The Food Security Crisis: Adequate, Affordable, And Nutritious Food For A Growing Population

The Consequences of Food Insecurity

Question:

Discss about the Food Security Problem.

My preference topic if food security in a global scale. Food security is the state of having adequate, affordable and nutritious food to feed the world's living population. A notable fraction of the world's population are malnourished or starved according to Global 2000 Study (U.S.). (1980). The reason as to why I have chosen this topic is that, for many years now, millions of lives have been lost to hunger in different parts of the world. Food security is, therefore, a global issue that must be addressed in a bid to ensure that the tomorrow's newborns find something to eat on this planet lest human race would be in a serious food crisis.

The exponential growth if world's population with a limited increase in food production has greatly reduced food security. In 1970, “the world's population was 3.7 billion,” (Godfray et al. 2010), a figure that has grown by 1 billion more heads every ten years up to the year 2000. During this year of rapid population growth rate, the available food resources have been strained notably. However, the population growth rate has decreased commendable due to the birth control measures in place. The current world population as of this year, 2017, is 7.5 billion which is still too high as compared to the available balanced diet food for consumption. This leaves millions of people without enough food for consumption or balanced diet requirements. According to the GREAT BRITAIN (2008), food security crisis is escalated by the uneven distribution of food available for human consumption. Some countries of the in the world like China, USA, India, and Brazil, some of the excess food produced goes to waste where other countries millions of people are starving to death. Approximately a third of the world's produced food, amounting to estimated $680 billion wasted yearly. According to FAO (2013), 12.9% of the world's population is under threat of starvation currently as 1.3 billion tons of human consumable food goes to waste as pointed out by Pinstrup-et al, (2001).

Food insecurity is more pronounced in the third world countries. Haiti, Zambia, Central Africa Republic, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Tajikistan are the most hunger-stricken countries of the world as per global food security statistics. In some of these hunger-stricken countries, more than 50% of the population rarely have more than one meal a day while others are in total starvation. Africa is leading in food insecurity as reported by Ghosh, (2010). Arguably, this is due to the rapid population growth in this continent with a slower rate of food production. A report by WHO reported that estimated 400,000 people died in Africa as a result of malnourishment, citing food insecurity in this region of the world. In 2010, Africa recorded an estimated 10 million people who were in desperate need of any food assistance. The global assistance to counter the hunger pangs in the affected Africa regions that year alone amounted to e US$800 million according to Ghosh, (2010).  Moreover, approximately 2.6 million children under the age of 5 died every year, globally as a result of malnourishment.

Causes of the Global Food Security Crisis

The world is facing food security crisis, and this requires more global attention than otherwise thought. A UN report on hunger indicates that an estimated 21,000 people die every day of hunger globally. Mathematically, this figure translated to one death every four seconds; most of them being children. Evidently, more deaths are resulting from hunger over the recent decades compared to the historical years. This, therefore, means the global food insecurity is on the rise according to Gregory & Brklacich, (2005).

Food security is a global concern with millions of people starving, malnourished and others dying of hunger especially in Africa and other third world countries. The populations' growth rate, globally, and more specifically the hunger zones, surpass food production and therefore the population lacks enough or diet food in a daily basis. The key point in this situation is that; there is a global increase in population with no increase in the agriculturally viable land.

Evaluation criteria

The method of evaluation in this paper is whether or not a given population has enough food on a daily basis. Moreover, there are conditions stated by global organizations like Food and Agricultural Organizations (FAO) as global food insecurities by statistical analysis of the produced food about the living population. The condition of the inadequate supply of food, and or in an imbalanced diet is referred to as food security concern as to the source from FAO (2013).

The assumptions in this paper are that the statistical population growth and predictions for future trends are accurate. Also, the predicted food production in the future is assumed to be accurate. The latter is an assumption on the fact that food production is highly affected by natural factors like the prevailing environmental conditions. The constraint to this paper is that some areas or countries don't provide enough food security data to contribute to the global statistics.

In 2008, the world witnessed a spike in the cost of foodstuffs. Approximately 36 countries witnessed demonstration in response to this. This was marked by the overthrow of the government of Haiti on claims of failing to control the menace. In that year alone, estimated $1.2Bn was pledged as food aid in alleviating more than 75 million affected people globally. The latter was a prediction of what is to come in the future. Evidently, the spike in the prices of food globally was due to a reduction in food production about the demand for the same. There is a need for a varied diet and more production to feed the increasing population. However, the agricultural land available for profitable production of food is limited. Moreover, the farm supplies such as the fertilizers and raw materials like water for irrigation become limited. The prices for fertilizers hike with agricultural water becoming limited in supply due to reduced rainfall in the agricultural lands.

Statistically, the world’s population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, and therefore this calls for more production to feed the increasing number of people. There is justifies the argument of an increased global population with no increase in the agriculturally viable land. The World Bank predicts that there is a need for an increase in cereal production by 50% coupled with 85% increase in meat production between the years of 2000 and 2030. The latter shows the urgency and the seriousness of global food security crisis. In 2008, 36 countries experienced food shortage and 32 countries in 2009 according to Chinnamuthu & Boopathi, (2009). This year marked the lowest level of the global food reserves for 30 years. This calls for the need to grow more food. According to Thomas &Toulmin (2010), the world will encounter a challenge of feeding the “estimated 9 billion heads in 2050” (Godfray et al. 2010). This is likely to be true because there is food security crisis now with the current population and the available agricultural land. However, some sources argue that technological know-how by that decade will compensate for the limited agricultural land with increasing demand in food.

The climatic changes over the few decades have seen a rapid reduction in agricultural production in some specific mostly affected areas of the world according to Gregory, Ingram, & Brklacich, (2005). Prolonged dry spells in the world have left many without food; dying in hunger especially in Africa. BEHNASSI, DRAGGAN & SANNI YAYA, (2011), calls the human race to rethink of the right measures in addressing this serious menace affecting our lives. Evidently, some nations try to reduce emissions that have led to the consequent global warming and climate change, however; others make very little in addressing the later as stipulated by Lobell et al. (2008). By the projected year of 9 billion global population, 2050, the climatic conditions will be predictably worse than it is now according to Godfray et al. (2010). Food production is ls likely to be less than the estimated metric tons even under the advancement in technology. This, therefore, needs us to rethink the best way to feed the human race in the near future as argued out by BEHNASSI, DRAGGAN & SANNI YAYA, (2011).

Task 5: Journey Map for food security issue

References

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. (2013). FAO policy on gender equality: attaining food security goals in agriculture and rural development. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Global 2000 Study (U.S.). (1980). The global 2000 report to the President of the U.S., entering the 21st century: A report

Lobell, D.B., Burke, M.B., Tebaldi, C., Mastrandrea, M.D., Falcon, W.P. and Naylor, R.L., 2008. Prioritizing climate change adaptation needs for food security in 2030. Science, 319(5863), pp.607-610.

BEHNASSI, M., DRAGGAN, S., & SANNI YAYA, H. (2011). Global food insecurity rethinking agricultural and rural development paradigm and policy. Dordrecht, Springer. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0890-7.GREAT BRITAIN. (2008). The World Food Programme and global food security. London, TSO

Chinnamuthu, C.R. and Boopathi, P.M., 2009. Nanotechnology and agroecosystem. Madras Agric J, 96(1-6), pp.17-31.

Ghosh, J., 2010. The unnatural coupling: Food and global finance. Journal of Agrarian Change, 10(1), pp.72-86.

Godfray, H.C.J., Beddington, J.R., Crute, I.R., Haddad, L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J.F., Pretty, J., Robinson, S., Thomas, S.M. and Toulmin, C., 2010. Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. science, 327(5967), pp.812-818.

Sasson, A., 2012. Food security for Africa: an urgent global challenge. Agriculture & Food Security, 1(1), p.2.

Pinstrup-Andersen, P., Pandya-Lorch, R. and Rosegrant, M.W., 2001. Global food security. The Unfinished Agenda. IFPRI, Washington, pp.7-17.

Gregory, P.J., Ingram, J.S. and Brklacich, M., 2005. Climate change and food security. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 360(1463), pp.2139-2148.