World Hunger is affecting more people than you think. It is affecting up to 842 million people worldwide, while America’s population is only 325 million. It could be affecting people near you right now, and you don’t even know it. Most people think it’s only in Africa or places out of the U.S. but that is incorrect. There are plenty of places in the U.S being affected currently. World hunger is a major issue, causing sickness, poverty, and death.
Sickness caused by World Hunger spreads to other people. Some of these illnesses are guinea worm disease, cholera, tapeworm, vitamin a malnourishment, iron and iodine deficiency, and of course malnutrition. Now some of these illnesses are very painful such as the guinea worm disease, and the tapeworm. The guinea worm disease is caused by drinking unfiltered water, the reason is because there can already be worm larvae in the water. When consumed, the worms grow inside of you, and you have to pull them out of your skin which can be really painful. The tapeworm is very similar to the guinea worm.
The tapeworm is also caused from drinking unfiltered water, and can be spread from bowel movements. Such as not washing your hands and then serving food soon after. Tapeworm can also be consumed from raw or undercooked meat from infected animals. The tapeworm starts out as a larva, in then goes to the immature stage where it travels to your intestines and it also stays in there. In some cases it could travel to the heart or brain and cause life threatening situations. The tapeworm causes nausea, loss of appetite, weakness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, fatigue, and vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Now malnutrition is not getting enough to eat which leads to starvation, and could very well lead to death. This is the top leading illness caused by world hunger, and this also causes the most deaths. In poor countries, many people result to growing their own food. This can be an advantage because it doesn’t cost as much as going out and buying food. This could also be a disadvantage because the food may not always grow. It could easily die from things like climate change. “But climate variability has led to repeated droughts in some areas and floods in others, devastating any meager reserves families might have had. That means families are forced to skip one or several meals each day in order to make it to the next harvest — which could be months away.” (“The Top Nine Causes of World Hunger, 2).
This is when deaths start to occur, if they run out of food and have to wait until the new harvest season. Then they will starve and die. There are also floods which can come in and completely wipe out the food supply that these people have. Also, the same thing with droughts. A drought could cause all the plants to shrivel up and die from too little rainfall and excessive sunlight. Most of the people create a reserve food supply which is like a backup source of food for certain times they need it. When floods, droughts, or a climate change comes along, then that reserve gets completely wiped out most of the time. For example, you have a savings account that you have been putting money in for 3 years now. All of a sudden an emergency pops up and the bank loses all of your money. This is like the food resource being washed away. Except they wouldn’t even have the chance to use it. World Bank estimates that climate change has the power to push more than 100 million people into poverty over the next decade.” (“The Top Nine Causes of World Hunger”, 4). This goes to show that climate change really does have a major impact on the hungry community.
Poverty, this is one main reason we have world hunger today. When people are poor and have very little income, then they cannot afford to buy enough food to fulfill their needs. “As of 2013, when the most recent comprehensive data on global poverty was collected, about 767 million people are living below the international poverty line of less than $1.90 per person per day”, (The World Bank, 2016). This goes to show just how little these people lived on everyday. Which resorted to risky options like drinking unsafe water, which causes all of the illesses. All of this works the other way around also. Poverty causes hunger, and hunger causes poverty. Hunger can cause poverty because when people are hungry for days they become weak and lose focus. Which can affect their work ethics drastically. Also causing them not be able to focus well in a classroom if they are in school.
“World hunger refers to the fact that an estimated one in nine people on Earth do not get enough food to be healthy and lead active lives, with a staggering three quarters of all hungry people living in rural areas in Asia and Africa,” (Urbana, 1,). Malnutrition also affects the children just as much as the hungry adults. Approximately 3.1 million children die of hunger each year, 45% of these deaths are children under the age of five. 3.1 million children is an insane amount, this could be prevented if everyone just tried to help at least even a little bit. The numbers could change drastically if we just tried. Imagine you died from hunger, and other people could help to save you but they didn’t. The amount of food waste that we have is incredible, it could feed the hungry people and still have some to spare. It takes up energy to get rid of wasted food, which also produces greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Why not help the hungry and keep our atmosphere safe at the same time buy at least just not wasting as much food. If you have any extra food you are going to throw way, you could at least give it to someone in need instead of wasting it. Some people don’t understand how even the little things like this can help out drastically in our communities
On the global hidden hunger map it says “Worldwide approximately 2 billion people are affected by hidden hunger”, (Global Hidden Hunger Map). Now, hidden hunger is a different type of hunger. This is where people may lack of vitamins and minerals they need to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Whereas, global hunger is when people just have a lack of food in general. Hidden hunger is big in America, and people may not even be aware they are being affected by hidden hunger. This type of hunger is also in Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, and many more smaller places. It could not only be food they are lacking, it could also be involved with the amount of water consumption.
The water sanitation is directly involved with the hunger situation. In hunger places, water is usually a few miles away from their homes. Keep in mind most people do not have cars or motorcycles for transportation. So it requires a long walking distance to get water, and also carry the heavy jugs of unfiltered water back to their homes. After doing this, they will probably be tired and want something to eat and drink. With a very low food and water supply, if any this is hard to accomplish on getting a meal to eat. “Of the 161 million people using untreated surface water (from lakes, rivers or irrigation channels), 150 million live in rural areas,” ( The Hunger Project.). Now, with this being said it goes to show that a lot of these people live in rural areas. Which make it harder to get water, or, maybe receive help from other people because they’re aren’t many other people around. They’re not in an “urban” area, therefore they’re aren’t other people living around or close to them.
World hunger is a problem in our world today causing sickness, poverty, and death. We can do many things to try and prevent this problem, but it will take time. Sicknesses from world hunger can be deadly, along with the poverty and famines. Hopefully we can put a stop to this problem. What would you do to help out, and how can you get others to help?
