a lot of people can satisfy or fulfil that need. Lack of sanitation, unemployment, and unhealthy diet choices these are involved in an imaginary line called the poverty line. The idea of food banks is a good start into eliminating hungry but the process still has a
Even though GMOs are viewed as acts against god and are inhuman because of mutations in the plants, genetically modified organism are the solution to end world hunger and food shortages because Gmos can be create to grow healthier plants which can be used to feed third world countries and Gmos can be grown to be more resistant to weather which will enable us to grow food in any place on earth, increasing the number of food for everyone.
Food security is an urgent subject that has been extensively debated in scientific fields. Considering the main definition of food security already presented, food insecurity exists when people do not have condition to ensure their food security. Despite the fact that food insecurity is usually associated with hunger, underweight, and undernourishment, we can assume that food insecurity is also related to nutritional disorders like overweight and obesity.
Hunger has affected much of Africa with its vidal epidemic. The main causes of hunger in Africa are the change in climate, the government, growing population but most important poverty. Many people in Africa don't have jobs and for that reason they don't have enough money to buy food for their families. As Director General, Jose Graziano da Silva suggested, the decision to end hunger needs to be taken by society as a whole, not by a single organization or a single government.
In the 1970’s, Africa was responsible for 8% of the world's total agricultural exports. Today, that number has dropped to 2% resulting in Africa being strictly dependent on food imports. Agriculture in this region should not be a problem due to the tropical climate, booming younger generation, and the huge area. However, agriculture in Africa is suffering due to the lack of fertilizer, technology, funds, and experience. Without a well producing crop, the people of Africa lack certain nutrients needed to live.
Every morning when I wake up the first thought in my mind is usually: FOOD! I often lie in bed for a few extra minutes, planning out what I am going to eat for breakfast. Seldom as I go through this routine do I stop to think about those who are less fortunate than me. I often take for granted that everyone wakes up and eats breakfast. But this is far from true, not everyone shares the luxuries that we have in the United States. Some people wake up and wonder if they will eat at all that day, let alone eat breakfast. Why? Because food, like many other things, is unequally distributed throughout the world.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became severe and the economy was close to collapsing. Poverty has become deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. This is a big contributor to the poverty Congo is experiencing today, because little has improved and won’t improve until these problems are fixed. Overall, Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty in the region.
There are those that believe our planet has reached its maximum capacity to sustain humanity and we need to reduce our population to rectify it. It is also said that our planet is well capable of providing both the nutrition and caloric needs for humanity, both now and into the future as well. Regardless of where one’s opinion of the facts fall between these two arguments, global food security is not where it should be. Uneven development could be argued to be a cause of this. But it is not the only issue affecting the planet.
That said, countries that lack access provide food for its population could get help from international efforts. According to the US National Library of Medicine, “ Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified. The developing world witnessed an extraordinary period of food crop productivity growth over the past 50 y, despite increasing land scarcity and rising land values… populations had more than doubled, the production of cereal crops tripled during this period… 30% increase in land area cultivated.” This backs up our reason on the significant impact the “Green Revolution” provides by showing how the spread and enhancement in agricultural technology allow developing countries to feed its large growing population. The developing country’s improvement in agricultural technology also allows a growing population to increase while providing enough food to feed most of its