Hunger : What, Where, Causes & Effects - 2

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Causes of Hunger

There are a variety of causes of global hunger. They include, but are not limited to:

Limited and inefficient agricultural output.

Here, either agricultural output does not supply enough to fill the demand, or agricultural infrastructure is inefficient and limits agricultural yield and access to food. For example, processing, packaging, and transportation elevate the price of nutritional resources.

Poverty

The poverty stricken do not have enough money to buy or produce food. In turn, they tend to be weaker, and cannot produce enough labor to purchase more food.

War

War-torn countries suffer from poor food distribution and lack of available resources.

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Exploitation of Environment

Poor farming practices, over-cropping, over-grazing, and deforestation are just some environmental practices that decrease the Earth's capability of producing food.

Market Speculation

As the price of food rises, the rates of food insecurity rises as well. Here, speculators drive up the cost of resources on the market, making food further unavailable.

Effects of Hunger

Hunger has devastating and far-reaching effects.
  • Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
  • Under nutrition contributes to the deaths of 2.6 million children under the age of five each year.
  • Poor nutrition causes almost half of deaths in children under age five, or 3.1 million children each year.
  • 146 million children in developing countries are underweight. 17 million children are born underweight per year.
  • One quarter of children globally are stunted. In developing countries this proportion is one in three.
  • Malnutrition at an early age leads to reduced physical and mental development during childhood. Iodine deficiency, the same report shows, is the world's greatest single cause of mental retardation and brain damage.
  • 50% of pregnant women in developing countries are iron deficient. Iron deficiency is directly tied to hemorrhage at childbirth.
  • Obesity is also a symptom of nutritional deprivation. Over one-third of Americans are obese, these rates are quickly rising globally.
  • Global Riots are directly linked to the rising price of food. When food becomes unaffordable, riots erupt. Most countries that participated in the 2011 Revolutions of the Arab Spring, such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, experienced sky-rocketing prices of food only a few months earlier.