Maria Trujillo
Professor Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
ENG 101.0787
May 22, 2008
Food Essential to Survive
Food is essential to people, we need it to have a healthy and normal growth. But
most importantly we need food to keep us alive. Food shortage occurs when there
is not enough food for the population to eat properly; it is caused by two main
factors. One is the increase in food prices and the other is the insufficiency of
products to consume. This is the result of a chain of events that begins with the
excessive population growth. Population growth may cause global warming and as
result the environment suffer of drastic climate changes and in effect these climate
changes that include droughts may usually cause food shortage. The whole world
suffers from some kind of food shortage, some countries more than others.
Therefore food shortage is a social problem that the leaders of nations should
address to decrease it or prevent it wherever possible.
In undeveloped countries population growth is a big problem that affects people’s
possibilities to buy food. “The world will have 3 billion more mouths to feed by
2050” (Finding long-term solutions to the world food crisis). The lack of money
damages these countries economy and the increasing in population is not helping
either. In the article “Food Shortages and International Agricultural Programs”,
Robert Herdt concludes that:
Most economists who consider the problem of persistent hunger agree with
the view that hunger is caused, not by food shortage, but by shortages in the
entitlements to food, or in more conventional terms, lack of enough income
to purchase the needed food Pinstrup-Andersen, 2002; Runge et al., 2003;
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Sen and Dreze, 1989). (516)
Which argues that if we look into the root of the problem we are going to find out
that poor nations are the ones that suffer a deeper problem. These problems
become deeper because of the country’s economical state. We might take as an
example the people from some countries of the continent of Africa, and notice how
these people suffer from malnutrition caused by the lack of food, “ the fundamental
determinant of health.” (Finding Long Term Solutions to The Food Crisis)
Fig. 1: From Associated Press
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Fig. 2: From Associated Press
We can notice that the chance for these people to survive is very low if their
leaders do not take a stand and do something to try to solve the problem of food
shortage now. Sometimes they have not eaten anything in days or even had water
to drink. These people are the real proof of the food shortage; they do not have the
possibilities or the resources to solve the problem by themselves. All they can do is
wait for the government or international aid. This aid might solve their problem
momentarily but what they need is a real solution, a long-term solution that will not
keep them wondering: What will we eat tomorrow?
Soylent Green shows how people in a dystopian world suffer of the lack of food.
Occurs in New York City when its population reached 40,000,000 inhabitants, there
exists a lack of water and all the green space have been occupied for people. There
is such place to grow any food. The air itself is too polluted up to the extreme of
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not having real food to eat. Instead people in Soylent Green satisfied their hunger
eating little green squares. Nobody is sure where the green squares come from.
Real food as lettuce, tomato, celery exists; but overpriced at the point that just the
rich people can afford to buy it. When the little squares ran out, this caused chaos
and the crowd turned desperate.
Fig. 3: From, “Soylent Green”
We can see how the lack of food transformed people into savages fighting for
their only source of survival. Food shortage really becomes a social problem, which
in a dystopian world is impossible to solve for the lack of resources to produce food
and for the selfishness of rich people that only think of themselves instead of
thinking of the welfare of the people around them.
This issue brings us to another cause of food shortage: How government policies
had influenced the production of food. “Among the poor, governments have
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reduced profits from farming, hoping to hurry industrialization. The result has been
shortage” (Feeding the World). Farmers do not want to work in the field anymore
because they do not see any profit out of it. The government does not give them the
necessary money gain to keep their work and to sustain their families. Rich and
powerful people want to become richer regardless of who or what they need to take
advantage of. Countries that are believable to be wealthy are part of the problem
too: “The U.S.A. and France, among the first to announce their increase in food aid
donations, have directly contributed to the crisis by repeatedly failing to stand up
their own farmers by abolishing agricultural subsidies” (Finding long-term solutions
to the world food crisis).
Another cause for food shortage unfortunately is one of the solutions to decrease
carbon dioxide emissions, the need of raw material to create biofuels. Unfortunately
to elaborate the biofuel that is needed to replace another sources of energy, great
quantity of raw material is required.
One of the largest contributors to the crisis is the rise of biofuels- in which
potential food crops are burned as fuel in car engines a-situation that the UN
Special Rapporteur for the right to food, Jean Ziegel, has called “a crime
against humanity”. (Finding long-term solutions to the world food crisis)
Sadly a solution that seemed to be perfect is being involved with people’s hunger
and the increase of food prices. The demand of raw material to produce biofuels has
increased in some way the demand for food.
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Fig. 4: From Associated Press
Choosing between the use of raw materials to produce biofuels or to feed people
is very complex decision, because both of them are essential for the planet’s welfare.
But there is a need to find another possibility that it will not affect the ecological
environment or people’s health. This important matter is “at the top of the
international agenda” (Finding long-term solutions to the world food crisis). Being
the main issue to discuss in important meetings that decide the lead that most of
nations in the world will follow.
Citizen from U.S.A. have to be grateful for what we have and try to sense the
hunger that the people in poor nations experience. You do not miss what you have
until you have lost it, therefore we have to be very careful, cautious and try to take
care of what we have now. Some people take for granted that food is going to exist
forever consequently they do not give the importance needed to the chance of a
shortage. Unfortunately most of us take a problem in consideration either when the
problem is happening or when it is too late to do something about it. Instead we
should prevent it and unite together as a nation to press our leaders in order for
them to come up with a long-term plan that can solve the food crisis in which we are
living now and to prevent a future dystopian world. Fortunately nowadays we have
the technology to estimate what is going to happen. Hopefully our leaders will think
wisely about it and find solutions that will benefit us.
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Work Cited
“Feeding the world” Economist Nov. 16, 1996: 18-. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO
HOST. La Guardia Community College Lib. 13 May 2008
6691-4576-98a3-a7ecea364868%4OSRCSM2>.
“Finding long-term solutions to the world food crisis”. Lancet April 26,2008: 1398-.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. La Guardia Community College Lib. 16
May 2008
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Herdt, Robert. “Food Shortage and International Agricultural Programs.”Critical
Reviews in Plant Sciences 2004: 505-.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. La
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Kazziha, Khalid. “Fighting Hunger” APImages Jan. 18, 2003. EBSCO. La Guardia
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Riedel, Charlie. “UN Biofuels.” APImages Aug. 23,2006. EBSCO. La Guardia
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Soylent Green. Dir. Richard Fleisher. Perf. Charlton Heston. Metro Goldwyn Mayer,
1973.
“Soylent Green” Charlton Heston c 1973 MGM. Image Collection. EBSCOHOST. La
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Zilwa, Obed. “Malawi Hunger”APImages April 25, 2002. EBSCO. La Guardia
Community CollegeLib. 20 May 2008
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