Proposed Methods of Reducing Hunger in United States - Research Paper Example

Proposed Methods of Reducing Hunger in United s Proposed Methods of Reducing Hunger in United s Introduction Though United States is the leading producer of agricultural products, the citizens have serious and complex health problem, which is hunger. Hunger has remained a major problem affecting many people in various countries especially in US. Hunger paralyzes everything in the country or even outside the country. Hunger causes deaths, and it is almost the leading cause of deaths in many countries. Under-nutrition, which is caused by hunger, contributes to deaths of 2.6 million children who are under the age of five. Malnutrition at an early age will reduce mental and physical development during childhood. Children facing such problems will have major health issues later in their life. It is high time that the country design some methods, which will help in reducing hunger (Kanatt, Chander & Sharma 2010, p. 219). The country should invest mostly on agriculture and protect the interest of farmers and any other businessperson dealing with agricultural produce. It will help in reducing hunger within the country and other countries abroad. When US invest on agricultural produce to the extent that the hunger in the country has reduced, the surplus of the agricultural produce can be exported to other countries. However, the exported products will help in reducing hunger abroad. The country should implement methods like preventing land grabbing, producing les biofuel, blocking speculators, support farmers, reduce poverty, target infant nutrition, roll out biotech, and educate farmers on agriculture. As the country implements these methods as a target to reduce hunger, farmers will be motivated to continue producing and even expanding to large scale. It is because through some of these methods; the government and other organizations will protect small-scale farmers. Various studies and researches have been conducted with the aim of reducing hunger in US. Kantor study of 1997 recommended the protection of the environment and saved money. In addition, the study recommended that the government should collaborate with food recovery organizations who are feeding the hungry. Land grabbing is a major problem, which will affect food supply in the future. Many people and organizations are acquiring large tracts of land, which they will use as allotments. The grabbed land will be a beneficial to a few individuals while majority of the citizens are suffering due to hunger. The country should intervene and prevent land grabbing because it is becoming a threat to the country as well as the citizens. The major challenge in preventing land grabbing is distinguishing between expropriation of land from the poor and genuine investments. Many people are grabbing land from the poor claiming that they want to invest on agricultural production. In real sense, they are grabbing land without compensating the poor. On the other hand, some investors are genuine since they acquire the land using the right procedure recommended by the government and invest on agriculture, which will reduce hunger. The responsible authorities should block the speculators in the country. Huge sums of investment money have been released to the commodity market by the investors looking for the returns, which are no longer available in equities (Nord & Carlson 2011, p. 11). Automated trading machines have exploited tiny flaws in the market and instead encouraged volatility. However, it has been impossible for traders and business people to hedge against spikes and keeping the prices stable. When the food prices in the market fluctuate, the farmers are discouraged from practicing food production. It is because they cannot budget and predict how they can spend their income from agriculture. Sometimes the prices of food products are higher and sometimes lower without any prediction. When farmers are discouraged from practicing agriculture, hunger increases and it will affect the citizens, as well as the neighboring countries. The government in collaboration with other responsible authorities should block the speculators such that farmers are motivated to continue practicing agriculture, and hunger is reduced. Biofuel is used in various industries all over the world. When the fossil fuel is burned, carbon is emitted, and it will affect the greenhouse. To avoid carbon emissions into the atmosphere, rich countries have resorted to other alternatives. The only alternative is turning maize, sugar, and other food crops into biodiesel and ethanol. To increase food production, less biofuel should be produced, and the industries will sort to the alternative of using food instead of biofuel. However, food production will increase because demand will be high. Demand will be high because food is needed for consumption and those for making biodiesel and ethanol. As a result, hunger will be reduced because people will have plenty of food for consumption. In developed countries like US, food prices and fuel prices are inextricably linked, producing biofuel in large quantities will affect food price (Kanatt, Chander & Sharma 2010, p. 217). When the food prices are affected no will be willing to concentrate on agricultural production. Small-scale farmers should be supported and encouraged to expand their agricultural productions. The government and other non-governmental organizations should support the farmers through funding. Many farmers produce food in small quantities because of limited resources. If they are supported by being offered some funds, they will expand their agricultural production and hunger will be reduced. Another problem to small-scale farmers is market; they produce food products and sell at lower prices, which will discourage them from expanding or continuing the productions. The government other organizations should secure ready market for the farmers and help in stabilizing the product prices. When the prices are stable, and ready market is available, farmers will produce food in large quantities. Portions of food produced are used for consumption while the surpluses are sold to other people and even outside the country. Hunger within the country will have been reduced as well that in the neighboring countries. Farmers should be educated on the current methods of production. Non-governmental organizations in collaboration with the government should organize frequent seminars and workshops for farmers. In the seminars and workshops, the farmers who are still using the older farming methods will be trained on the current and improved methods of farming. Levels of production in the current methods farming are higher as compared to the levels of production in the older methods. When the farmers are trained and encouraged to implement the current methods of farming, food production will be increased, and hunger will be reduced. Another area that farmers should be trained is the control of pests and other animals destroying crops in the farm. Due to poor control measure, the pests and other animals in the farm and after harvest destroy up to 60% of the agricultural food products leading to an increase in hunger. When the farmers are trained on how to control the pests and other animals, food production will increase, and hunger will be reduced in US and other countries (Popkin & Duffey 2010, p. 1145). Malnutrition should remain a national target. Malnutrition will make people poor because they will not concentrate on food production due to frequent disease affecting children and even in the adulthood stages. Hunger will increase because many citizens will not meet the target of food to be consumed. To control and manage malnutrition, expectant mothers should eat a balanced diet throughout the stages. It will help the developing infant, and he/she will not have malnutrition problems in the future. Young children will be a working class in the future, and they will not work to the required standards if they are not secured from malnutrition in their early age. When the children are protected from malnutrition at an early age, hunger will be reduced or eliminated in the future, as they will be working to the required standards. Targeting infant malnutrition is not a measure to handle the current hunger problem, but a preparation to handle hunger in the future. The government with the assistance from the scientists should roll out biotechnology to help farmers adopt drought and pest resistant crops. In some areas, drought and resistant pests cause hunger. Many people depend on relief food from other due to drought in their residential areas. Biotech is the best solution to such problems. Biotech will help in producing drought-resistant crops through genetic modification (Nord & Carlson 2011, p. 13). The genes of the current crops, which do not withstand higher temperatures, are modified using scientific methods. When a farmer uses the same pesticide for some time, the pest will develop resistance to the pesticide, and it will not be effective. Biotech will help through genetic modification to produce pest resistant crop. Biotech will help in reducing hunger because farming will be practiced in drought-affected areas and pest infected areas. Biotechnology can also be applied in animals. For example, the digestive systems chickens and pigs can be altered such that they can eat any food not required by human beings. It will help in reducing wastes and conserving the environment. Poverty reduction is the tool to handle hunger in the country. Poverty can be reduced through economic growth, which will automatically reduce hunger. Open market, financial liberalization, and improved trade aides the flow of food and there will be no shortage. Farmers will produce in large quantities as they get a ready market and higher prices as they expect. When poverty is reduced, the country can predict that after some years hunger will not be experienced in the country. For example, in China, poverty was reduced successfully, and the economists predicted that by the years 2020, there would be no hungry people in the country. The country, which is affected by poverty and hunger at the same time, should not deal with hunger directly. The first step is to reduce poverty successfully after which hunger will be reduced easily. Other sources, which were trying to address the same problem of hunger in US, recommended protecting of the environment and saving money. The sources claimed that about 27% of the food in America is thrown out which will pollute the environment. The costs of such food exceed one billion dollars annually. To avoid pollution of the environment, citizens are forced to pay some amount such that the thrown food can be disposed. The source recommends protection of the environment and saving money, which will not address the problem completely. The measure will apply to the rich or able people who can afford to produce and even destroy the remaining while other residents are suffering due to hunger (Spill & Rolls 2011, p. 739). The source did not address the problem in a manner that all people both the rich and the poor are satisfied. The source should have advised the country to reach the common farmer who practices small-scale farming and support through funding and encouragement. Small-scale farmer would be motivated to expand production to have food for consumption and the surplus to be supplied in the market. To address the problem, it is better to start from the initial position or ground. The source tried to solve the problem at the top without understanding the cause. Another source recommended that the hunger problem would solve by collaborating with food recovery organizations feeding the hungry. The responsibility of the organizations is to recover food from different places and use it to feed the hungry. It means that the problem will not be solved completely because the residents will be fed continuously using the food recovered from different places. In the recovery organizations failed to recover enough, the people will suffer from the same problem. People who are affected by hunger should be trained on how they can adapt to the environment and produce food without moving or depending on other people or organizations. For example, if the problem is drought, people should be given genetically modified crops, which will be drought resistant and not supplied recovery food continuously. A person will learn to live the hard way in the beginning but after some time, he/she will have adapted and continue producing food like farmers in highland areas. After supplying the genetically modified crops, the person will not suffer from hunger and the government will supply food and concentrate in other places having the same problem. Training and funding are other alternatives instead of supplying food to the people continuously. At the starting point, the farmer will be trained, funded, and supplied with food for some time. After which he/she will be independent and continue utilizing the knowledge, skills and resources supplied. The approach will solve the hunger problem successfully as compared to the option of supplying food without training and funding the citizens (Duran & Marcato 2013, p. 1130). Another source recommended donation and fundraising, as the best methods to reduce hunger. It is true that donation and fundraising can help in handling the hunger, but the methods are reliable. It is because those who are donating and contributing in fundraising are volunteers, and they might fail to contribute or donate at a point. Since the people have learned to live the easy way of receiving donations and contributions, they will suffer when the volunteers fail. However, hunger will continue affecting the people since it was not completely addressed. Donations and fundraising should be used only when the people do not have any other option, but it is not effective way to deal with hunger successfully. Conclusion Hunger has been a major problem to US in terms malnutrition, economic status of individuals, and various diseases associated with hunger. The economy of the country is affected because the future working class of the country is affected by malnutrition and other decisions at their early ages. The country should handle the problem by employing current methods of farming controlling pests and drought problems. Currently, the world has been transformed to the digital era through the influenced of improved technology (Strati & Oreopoulou 2011, p. 26). The country should employ technology in all areas of the economy such it can tackle the problem of hunger. Technology can be utilized in biotech where the crops are genetically modified such that it can be resistant to drought and pests. It will enable the people to practice farming even drought-affected areas. The country should also invest in more research on how hunger can be controlled or managed successfully. Research and other studies will enable the country to compare with the previous studies and pick the effective methods of dealing with hunger. 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Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Spill, M. K. & Rolls, B. J. (2011). Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density: an effective strategy to increase childrens vegetable intake and reduce energy intake. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 94(3), 735-741. Read More