Food

Food shortage in the world

( Pauline, Rose & Laura-Emilie )

Food shortage is a problem that is present many areas of the globe. It is caused by natural and human factors. In the first category, we have the quality of the soils, natural events and the climatic changes. Meanwhile in the second category we have social, economic and demographic factors. Both influence the production of food around the world.

Agriculture is deeply linked to the quality of the soil, if it’s too drought for tilling, the production will be very weak but if the soil is very fertile, then we’ll have an important food production... It’s also influenced by major natural events, such as floods. In Bangladesh they provoke the destruction of the crops, and can lead to a food shortage. Rainfall also has an important role; it’s a vital part for the growth of plants. In regions where precipitations are rare, the development of agriculture is nearly impossible provoking food shortages. Regions with more precipitations are more inclined to the development of agriculture. We also have to remember the recent evolutions of the climate that alters the natural organization of the world. 

Man walking with his dog in a drought field

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.09/shortages.html

From the human point of view we can see an explosion of the population’s rate. It becomes harder and harder to satisfy them with the actual rhythm of food production. Farmers are responsible for the production of large scale crops. However, most of the time they can only produce a small harvest (caused most of the time by the lack of supplies). Moreover due to the lack of harvest, the food prices have risen. Therefore only a part of the populations can afford all the food needed causing poor families to live on the breadline. Furthermore the recent financial crisis has led to the increase of food prices and reduced investments in agriculture. However the governments in developed countries must reduce their food consumption.

African women making a line to get some food

http://lamarzulli.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/the-coming-food-shortage-hey-honey-whats-for-dinner/

The consequences of food shortage are enormous. The Sub- Saharan African, Asian and South American countries are especially touched by it, with over 500 million people who are living in "absolute poverty". Because of food shortage, 870 million people do not have enough to eat. It counts 563 million starving people. Food shortage is also the cause of import under nutrition. 2.6 million children under five years old have already died from food shortages and 15 million other children die each year because they do not have enough to eat. 925 million people are hungry on  the world today.

There are many nations and suffering from hunger. There are about forty countries facing a food shortage such as Somalia, Mali, Pakistan, Haiti and even China. However specialists believe that the world population will double by the end of this century. The need for food is not going to stop increasing... All those facts highlight how urgent it is to find solutions.

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is one of the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. Another reason for food shortage is the increase of food prices. The increase in oil prices led to the rise of the fertilizers prices, transportation of food and also industrial agriculture. This increase is due to the one of fuel prices coupled with persistent drought.

To limit the damages and to assure the survival of humanity, who is already, victim of his overpopulation, there are few solutions.

Woman helping the population

http://www.orderofmalta.int/activites-medicales-et-humanitaires/134/aide-humanitaire-urgence/?lang=fr

We should store the reserves in infrastructures capable of assuring a better preservation and create sure means of transport for agricultural productions.   We must invest in clean sources of energy such as solar, geothermal or nuclear power since they don’t have an immediate effect on the environment.  To develop these energies, developed countries should help the less-developed ones because it is a world cause.

Since 2004, food prices are more and more costly each day. This non-stop price increase is one of the main causes of food shortage; the solution would be to reduce food prices by helping famers to produce a larger harvest.

According to the French agronomist Mathieu Calame, we should follow a « Policy of the forest ». It means that we should creat more crops instead of cutting the trees to gain cultivable surfaces and increase the production because it would allow changing a bad ground into a very rich soil.