How world hunger can negatively impact society

1. What are the correlates of hunger? Is this the same as the situation 40 years ago?

Many of the elements related to hunger are heavily correlated with economic factors. For one, the increase in food pricing for healthy alternatives continues to rise, while individuals incomes for poor countries continues to decline. This issue has only been exacerbated over the last 40 years as countries continue to engage in accommodative monetary and fiscal policy. These policies’ ultimately devalue national currencies as governments leverage low interest rates to encourage domestic consumption. Ultimately, these policies have driven the price of goods and services higher. As of this writing food prices within the United States alone have risen 7% which is a nearly 3 decades high not seen since 1980. This is combined with stagnating incomes around the world that have often not reflected the higher costs of living. This has ultimately resulted in many consumers either trading down for cheaper goods and services, or simply going without food.

Global climate change has also had a large impact on poorer countries. Global warming has impacted countries heavily dependent on agriculture and marine life for survival. Here, man made events have had a disastrous impact on the ability for countries to properly feed themselves. For example, coastal nations that depend heavily on marine life to support their economy have suffered major losses as a result of the impacts associated with global warming. Here, the warming of the planet has caused a large build up of algae along costal waters. Although algae are a naturally occurring, the warming of the planet has caused much more production of it. This heightened growth of algae has caused the toxicity of coastal waters to increase thereby killing marine life who are not accustomed to the higher toxicity. This has a rippling effect on the overall ecosystem and food chain within the economies. Fisherman, farmers, and other consumers therefore suffered due a supply and demand imbalance.

2. Is the hunger situation the same as it was 40 years ago? Update the global situation in both absolute terms and in relative terms. Where are the highest numbers of hungry people found? Which countries report the highest prevalence of undernourishment?

The hunger situation is much more acute than it was 40 years ago due in part to high population growth, higher food demand, and muted ability to properly growth adequate food to support the demand. Thankfully, innovations have allowed society to properly cope with this increase demand in developed countries. However, those that are less developed are experiencing much more hardship as it relates to supporting the food needs for their domestic citizens. For example, the highest number of hungry people are found in both Africa and Asia. In Africa, for example 243 million people face large hunger issue in Ethiopia, Niger, and Mali. More alarming, 60 percent of the world hungry are women and their children. These areas often rely on rain-fed agriculture to both feed and support their families. However, due in part to climate change, the unpredictability of weather patterns has become much more adverse. For example, droughts last much longer in Africa than they did 40 years ago, creating a much more harmful situation of those suffering from hunger in the region.