Approximately eight hundred million individuals are victims of what is technically referred to as “chronic hunger” (World.., 2006). In addition to that, a little more than a million people live on less than one dollar a day (World.., 2006). These facts actually confirm that hunger, indeed, exist worldwide (World.., 2006). But why? World hunger is brought about by the following:
First of all is poverty (World.., 2006). Explaining further, people who are financially disadvantaged or are poor are typically deficient in resources (World.., 2006). Moreover, if unequal distribution of income worldwide is in existence, then this brings about poverty as well, consequently leading to world hunger (World.., 2006).
The second is insufficiency of land to grow food on (World.., 2006). There are several reasons why this occurs and some of these are the following: not everyone owns a land to grow food on; those who have lands to grow food on turn their agricultural land into “commercial” ones, which means they build shopping malls, commercial centers etc; some agricultural lands are turned into residential as well, meaning houses are built instead of growing food on it (World.., 2006).
The third is the individual’s incapacity to buy food for himself and for his or her family (World.., 2006). This may be because he or she does not have a job (World.., 2006). Or he may have a job yet his or her salary is not enough to cover all his or her basic needs (World.., 206).
The fourth is hunger itself (World.., 2006). Explaining further, hunger may bring about health problems, which in turn causes a person to feel weak and will no longer be able to work (World.., 2006). If for instance, this person’s job is to help produce or grow food then it can be deduced that hunger itself may worsen world hunger (World.., 2006).
Last but not least, the programs intended to work on reducing the population considered to be suffering from hunger has not succeeded yet (World.., 2006).
Reference
- World Hunger Facts 2006. (2006).