The Future of Going Hungry

In an office, empty stomachs catch up for breakfast. Somewhere in the busy streets kids are yawning rubbing their empty stomachs. Meanwhile, in their neighborhood, rotten and spoiled food stuff is thrown into the garbage cans to dump.

That is the way it is. We need to eat and have something to drink daily. To put food on the table too many of us take processes from the farm fields to the market and then in the kitchen. Those are the processes of preventing each one of us from going hungry. 

"For now I ask no more than the justice of eating."Pablo Neruda, Chilean Poet, Nobel Prize Winner

Globally food security is facing many challenges from food chain supply to rapid decline in biodiversity and soil quality, global climatic change, population growth, and how we treat our land. These challenges pose a serious threat to the future of mankind, especially on how we can protect our staple food. Also how we can ensure each one has enough food and is free from hunger.

"Farming isn't a battle against nature but a partnership with it. It is respecting the basics of nature in action and ensuring that they continue."Jeff Koehler

Moreover, the number of pollinators who act as pollinating agents for the plants on our farms is rapidly declining. The use of chemicals in treating our lands and crops ends up killing precious little insects and birds as they become exposed to harmful substances from insecticides, pesticides, and so on. 

Also, the rate of occurring of wildfires in recent years has been higher than it was in the past few years jeopardizing the life of many life species from plants, and animals to insects. Wildfires have been contributing to the loss of habitats to many life species and altering the rain cycle as well as contributing to global climatic change, hence endangering global food security.

Not only that global climatic change a threat to global food security but also unnecessary human conflicts force people in war-torn regions to go hungry and suffer malnutrition by not getting a proper diet and enough food. This has been linked to stunted growth, learning difficulties in children, and child mortality as well as health problems related to malnutrition in breastfeeding moms and so on.

Also in war conflict regions, people run for their lives instead of settling down in their homesteads to take care of their lands and farms, as a result, the food prices become higher than normal to the extent that it becomes uneasy to afford to buy it.

"Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother's keeper..."George Mcgovern

Nevertheless, many of us do not have an interest in agricultural activities. We consider farming as low-pay work, low-skill work, back-breaking work, and not as a career. We need a farming industry legacy since our elderly farmers have done enough for us. Also, traditional ways of farming should encompass alternative technological revolutions.

In addition training and encouraging the young generation to participate in agriculture to feed the fast-growing population and doing enough research on agriculture. Putting the new findings into effective practices and use. Also taking on all challenges that peasants, local farmers, and the plantation economy face.

Environmentally friendly farming methods and finding alternative means of dealing with pests and harmful insects can prove to be worth it. For example, turning the crops infesting insects into food for our animals or maybe making them our source of protein. Also, farming organically may help to avoid harming the pollinators, hence keeping them back to thriving increasing their numbers turning flowers in our lands and farms into fruits and cereal seeds.

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization."Daniel Webster

Supporting farmers is a quick way to go. For example, if farmers had access to needed resources, especially women, there would be no more people going hungry. Also bringing ideas from every corner of the globe can help to equip farming enthusiasts with key knowledge and skills to solve and overcome challenges. Therefore increasing production and improving their livelihood. Without farmers, there is no food and no future.

In the end,' If peace and order were maintained in our societies, and also 'If the available food was transported, processed, and utilized wisely, there would be no more people going hungry. We should take agriculture as an aspiration career, empower our farmers, and take care of our lands and farms.

References 

Donovan, A., Kulshreshtha, M., & Jackson, A. (2022). Hunger Relief Innovation Through Collaboration: The Future of an equitable food ecosystem driven from a multi-sector, community-centered approach. Social Innovations Journal, 12(2). Retrieved from https://socialinnovationsjournal.com/index.php/sij/article/view/2646

8 Facts to Know About Food Waste and Hunger. https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/8-facts-to-know-about-food-waste-and-hunger/

Future Foods in the Face of Hunger and Surplus: From Sustainable Production to Responsible Consumption. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/future_foods_hunger_surplus

Sukhatme, P. V. (1961). The World’s Hunger and Future Needs in Food Supplies. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), 124(4), 463–525. https://doi.org/10.2307/2342930