Solutions for the Food Crisis

How do we feel when one of our children goes to the school without food or without some money to buy food? We may leave our jobs or our houses and go to the school to feed our children. In contrast, do you know that there are some people who do not eat for weeks or months? They are not suffering for two, three or four days without food; they are dying because they are hungry. Food crisis is a critical problem that has happened in some countries and still happening in different places around the world. No one can live without food because food is our main energy for life. Rich, strong and more developed countries should help the countries that are facing the food crisis and support them as much as they can. There are many steps that Rich, strong and more developed countries can do to help and feed the hungry people such as, they should send some volunteers, they should form new philanthropic organizations and they should plan biotechnology projects.

Macer (2005), writes that "Food crisis is a state of emergency in which populations are at risk of death, disease and panic due to dire shortages of food (i.e. famine) or food contamination"(p 1). Food crisis could start in any country where the economic and political situations are not strong. There are many events may affect the economic and political situations in any country such as disasters, over population, wars, resource depletion and poverty. We can not say when the food crisis started because it has happened in different decades and in different centuries. Today, there are food crises in South America, Asia and Europe, but the worst food crisis is in Africa. In "Nigeria; Challenge of Africa's Food Crisis" the author explains that there are 13 to14 million people are in urgent need of food help in Southern Africa. Many countries in Africa have some hungry people and undernourished such as Chad, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Burundi. In "Somalia; Two Million Face Crisis, Warn Agencies" the author tells us that "Between 1.8 million and two million people, including roughly one million IDPs [internally displaced people], are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance and livelihood support for at least the next six months" (para. 3). There are many people in Africa suffering because they do not eat. In Asia, there are some disasters that have affected many countries. Tsunami is one example of a harmful disaster, which attacked many countries in Asia and left many people hungry and without houses. So, people should know that there is a Lack of assistance to face the food crisis, which leads some people to die because they did not have enough food to eat. More developed countries should participate in solving the food crisis problems by doing serious steps to help the hungry people.

First, more developed countries should send volunteers to the people who are facing food crisis. Volunteers could work in the countries where the food crisis is and support the hungry people by forming some agricultural projects and using the new technology to produce as much food as they can. With the new technology and the skills in agriculture projects, hungry people may get a good resource of food. Volunteers can grow fruits, vegetables and rice to help the hungry people. Moreover, volunteers can educate the hungry people about how they can plant their land and explain how important the farming is. With the effective education system, hungry people may start to think about the potential treasure which is the crop that can be produced from their lands and begin to depend on their land to get the food. In "My Seven" (2005) the author explains that the great example of the benefits of educating the people about the agricultural works in their lands to face the food crisis is the green belt movement in Kenya (para 1). One lady educated the people in Kenya about how farming can feed people, save the environment and improve the economic situation. In addition, many African governments hope that their people work in the agricultural activities to avoid the food crisis. In "Zambians Urged to Develop Agriculture to Face Food Crisis" the author says that "Steven Mukuka, deputy minister in the office of the vice- president, on Tuesday called on the citizenry to take up the challenge and expend their energies into agriculture to help the country attain food security". People from the rich, strong and more developed countries should use their knowledge and their skills to help, support and educate the hungry people in the agricultural projects to face the food crisis.

Second, rich and more developed countries should form more philanthropic organizations to help the hungry people. Philanthropic organizations may help to improve the agriculture practices and care about the hungry people. For example, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) is a philanthropic organization which is doing a great job especially in the poor and hungry countries. There are many good efforts from philanthropic organizations to care about the poor people, educate them, treat them and feed them. Philanthropic organizations can face the food crisis by distributing the food to the poor and hungry people around the world and save the fishing areas. Philanthropic organizations can assist the hungry children around the world by feeding them with healthy food that could build their bodies and making effective programs to save the fishing areas from pollutions. There are many organizations are caring about empowering the weak people and distributing the food to face the food crisis such as, WFP (World Food Program) and FNS (Food and Nutrition Service). We can see who important the philanthropic organizations are and by forming or issuing more philanthropic organizations, more developed countries may decrease the effect of food crisis on the poor countries.

Finally, more developed countries should plan a biotechnology projects to feed the hungry people. Cloned food is one new technology that many companies have already started to produce as an alternative way of food resource. So, we should use this new technology to help and to feed the poor people without scaring about losing their food resources. People in the poor countries are eating the roots of the plants in order to live, so we should help them by applying the biotechnology projects in their countries to double the food and to support them. We can clone the biggest cows, lambs and the chickens. In addition, GM food is another way of biotechnology projects which could offer a great help to the hungry people. Eicher (2006), writes that " Recent reports, workshops and meetings on GM (Genetically Modified) crops tend to characterize GM food production as a solution to Africa’s food crisis". GM food is an effective food with a technology to enrich the food with the important Nutrition's values. More developed countries should use this technology in the hungry and poor countries to feed the people there with the high amount of Vitamins, Proteins and Calories to face the food crisis. There are many benefits of using the biotechnology projects in the poor countries like they will double and enrich the food. So biotechnology projects is a great solution to face the food crisis.

Opponents of helping the people who are facing food crisis by sending the food say that sending food to the poor people is not an effective way because as long as rich and more developed countries keep sending the food to the poor countries, poor people will depend on the rich and more developed countries for all of their life. However, this argument is untrue because people who are facing the food crisis are dying and more developed countries should stop that. In Pomfret's (1998) article "Aid Group Pulls out Of N. Korea; Rulers Said to Block Access to Hungriest" he explains that food crisis is killing between 300.000 and 800.000 persons annually in North Korea. There are many people died and still dying because of the food crisis. Rich countries should stop the die effect of food crisis on the people now and then they can think about how to teach the hungry people how to relay on themselves. Furthermore, food crisis makes people weak, hungry and without energy. Human beings cannot work or learn if they do not eat because they do not have any energy to burn or to help their bodies in order to do any activity. Cars need fossil fuels to move, plants need water to grow and people need cpecific or certain amount of food to work. So, more developed countries should support the people who are living under the roof of poverty by sending food to stop the die effect of food crisis, to empower the poor people' bodies, and to help them to plant their lands in order to depend on their own food resources.

In conclusion, rich and more developed countries should help the people who are facing the food crisis by sending the volunteers, issuing new philanthropic organizations and planning the biotechnology projects. people should put our hands together and think as one family and care about each other. No one will live forever either the people who are facing the food crisis or not, but we all deserve to live this life, enjoy it and die without suffering of being hungry. It is not fair that some people are eating as much as they can and other people in the other side are dying because they do not have anything to eat. Rich people should not be selfish and think about themselves and their children. Some people now are throwing the expired food in the garbage while other people in Africa are eating the roots of the plants looking for any rope that could lead them to live. Imagine it is your son or daughter that is hungry, what would you do? How many steps would you take? There are some people on this planet that are very hungry and we should start strong steps to help, to support and to feed them. Turn on your TV and look for any documentary movie about Africa to see their situation, then you can decide how much they deserve the help.

References

Africa News. (2008, February 5). Somalia; two million face crisis, warn agencies. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

Africa News. (2007, September 10). Zimbabwe; boarding school closes as food crisis worsens. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

BBC. (2007, November 30). EU promises help to Bangladesh with imminent
food crisis. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

Africa News. (2007, April 14). Burundi; Canada responds to Burundi food
crisis. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

Africa News. (2007, December 18). Gambia; food crisis monitoring and prevention training on the way. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

Africa News. (2002, September 10). Nigeria; challenge of Africa's food crisis.
Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis.

Pomfret, J. (1998, September 30). Aid group pulls out of N. Korea; rulers said to block access to hungriest. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from LexisNexis.

Xinhua. (2003, February 25). Zambians urged to develop agriculture to face food crisis, XINHUA. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from Lexis Nexis