Feeding the World Discussion Paper

This week you learned that though there is, in fact, enough food available to feed the entire world every day, this is not happening for various reasons. Look at the community in which you live. If food became inaccessible to your community, how would that affect your day-to-day life? How would it affect the immediate community?

Feeding the world

Food scarcity is an issue of concern in any community. That is because it affects all aspects of life within the community. To be more precise, food scarcity would typically cause prices to spike so that community members have to spend more on food. The price spikes and volatility place pressure on community members who must now spend more of their labor effort and income on getting enough food thus having a negative effect on their real incomes. While this is a direct cost of food scarcity, there are two resultant indirect costs that come about when food crisis occurs and basic needs are not protected even as the markets fail (von Grebmer et al., 2015).

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The first hidden cost is that the community members will shift towards engaging in precarious labor to earn more money that allows them to address the additional food costs. At this point, they will pretty must engage in any activity that allows them to earn more money without concern for legal or social implications. In fact, it is not surprising for them to engage in dangerous, demeaning or insecure jobs. Feeding the World Discussion Paper  For instance, food scarcity in Somalia (Horn of Africa) has been linked to increased piracy within the region without concern for the possibility of death and international pressure. This effect is greatest among women who must work harder to not only take care of their children while maintaining the household, but they must also look for sources of income that supplement the family income. The second hidden cost is that the community members end up eating cheaper available food that is typically unhealthy. That is because the cheap food would be processed and convenient food that is readily available and cheerful without concern for nutrient value such as high salt, sugar and fat content (von Grebmer et al., 2015). As a result, food scarcity is a source of concern for any community.

Reference

von Grebmer, K, Bernstein, J., Prasai, N., Yin, S. & Yohannes, Y. (2015). 2015 global hunger index: armed conflict and the challenge of hunger. Washington DC: IFRI.  Feeding the World Discussion Paper