If everyone is saying that there is enough food to feed
everyone in the world, then why is the world currently experiencing a global
food crisis? Sometimes I just don’t understand the politics that go in to food
security. How come countries like American that have obsessed people from
eating too much food, give food to other underdeveloped counties that have
people that are starving to death? What is really stopping people in the
underdeveloped countries from having enough food in their counties? I feel as though
the starving underdeveloped countries are constantly reminded of the powerful developed
countries that have plenty of food. Most of the people that live in these
starving countries are minorities, such as Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, and etc.
Therefore, by not truly helping these countries have a sustainable food system
can be argued that race, ethnicity, and class plays a huge rule in this issues.
For example, if Canada and Mexico were both going through a food crisis at the
same time and the United States of America only had enough money to feed one of
the starving countries. I feel as though the U.S. would choose to feed Canada
over America, because the nation’s race, ethnicity, and level of class is very
similar to the United States. Unlike Mexico, whose race, ethnicity, and class
level can be perceived as lower that the United States of America. All in all, how can the world create a sustainable food system where everyone is eating healthy and has clean water to drink?
Your question is a tough one to answer. It may have to be a bottom up approach. I think the people have to demand a more sustainable and equitable food system. I am not sure that policies alone will fix the problem. The effort would have to be a joint state, private, and NGO collaboration. I think one of the biggest issues is where to start. The food equity problem has become so large that it is overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteHi Brionna, I have to agree with Sara that these are questions that have been very difficult for us to resolve completely. I've started to understand from my other courses and our readings that major human rights issues like this can usually be traced to a poor political backbone. A lot of times, a regime will prioritize putting money towards war and violence above helping their own people feed themselves. Not only that, many places experience natural phenomena that does not allow them to provide food (i.e. drought, salt water intrusion, flooding). I know Sub-Saharan Africa is considered the poorest area in the world, and this has deep historical context as an area that is difficult to reach by trade- this has grown into a ill constructed government for the area. You could also look at an area like Ethiopia and the political turmoil that resulted from the degradation to their land as well. However, it could also be an issue of a country focusing too heavily on its urbanized populations and industrializing that it declines to take care of its land and its agriculture in the process.
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