60 percent of all people in 26 countries are adversely affected by the high cost of food and fuel. Quite logically, the brunt is felt greatest in poor countries. According to an international NGO, upwards of 900 million people faced starvation because of the high cost of food. Additionally, the rise in cost of basic food such as grain had caused hunger this year to some 119 million people. When resources are scarce and food is less attainable, people resort to the only logical thing to do: eat less. Because the cost of food has gone up across the globe, both developing and rich countries have their share of experiences in eating less.
There are major reasons for this pervading hunger. And these have really nothing to do with the current economic meltdown. Today, there simply are fewer lands planted to crops that can produce basic food grain. Most of these lands have been converted into industrial estates in pursuit of exponential material gain, or housing projects for a burgeoning population. Vis a vis, there are simply too many people for so few or even dwindling resources. Farming has turned into crops that can be converted into biofuel, in the pursuit of alternative to precious oil. Food has been expensive to transport because of high energy costs. Droughts and desertification have arisen because of the effects of global warming.
The reason why hunger is a now a global burden is not only because of the pervading global inflation, but because everyone on this planet has done something, in one way or another, to bring about the causes of hunger. It is quite understandable, therefore, why the phenomenon of eating less is as much a reality across the globe as hunger, in all its levels, is. Undoing the trend and unburdening the world of the plight is also a global challenge, in need of a concerted global action.
Via BBC
Tags: basic food commodities, biofuel, food transport, global hunger, Global Warming, inflation