Food Insecurity

Food Insecurity in developing countries

Eliu Figueroa

Arizona State University

Ms.Kardell
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Every year 5 million children die from poor nutrition and many more suffer from

malnutrition. It is very important that a child gets the proper amount of food in its first 1000 days

of life to make sure they develop properly. According to the United Nations worldwide 827

million people suffer from malnourishment and hunger. These people mostly live in

underdeveloped and overpopulated countries, like Afghanistan, Chad, India, and Sudan. Here are

the reasons why ⅛ of the world’s population suffers from hunger and how it could be potentially

solved.

In discussion of why food insecurity exists there are many beliefs but according to the

article “Why are so many people in the world hungry?” the main reasons are weather conditions,

population size, lack of money, uneducated farmers, and illness (Elver 2015). Since a lot of these

countries are in desert-like environments droughts play a big role in lack of food. In countries

like India where the population is 1.3 billion there isn’t exactly a surplus of food. While some

might argue that farmers are doing their best to grow crops the truth is a lot of the farmers in

these countries lack proper techniques to growing crops and cultivating land. In African

countries where illness’ like AIDS and HIV are everywhere, farmers are unable to do their job

because they are too sick to do anything thus causing a shortage of food.

Many people don’t consider that the lack of technology can impact how much food can

be used greatly. Evidence suggests that if better refrigeration technology and sustainable energy

sources are developed in underdeveloped countries than the amount of food that goes to waste

will decrease. According to the article “ How technology can prevent food waste in developing

countries” around four billion dollars in food produce is lost every year in India because of the

lack of good refrigeration technology(Earley 2014). Figures from the Food and Agriculture
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Organisation shows that 40% of all produce is lost before it reaches the market in developing

countries.

There are many organisations worldwide that provide help to the countries that suffer

from food insecurity, but the truth is the only way to stop this is to have a sustainable source of

food. According to “Feeding the Developing World: The Search for Solutions” it is expected that

by the year 2050 the world's population. In reality there needs to be a better way to keep food

from going bad because a lot of food goes bad before it can even be sold. An indian company

called Promethean Power Systems uses solar energy to keep milk cool and preventing it from

going bad. Since a lot of the underdeveloped countries have desert-like characteristics they

receive tons of sunlight. Not only is this method of power sustainable it can be used to keep other

food items cool like different fruits and vegetables. Another potential source of energy for

refrigeration is a system the University of Georgia created that powers a cooling system using

different gases found in cow manure. This method may be better for very underdeveloped

countries that have no access to solar power technology.

In conclusion, there are 827 million people worldwide who suffer from malnutrition and

hunger. There are many reasons as to why there are so many people who suffer from this. The

best way to help these people is not to constantly give them food but to give them ways that they

can keep sustain food.

Reference
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Borgerson, C., Rajaona, D., Razafindrapaoly, B., Rasolofoniaina, B. J., Kremen, C., & Golden,
C. D. (2017). Links between food insecurity and the unsustainable hunting of wildlife in a
UNESCO world heritage site in Madagascar. The Lancet, 389. doi:10.1016/s0140-
6736(17)31115-7

Earley, K. (2014, December 18). Tech can prevent huge food waste problems in developing
countries. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-
business/2014/dec/18/technology-prevent-waste-food-developing-countries

Elver, H. (2015, February 19). Why are there still so many hungry people in the world? | Hilal
Elver. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/19/why-
hungry-people-food-poverty-hunger-economics-mdgs

Food Security in Developing Countries: Is There a Role for the WTO? (2015, May 05).
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role-wto

Food. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/food/

Health Economics, & Global FocusNorth America. (n.d.). Feeding the Developing World: The
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developing-world-the-search-for-solutions/

Smith, M. D., Rabbitt, M. P., & Jensen, A. C. (2017). Who are the World’s Food Insecure? New
Evidence from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale.
World Development, 93, 402-412. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.01.006

Smith, M. D., Kassa, W., & Winters, P. (2017). Assessing food insecurity in Latin America
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doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2017.07.005

The world's ten hungriest countries. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.concernusa.org/story/worlds-ten-hungriest-countries/

Why are so many people in the world hungry? (n.d.). Retrieved from
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the-world-hungry
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