Food insecurity and hunger - Essay Example

In other words over 43% of the population is living on less than $75 a month. These poverty figures are directly correlated with the rise of food insecurity across the world. Throughout the world there is a growing disparity between the rich and the poor. A majority of the global wealth is controlled by the private corporate world. Multinational corporations such as McDonald’s and Microsoft are worth billions of dollars. The accumulated wealth of the private sector surpasses the wealth held by the combined governments of the over 200 countries around the globe.

Governmental institutions benefit from the efforts of the private sector by charging them taxes. Taxes are the primary source of income of most governments. Due to the corruption of governmental institutions in developing countries the financial resources of governmental institutions are not being effectively utilized to fight hunger. In countries such as Lybia which is in the middle of a civil war and is currently at war with the United States, the government is spending more on military expenses than in resources to fight hunger.

In the United States the military spending is also astronomical. Hunger and food insecurity is not limited to developing nations. In the United States in 2005 approximately 37 million people were living with incomes that were lower than the federal poverty line (Rector & Johnson). The troubles of worldwide hunger and food insecurity have troubled governmental institutions due to the fact that for decades the initiatives associated with development aid, agricultural improvements, and market expansion failed to eradicate hunger.

None of these solutions has been effective at battling hunger in the long term. A major issue associated with world hunger is that the prices of food items have been going up. There were major inflationary forces in the prices of food during 2007 and 2008. Food security occurs when all people have physical, social and economic forces sufficient food to meet their dietary needs. A factor that can turn a society instantly into a food insecurity condition is a natural event such as an earthquake.

In Japan there are over 500,000 people that are homeless and living through condition of food insecurity. It is important for people in the develop world to donate when these types of events occur. The online giant Yahoo Corporation has been able to raise over $6 million in donations for the victim’s of Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Three core elements associated with food insecurity are food availability, access to food, and food utilization. There are different reasons or motivators of why one government donates to another.

The three key motivators are political, economic, and humanitarian. The United States contributes 60% of the global food aid. The US makes donation at times to improve its political relations with a particular country. The humanitarian efforts are spurred by the media, while the economic variable is a motivator because the country giving food will obtain some sort of economic remuneration for its food products. According to Barrett and Marwell (2005) food aid serves three purposes: a) short term solution when food availability is declining; b) long-term safety net; c) build assets among poor and food insecure groups when no other forms of aid are open.

There are three kinds of food aids. The first option is for the government to give the food supplies to another