Hunger%20and%20the%20Global%20Environment

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Hunger and the Global Environment
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• One person in every five worldwide experiences
  persistent hunger
• Not the healthy appetite triggered by
  anticipation of a hearty meal
• But the painful condition caused by a chronic
  lack of food
• Tens of thousands die of starvation each day
• One every two seconds

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• In the U.S. millions of children are hungry at
  least some of the time
• Under the broad definition of food insecurity,
  over 13 million U.S. children do not know where
  their next meal is coming from or when it will
  come

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The Challenge to Change

• Banishing food insecurity for all of the worlds
  citizens poses two major challenges
• To provide enough food to meet the needs of
  earths expanding population
• Without destroying natural resources needed to
  continue producing food
• To ensure food security

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Concerns for the future exist

• Hunger
• Poverty
• Population growth
• Millions of the worlds people are starving
• Fifteen children die of malnutrition every 30
  seconds
• 125 children are born in that same 30 seconds
• Every day, the earth gains another 220,000 new
  residents to feed, most of them born in
  impoverished areas

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• Loss of food-producing land
• Food-producing land is becoming saltier, eroding,
  and being paved over
• Each year, the worlds farmers try to feed some
  85 million additional people with 24 billion
  fewer tons of topsoil
• This loss threatens overall food security

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• Atmosphere and climate changes, droughts, and
  floods
• The concentration of carbon dioxide is now 26
  higher than 200 years ago
• Climate changes cause droughts and floods that
  destroy crops and peoples homelands
• Diseases such as malaria are expected to spread
  to other climate zones as they warm

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• Ozone loss from the outer atmosphere
• Permitting harmful radiation from the sun to
  penetrate
• Increases the likelihood of skin cancers and
  cataracts in people and animals and potentially
  may damage crops and ecosystems
• Water shortages
• Supplies of fresh water are dwindling and
  becoming polluted

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• Deforestation and desertification
• Ocean pollution
• Is killing fish in large dead zones along the
  worlds coasts
• Overfishing is depleting the fish that remain

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• Extinctions of species
• More than 140 species of animals and plants are
  becoming extinct each day
• Another 20 are expected to die out in the next
  10 years

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U.S. Food Programs

• Childrens school lunch and breakfast programs
• Child-care and elder-care programs
• Programs to supply low-income pregnant women and
  mothers with nourishing food (WIC)
• Food assistance programs for older adults
• Congregate meals
• Meals on Wheels

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U.S. Food Programs

• Food Stamp Program
• Centerpiece of U.S. food programs for low-income
  people
• Administered by the U.S. Department of
  Agriculture (USDA)
• Provides assistance to more than 20 million
  people at a cost of over 20 billion per year
• Over half of the recipients are children

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U.S. Food Programs

• National food recovery programs have made a
  dramatic difference
• Collecting wholesome surplus foods for
  distribution to low-income people who are hungry
• The largest program, Second Harvest, coordinates
  the efforts of more than 250 food banks, food
  pantries, emergency kitchens, and homeless
  shelters
• Providing more than 1 billion pounds of food to
  45,000 local agencies that feed over 23 million
  people per year

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U.S. Food Programs

• Food banks
• Facilities that collect and distribute food
  donations to authorized organizations feeding the
  hungry
• Food pantries
• Community food collection programs that provide
  groceries to be prepared and eaten at home

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U.S. Food Programs

• Emergency kitchens
• Programs that provide prepared meals to be eaten
  on site
• Often called soup kitchens

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What is the State of World Hunger?

• One-fifth of the worlds 6 billion people have no
  land and no possessions at all
• The poorest poor survive on less than one
  dollar a day each
• They lack water that is safe to drink, and they
  cannot read or write

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• Today, the worlds supply of grain, an index of
  the sufficiency of the world food supply, can
  still feed the world for several months
• Wheat and corn, the staple foods of many nations,
  are abundant and now cost less than half as much
  as 40 years ago

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• The future may not be so bright
• At its present rate of growth, the worlds
  population will soon outstrip the current rate of
  food production
• The green revolution has passed
• Old technology will not generate the greater crop
  yields needed to keep pace with the increasing
  numbers of people being born

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Environmental Degradation

• Soil Erosion
• Affects agriculture in every nation
• Deforestation of the worlds rain forests
  dramatically adds to land loss
• Without the forest covering to hold the soil in
  place, it washes off the rocks beneath
• Drastically reducing the lands productivity

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• Climate, Air, and Fresh Water
• Air pollution and the resulting climate change
  reduce food outputs
• Changes in climate are expected to result from a
  buildup of so-called greenhouse gases
• Such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous
  oxide, and airborne particles
• These pollutants are produced by human industry,
  agriculture, and transportation activities

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• A rise of only a degree or so in average global
  temperature may
• reduce soil moisture,
• impair pollination of major food crops such as
  rice and corn,
• slow growth,
• weaken crops resistance to disease,
• and disrupt many other factors affecting crop
  yields

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• Dwindling supplies of fresh water are now
  limiting the numbers of people who can survive in
  some areas
• Poor water management causes many of the worlds
  water problems
• Each day, people dump 2 million tons of waste
  into the worlds rivers, lakes, and streams
• As such pollution grows along with the
  population, vast quantities of the earths fresh
  water will be unusable by the year 2025 and 2 of
  every 3 persons on earth will live in
  water-stressed conditions

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• Overpopulation
• The worlds population reached 6 billion in 1999
• The rate of growth has begun to taper off
• By 2033 the human population will exceed the
  earths estimated carrying capacity
• The total number of living organisms that a given
  environment can support without deteriorating in
  quality
• Overpopulation may be the most serious threat
  that humankind faces today

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Moving toward Solutions

• The poor nations need resources and the will to
• make contraceptive technology and information
  more widely available,
• educate their citizens,
• assist the poor,
• and adopt sustainable development practices that
  slow and reverse the destruction of their
  forests, waterways, and soil

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Moving toward Solutions

• The rich nations need to stem their wasteful and
  polluting uses of resources and energy
• Which are contributing to global environmental
  degradation

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Protecting the Environment
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• According to the United Nations, the ecological
  footprint - the productive land area needed to
  support a persons lifestyle - of each individual
  is 4x larger in an industrialized country than in
  a developing one

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• Although many problems are global in scope, the
  actions of individual people lie at the heart of
  their solution