The Problem of Food Insecurity and Undernourishment in the World - Annotated Bibliography Example

Development of the GMO technology has failed to address the food insecurity and undernourishment problems in many parts of the world. Biotechnology has been blamed for claiming that it can increase nutrition and reduce world hunger at the same time. Biotechnology companies have been found to be profit-driven instead of genuinely seeking to eradicate world hunger or raise nutritional levels Young (2004). The GMOs that are produced such as tomatoes only serve those who want to increase their profit margins because they will lower the production cost of tomato paste used in fast foods. The essential food crops used principally in Africa such as cassava or cowpeas are yet to be modified. GMO technology has been around for some time now but the problem of food scarcity is still biting hard in many parts of the African continent. This technology does not even bring benefits to the developing world economies. Through frost-resistant biotechnology, the crops that do well in tropical countries may be modified so that they grow in the developed countries with colder climates. This could destroy the backbone of many economies in the south of the globe. The world at the moment still has a high number of people suffering from undernourishment. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that there are 925 people who are the undernourished world over Mzinga (2005).

The GMO technology has also failed to penetrate some parts of the world strongly because of the belief that the food produced using this technology is not safe for human consumption. Many hungry populations have their own reservations over these foods and this has contributed to the failure of technology to solve world food problems. It is also very costly and time-consuming to take GMO food to the market. This problematic because Agri biotech companies need to get profits from the investment. The potential of GMO technology to address food insecurity in the world has been seen to dwindle as time goes by. If the current trend whereby profit-hungry companies in the developed countries are developing products that serve their interests is allowed to continue then there is no hope of getting much from it.

To find out whether the existence of GMO technology is helping to fight the problem of food insecurity and undernourishment.

 

The objectives are 1. To determine the level of food insecurity in the world

                                 2.To  determine the role played by GMOs in reducing food scarcity

                                 3.To find out the issues surrounding the infectivity of GMOs in

                                      reducing world hunger and undernourishment. 

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