In the chapter “World Hunger: Its Roots and Remedies,” by Frances Moore Lappé, the causes of world hunger are explored. World hunger is a global issue, affecting more than 854 million people. Many people think that world hunger is caused by a lack of food, but there is plenty of food in the world. This is now as the scarcity fallacy. The article, “The Scarcity Fallacy,” by Stephen J. Scanlan, J. Craig Jenkins, and Lindsey Peterson, explores why people feel that world hunger is only caused by a lack of food. There is plenty of food, but it is not affordable or accessible to people in developing nations, where the majority of hungry people are concentrated. Poverty and hunger go hand in hand. There are many other things that contribute to hunger. Hunger is also more likely depending on gender and ethnicity. Many more women are hungry than men. Many have realized that food aid, directed by the government, is not actually doing that much to help the problem. While the government tries to help, they also use the aid as political clout, aiding the countries that they think are the most valuable to them politically. This unfair distribution of aid does nothing to eradicate the problem of world hunger. One organization that is trying to help is the ONE organization, meant to help alleviate poverty. Poverty is the root of many problems and ONE works through many issues to help eradicate poverty, such as by getting developing countries out of debt and improving water availability and sanitation.
World hunger is a very frustrating issue to think about. First of all, many people are not aware of the real issues behind world hunger. If people were aware that there was enough food in the world and it just wasn’t being distributed properly, they would encourage the government to help with food distribution, not with growing more food. It is very frustrating to realize that there is enough food in the world but it is not being distributed properly. It is horrible that we have enough food to feed everyone but the food isn’t available or affordable. This problem can only be fixed through governments working together. I hope that world hunger will one day be eliminated but at this moment I think there will always be hungry people. These articles have lead me to question:
1. How will people become informed of the real reasons why there is world hunger?
2. As the standard of living increases in many developing countries, how will this affect world hunger in third-world countries?
