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How Many People Go Hungry?

how many people go hungry?
Hunger and malnutrition plague millions of people globally, but just how many people go hungry?

Statistics show that 842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. The vast majority of these hungry people, about 827 million, live in developing countries, where 14 percent of the population is undernourished. Asia currently has the largest number of hungry people, over 500 million, but it is Sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest prevalence of hunger and malnutrition. One out of six children, 100 million children in developing countries, is underweight. Throughout the world, one in four children’s growth is stunted from malnutrition, particularly in these developing countries. Poor nutrition causes nearly half of deaths under the age of five, totaling 3.1 million children a year.

Since 1990, global hunger has been reduced by more than 34 percent, but roughly one billion men, women, and children are still food-insecure. Since the federal government began Food for Peace in 1954, more than three billion people in over 150 countries have benefited directly from U.S. food aid. An increase in this assistance would make substantial changes throughout the world. WFP calculates that $3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.

The world produces enough calories for every person on earth to eat around 2700 per day for each human. Millions of people go hungry not because food is lacking. Rather, many of these calories are not used to feed humans. One-third is used to feed animals, 5 percent is used in the production of biofuels, and up to a third is simply wasted. The current system in place allows the wealthy half of the planet to eat well while the rest of the world struggles to eat at all.

Many organizations and programs aim to reduce global hunger. Supporting peasant farming is one key factor in this goal, but it is equally important to rein in Western-style culture and the standard the American diet creates.

-Elizabeth Malfaro

Sources: World Food Programme, Bread for the World
Photo: USAID

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UC Global Food Initiative

uc global food initiative
University of California is determined to downsize hunger and make the world a healthier place. UC will research what is causing world hunger, how it could be solved, and then it will put its findings to work.

It is estimated that by the year 2025, the world’s population will reach eight billion, and UC wants to nutritiously feed all of the eight billion people.

President Janet Napolitano announced the launch of the UC Global Food Initiative at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, CA on July 1, 2014. This program will be directed by Napolitano and the 10 UC chancellors.

“Our goal is audacious, and it is far-reaching. It is our intent to do everything in our power to put the world on a pathway to feed itself in ways that are nutritious and sustainable,” said Napolitano during a press conference on July 1. Napolitano went on to explain that the issue of “food” does not just consist of what people eat, but it also has to deal with delivery systems, population growth, climate issues and policy. She went on to say that, every night, one billion people go to bed hungry, while half a billion people are suffering from obesity.

There is already so much research going on at the different UC labs. For example, at the Berkeley lab, researchers have developed a smart cookstove called the Darfur stove. This stove is able to address food security issues caused by misplaced people in Darfur. At the same time, the Darfur stove is able to decrease women’s exposure to violence while collecting firewood.

Napolitano went on to explain that the idea of this organization is not to come up with a solution to problems that have to deal with food but to provide information and examples for communities in California and around the world on how to provide food security and sustainable food.

Some of the smaller ways the initiative will address food issues is by incorporating these issues in undergraduate and graduate classes.

In addition to traditional research topics such as agriculture, health and the environment, the program will also research topics such as law, humanities, education and social science to help develop discussion about food issues.

– Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: Contra Costa Times, University of California Office of the President, University of California Office of the President, Cookstove Projects, University of California
Photo: UCR Today

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Effects of Hunger on Education

Effects of Hunger on Education
Increased funding for education in developing countries is a chief concern of foreign aid efforts. Providing a child with an appropriate education gives him or her the tools to be more successful later in life and, consequently, the potential for economic mobility. Unfortunately, enrolling children in formal schooling does not guarantee that they are retaining the information from lessons. What is one of the most prominent obstacles hindering the child’s learning process? Hunger. The effects of hunger on education are startling.

Chronic hunger can prevent students from making the most of a formal education, no matter how hard they try to ignore its effects. The sad truth is that hunger can have physical and psychological effects on young people that make learning substantially difficult.

 

The Crippling Effects of Hunger on Education

 

Food is the fuel necessary to get through a normal day. Calories in food provide energy to carry out regular day-to-day activities. Without an adequate amount of this energy, students may fall asleep in school or lack the energy to pay attention to an entire day of classes.

The brain, like the lungs, heart, arms and legs, is a part of the human body. It requires energy to function properly. Children experiencing hunger are more likely to have problems with memory and concentration because they do not have the energy to carry out these functions. Malnutrition can tamper with sleeping patterns as well, making a child too tired to get anything out of a full day of school.

Additionally, the brain develops rapidly at a young age. Without the right nutrients, the brain cannot develop properly, resulting in long term effects on learning abilities.

Malnutrition makes children more susceptible to illnesses. Certain vitamins and minerals are needed to maintain a strong immune system, but, many times, poverty cuts off an individual’s access to these nutrients. Starving children get sick and cannot attend school. Because their immune systems are weak already, they cannot return to a healthier state for a while. Children cannot learn from an in-school education when they are absent for an extended period of time.

Studies from the American Psychological Association reveal the psychological effects of hunger on education. Hunger has been observed to cause depression, anxiety and withdrawal, all of which are obstructions to a child trying to focus on education.

Hunger can also cause behavioral problems. In a classroom setting, a single child’s behavior can affect the rest of the students, the teacher’s attention and the overall learning atmosphere. In this case, hunger not only disturbs the affected child’s learning, but the learning of others as well.

Food, more specifically nutrient-rich food, is necessary for a school-aged child to make the most of a formal education. Though foreign aid efforts to increase funding for educational programs are extremely important, their effects may not have a significant impact if the problem of hunger is not addressed first.

– Emily Walthouse

Sources: The Food Effect, Livestrong(1), Livestrong(2), Livestrong(3), Imagine Learning
Photo: CBC

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The Effects of Hunger

Everyone knows the feeling of an uncomfortable stomachache. If a person misses a single meal for one reason or another, he or she can feel the effect it has on mood, ability to concentrate and sometimes ability to even think straight. Thus, people try to avoid this feeling as much as possible, but what if one had no other choice but to be hungry?

Unfortunately, this is the reality that millions of people live with every day of their lives. According to the U.N., about 870 million people suffer from hunger, meaning one in eight people are hungry globally. Hunger has serious effects on the entire body, and extreme hunger only serves to continue the cycle of poverty.

Although hunger is normally a feeling associated with the stomach, hunger also directly affects the brain in several ways. Due to the lack of essential nutrients, vitamins, protein and minerals, severe and continuous hunger can inhibit the brain from developing cognitively, socially and emotionally, all of which affect an individual’s ability to read, concentrate, memorize and even speak.

Other key organs are also directly affected by hunger. Impaired vision and other eyesight issues result from a lack of Vitamin A, and the gums and teeth can become damaged due to calcium deficiency. Possibly even worse is the effect that extreme hunger has on the immune system. If the immune system lacks basic vitamins, nutrients and minerals, then it cannot properly defend the body against disease, which is why developing countries are constantly battling a variety of diseases.

As mentioned above, hunger can make it difficult to study and learn, which is why extreme poverty and hunger are often related to a lack of proper education. Especially in developing countries, children who experience hunger from a very young age tend to struggle academically and have a lower IQ when compared to the academic performance of well-nourished children.

Although all children should have access to nourishment, it is critical that newborns and infants receive the necessary nutrients. According to 30 Hour Famine, 70 percent of the brain develops during the first two years of life alone. If young children experience malnourishment, especially during that time frame, the brain could become damaged forever.

The effects of hunger and malnutrition are not only damaging, but can also be irreparable. Aside from a lack of comfort, hunger also causes serious health issues, which is why ensuring that everyone, especially those in developing countries, has access to the necessary nutrients they need to live a long and healthy life is such a critical issue.

– Meghan Orner

Sources: UN, 30 Hour Famine, The 40-Hour Famine
Photo: Poverty Around the World

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What Soylent Could Mean For World Hunger

world_globe_borgen_africa
In 1973, the sci-fi film “Soylent Green” portrayed a dystopian future society characterized by overpopulation and the effects of global warming in which the people ate wafers to survive. At the film’s conclusion, everyone becomes privy to the fact that the wafers are actually made of people. Four decades later, a group of three men in their twenties have taken the idea of everyone eating one easy food to survive and produced their own product called Soylent, thankfully people free.

When Rob Rhinehart and his team sat down to create this meal replacement, they decided that they needed to pull out all of the essential nutrients needed for health and functioning and combine them to make one super drink. With that goal in mind, they developed a powdered drink with what has been described as a “doughy” nature. You add water, drink a meal’s worth and you can power through the rest of your day.

Soylent consists of sodium, fatty acids, zinc, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, fiber, protein, iron, magnesium and a slew of vitamins. Despite its name, there are only trace amounts of soy, and Rhinehart’s team is currently in the process of getting a gluten-free version out on the market. Rhinehart claims that you can live on Soylent, and Soylent has made up 90 percent of his diet for the past year and a half.

There is speculation, however, about how much necessary nutrition one actually gets from living off of Soylent. Lee Hutchinson from Ars Technica, who has purchased large boxes of Soylent to supplement the occasional meal, has written numerous articles about living on Soylent and what Soylent could mean for busy, anti-cooking people. She explains that, while the types and amounts of nutrients in Soylent are based on U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances, “It’s still not wholly certain that simply hitting roughly 100 percent of the RDA standards is enough.”

Likely in anticipation of this criticism, Rhinehart stated that the ingredient list would change and evolve as their product made progress on the market.

So far, Soylent is being marketed toward the busy workaholics who simply can’t fit in the time for meal preparation and would rather mix up a powdered drink to get them through the day. As an added plus, Soylent is markedly cheaper than weekly groceries, with a month’s supply costing only $70.

Little is being said, though, about how Soylent could prove to be an important product in feeding the world’s hungry. The past and current packaged food products that are being sent to impoverished areas like sub-Saharan Africa have had mixed success. MANA nutrition, which produces packets of peanut paste that require little preparation, are cheap and instrumental in helping bring people back from the brink of starving to death. What it lacks is the minimal nutrition Soylent provides people — something that is important in improving quality of life.

Another widely used food supplement was produced as a powdered milk substance, similar to Soylent in that you simply add water. Again, there is a lack of essential nutrients in milk, but it was easy for many families and efficient to produce and distribute.

One issue that Soylent would face, were it implemented as a source of food aid, is the water mixing aspect. In some poverty-stricken areas, plentiful, not to mention clean, water is often a precious resource rather than an abundant luxury. This is an issue that the powdered milk supplement faced, as the lowest possible maintenance necessary will often see the best results.

There are other potential problems with providing people with Soylent to survive on. Innovative Development brings up the fact that chewing is an essential action to establish proper functioning of the digestive system. They also explore the option that people who have been exposed to war and famine may have different dietary needs. The introduction of Soylent to a fragile body system may have unforeseen negative effects, particularly on children whose bodies are just developing.

At this point, Soylent isn’t necessarily ready to be shipped out en masse to Africa, but it does have its perks for addressing world hunger. Often, approaches to feeding the poor focus on survival, which is of course an important aspect. But beyond that, nutrition is incredibly important for establishing a healthy, stable society where people can be productive and live in a happy environment.

– Magdalen Wagner

Sources: The New Yorker, Ars Technica, Soylent, Innovate Development, Seattle Gluten Free

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World Food Program USA: What it Does

In the ever-evolving global fight against hunger, the World Food Program USA, an ally of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP,) is leading the charge against the humanitarian issue.

With its headquarters in Washington D.C., WFP USA is thought of as the American arm of WFP. While WFP is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger throughout the world, World Food Program USA “builds support for WFP through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States.”

Through its work to connect American businesses, organizations and philanthropists, WFP USA seeks to “transform the lives of hungry people across the planet.” The organization views its relationship with American citizens as key to solving world hunger.  

WFP USA releases an annual report each year detailing the state of hunger throughout the world. Its most recent report noted how the effects of conflicts in certain countries, including Syria, the Philippines, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, destabilize the ability for each nation to combat hunger and food security.

WFP has recently collaborated with such organizations as Yum! Brands, India Charitable Foundation and a bracelet line called The Brave Connection. These collaborations are sought to strengthen ties with different organizations.

Moreover, WFP seeks to alleviate the hardships caused by natural disasters or other emergencies, including a lack of adequate school meals and inadequate food security. The organization also strives to make a difference for women throughout the world.

A non-governmental agency, WFP received over $20 million last year through a combination of grants and fundraising. Both WFP and WFP USA rely upon contributions made by everyday individuals in order to continue to fight against global hunger and its related issues.

Through its relationship with WFP, WFP USA is one of the foremost leaders in the fight against world hunger. By working with businesses large and small and Americans of all socioeconomic classes, WFP USA is able to make an impact worldwide.

— Ethan Safran

Sources: World Food Program 1, World Food Program 2, Franchising, Huff Post
Photo: WFP USA

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The Hunger Project 101

While many poverty-reduction organizations implement a variety of different strategies to combat poverty and hunger, The Hunger Project’s methodology differentiates it from other nonprofit organizations.

Founded in 1977, The Hunger Project (THP) is a nonprofit, strategic organization with a focus on ending world hunger. With a global staff of over 300 people, the organization focuses its efforts in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. It seeks to end hunger and poverty by “empowering people to lead lives of self-reliance, meet their own basic needs and build better futures for their children.” This includes sustainable, grassroots strategies in numerous countries throughout the world.

The Hunger Project also places a special emphasis on women and gender equality. “Women bear the major responsibility for meeting basic needs, yet are systematically denied the resources, freedom of action and voice in decision-making to fulfill that responsibility,” the organization states.

With its headquarters located in New York City, THP operates in 11 different countries, including a number of African countries, as well as Bangladesh, India and Mexico. The organization maintains a number of partnerships with developed countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Over the years, the organization has had to reinvent itself as a result of the shifting state of world hunger. In 2009, THP set a new strategic direction with an emphasis on partnerships, advocacy and impact.

THP’s board of directors, consisting of over a dozen people, includes a former president of Mozambique, a former vice president of Uganda, a Harvard economics professor and a former Secretary General of the U.N.

Recently, Anytime Fitness co-founder Jacinta McDonell Jimenez committed to raising $100,000 for THP. The money will provide 200 communities with the necessary funds to purchase food-processing equipment. Additionally, the money will train nearly 50,000 rural inhabitants in farming techniques as well as provide 2,000 people with loans to purchase seeds and fertilizer.

Through its mission to put an end to world hunger, THP maintains a set of 10 principles that it considers to be fundamental to its organization. Among them are human dignity, gender equality, sustainability and transformative leadership. Because it believes hunger is a human issue, THP states its principles are “consistent with our shared humanity.”

— Ethan Safran

Sources: The Hunger Project, Business Franchise Australia
Photo: Zander Bergen

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10 Facts About Children Living in Poverty

There are millions of children living in poverty throughout the world. Children living in poverty are often malnourished, do not get proper education, lack safe drinking water, and do not have access to essential vaccines. They are more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, violence, discrimination and stigmatization. Children are deprived from their childhood due to living in poverty. Not only does living in poverty affect a child’s nutrition, but it also damages their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development.

Here are 10 quick facts about children living in poverty:

  1. There are 1 billion children worldwide living in poverty; this is every second child.
  2. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day from poverty.
  3. In 2011 there was a reduced growth and development rate in 165 million children under the age of 5 due to chronic malnutrition.
  4. Every year, 2 million children die from preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia because they cannot afford proper treatment.
  5. As of 2011, 19 million children worldwide are not vaccinated.
  6. 1 out of 6 infants are born with a low birth weight in developing countries.
  7. Every year, 3.1 million children die ( 8,500 children per day) due to poor nutrition.
  8. About 72 million children who are primary school aged were not in school in 2005.
  9. Every year, 1.4 million die from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
  10. A child dies every 10 seconds from hunger-related diseases.

If less money were used on weapons for military purposes, then there would be billions of dollars available for better education and health for impoverished children. It is possible to end child poverty. Everyone needs to get together as a community and voice their opinions and interests in helping children living in poverty to their respective governments.

— Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: Do Something, Global Issues, The Hunger Project, UNICEF
Photo: Wikimedia

10 Hungriest Countries and the Reason Why

10 hungriest countries
This year, 870 million people in the will face continual, day to day hunger. Ninety-eight percent of these hungry people live in developing countries, even though these countries are the ones producing much of the world’s food.

In October 2013, international humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide published a list of the 10 hungriest countries in the world, most of which were in Africa. The list includes Burundi, Eritrea, Comoros, Timor Leste, Sudan, Chad, the Yemen Republic, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Zambia. Patterns as to why these particular countries are hungry have strong historical correlations.

Here are five reasons why these countries are suffering from hunger.

1. Landlocked countries are resource scarce

Countries like Burundi and Chad are landlocked, and they struggle to connect with the coastal areas of Africa. Landlocked countries as a whole have poor transportation links to the coast, either by their own fault or through developmentally and infrastructurally challenged neighbors. Without access to the coast, it’s difficult to integrate with global markets. Thus, they are also cut off from global flows of knowledge, technology and innovation, and unable to benefit completely from trade. Often, the cost of transportation for importing and exporting raw materials is exorbitantly high. Burundi experiences 6 percent less economic growth than non-landlocked countries in Africa, and as many as 58 percent of Burundi‘s citizens are chronically malnourished.

2. Productive land remains unused

In some countries, land is not being effectively used. In Eritrea, almost a quarter of the country’s productive land remains unused following the 1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian war. The war displaced nearly 1 million Eritreans, leaving the country with a need for skilled agricultural workers, as well as plaguing the lands with mines. There is a lot of potentially fertile land in Africa, but the majority of farmers don’t have the technology or means to use the land to its full value. Because of these discrepancies, incomes remain low.

3. War and violence destroy country infrastructure

Countries with a low level of income, slow economic growth, and a dependence on commodity exports are prone to civil war – and most of the hungriest countries have experienced war and violence for decades. Once a cycle of violence and civil war begins in a country, it’s hard to break the pattern. Timor Leste is still paying for seeking independence from Indonesia, which damaged the country’s infrastructure. Sudan is slowly recovering from two civil wars and war in the Darfur region. Chad has had tensions between its northern and southern ethnic groups for years, which has contributed to its political and economic instability.

4. Extreme climate conditions and climate change

Sometimes, causes for hunger are unavoidable – like weather. The 2011 Horn of Africa drought left 4.5 million people in Ethiopia hungry, and since 85 percent of the population earns their income from agriculture, any drought has a detrimental impact on Ethiopians. As an island off the coast of Africa, Madagascar is especially prone to natural disasters like cyclones and flooding, and experienced its worst locust plague yet in 2013. Climate change is also viewed as a current and future cause of world hunger. Changing climatic patterns across the globe require changes in crops and farming practices that will not be easy to adjust to.

5. Increasing refugee populations

Finally, the presence of refugees in a country adds to the growing pressure on already limited resources. This is the case in Chad, which has over 400,000 refugees from Sudan and the Central African Republic due to political instability and ethnic violence in those countries. Ethiopia is also home to refugees, but because of a different reason – the country continues to welcome refugees from Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia after the Horn of Africa drought.

— Rachel Reed
Sources: GCC, Global Citizen, U.N., WHES
Photo: Mirror

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Hunger in Niger: 5 Things to Know

Hunger in Niger
Niger may not be the first country to spring to mind when you think about hunger in Africa, but the food security situation there is actually among the worst on the continent. Conditions there were especially dire in 2012, when the hunger crisis that stretched across West Africa’s Sahel region made news headlines across the world.

Although the situation has improved within the last several years, there are still approximately 2.5 million people in Niger that lack secure access to food. Here are five facts you should know about hunger in Niger:

 

1. A Problem of Geography

Niger is land-locked, and land-locked into the middle of the Sahara Desert at that. Over 80 percent of the country consists of arid land that is nearly impossible to farm. What arable land that exists is often plagued by extended periods of flooding during Niger’s short rainy season and drought throughout the rest of the year. Farmers are already facing an enormous challenge of climate in simply trying to grow food. However, with few outlets for access to seeds and tools, farmers in Niger fail to make enough food to support even a fraction of Niger’s population.

Fortunately, international organizations are stepping in to increase the resources available to these farmers. Though simply increasing agricultural output is not enough to solve the problem of hunger in Niger, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

 

2. Poverty, Fertility and Their Consequences

Niger is no stranger to poverty; according to the World Bank, “Niger’s per capita income and development indicators are among the worst in the world.” Whether hunger is a cause or an effect of poverty is a complicated question, but there is no doubt that the two are intimately related.

Niger is also home to the highest fertility rate in the world, with each woman on average giving birth to 7.6 children. With so many mouths to feed and limited money to do so, it’s no wonder that so many in Niger go hungry.

 

3. A Struggling Economy

About 80 percent of Niger’s economy is based on agriculture and livestock. How can an economy thrive when it depends on an industry that is suffering? With little capital to work with, hunger in Niger is a problem that is proving difficult to solve from the inside. Niger’s economy is also dependent on the world market for uranium, a natural resource it has in abundance. When uranium prices fall, so does the economy.

 

4. Taking Care of Refugees

The population of Niger is already high, at around 17 million people. Yet with refugees from countries like Mali and Nigeria, which have recently experienced conflict, flooding into the country for the past few years, the population of Niger continues to swell.

With the existing population already struggling to eat enough, how can refugees possibly afford food? Refugees receive a food voucher upon entering Niger, which allows them to purchase U.S. $14 worth of food. Though the voucher may not seem worth very much, refugees prefer it to a standard grain handout because it allows them to customize their diet and keep their families fed while they adjust to life in Niger. The cereal handout traditionally given to refugees in Niger failed to meet human nutritional requirements, so the voucher is a step toward making sure that refugees and their children are properly nourished.

 

5. Why There is Still Hope

The people of Niger have banded together with the help of aid from international organizations to lessen the effects of recent droughts. By removing dead vegetation from lakes, Nigeriens are creating jobs for themselves while at the same time preventing the lakes from flooding land that could be used for farming. The dedication of the people of Niger to preventing the next hunger crisis has captured international attention and drawn donations from around the world. Hunger in Niger is certainly no quick fix, but that has not stopped the Nigeriens from getting started.

– Elise Riley

Sources: WFP1, WFP2, The World Bank, Washington Post, The Guardian, Sahara Conservation, Action Against Hunger
Photo: OneWorld South Asia