Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tones — gets lost or wasted. Do not get surprised by this jaw-dropping fact that we humans are wasting such an enormous amount of food. You will even more astonished to hear that over 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life.
These two data truly contradict each other. On one hand, there is so much of food being wasted while if we look at the other there are people not getting even the minimum amount of food that a body requires for proper growth. This has been a global problem and not a single country can prevent it completely. Be it the global economic leader, USA or Congo which is regarded as the poorest country in the world, no one has completely been able to get out of its clutches. And no one will ever if we don’t take necessary steps against it.
This problem needs to address as soon as possible because we can’t let people die just because of hungriness while others are wasting the food that they are getting. Several causes are leading to this problem, one of the majors being- poverty. People living in poverty generally spend between 60 to 80 percent of the income on food and if any financial problem arises, they may even need to skip their meal or food to solve the problem.
Climate change too has been playing a huge role in this problem. Extreme weather and natural calamities like drought, flood, and hurricane tend to destroy all the crops which ultimately lead to less production of food. The amount of food required thus cannot be fulfilled. The only source of income for some poor families is agriculture and it gets affected too there is no other alternative rather than facing the tragic and burning problem- hunger. Nearly all the world’s hungry -98 percent- live in developing regions. While the famine is hitting different countries, we must ensure that the food we get should not be taken for granted. Even a grain of rice matters.
We need to jointly tackle this crisis to completely eradicate it. Though there are myriads of problems and causes leading to the food crisis, there are solutions too. The first and foremost thing we can do is; we can promote agriculture throughout the different parts of the world. There has been rampant development in every sector and the fertile lands are being converted into giant industries which have led to the production of a lot of smoke as well as waste production which ultimately leads to climate change and which will contribute to more problems. Due to less land and more mouths to feed, farmers use pesticides as well as insecticides to increases their production. If there is more agricultural production using organic manure, we can feed more people too, hence leading to a healthy active life.
We need to realize the importance of even a single grain. Worldwide people are dying due to famine and on the other hand, we get to hear the news of 1/3rd part of the food being wasted. Isn’t it a far better idea to donate rather than wasting them? You can be the reason for a smile on someone’s face. The true essence of life is to share what you have. Be it knowledge or even a small portion of money from your expenses. Sharing does not make one poor instead he gets a lot in return. In the end, the blessings from those old grandmothers as well grandfathers and the love from your juniors are the things that will make one happy.
The increasing population has been a problem in many sectors. The current average population increase is estimated at 82 million people per year which means there will be more 82 million mouths to feed each year. With the population increasing at such a fast pace, the day is not farther where we all will suffer from hunger. The population should be controlled and minimized as far as possible to address this issue. For solving this problem, awareness must be raised regarding the consequences of having a big family size. Along with the proper education about family size, people must be provided with the resources, knowledge, and skills required to access and utilize the locally available resources in an effective manner.
It’s now or never. Let’s make this world a “Hunger-Free World.”
-Anupa Khanal
