Food Security

Apparently the world is not listening too much, or most flat out do not care. The UN continues its plea for help. Those with a little foresight have known this would happen. It was not a question of “If”, rather it was a question as to “When”. I am just concerned as to how bad it will eventually become. The other concerning point is that this only relates to the extreme hunger and poverty of developing countries. This does not touch on the hungry of those in the West or in countries with moderately better economies.

It is ironic to me. Food prices are dramatically on the rise, yet, farmers around the world are still struggling to make a living (save for the few agribusinesses). This rise in food prices could be viewed as food and commodities finally coming up in price to cover what it actually costs to produce them. However, I do not see this as the case currently. Subsidies still abound, especially here in the West. Until we alleviate our dependence on those and farmers actually start being able to earn a living, I still foresee food prices on the increase and food aid on the decrease.

Oh to help the starving.

World Food Program

Admirably, Drew Barrymore is lending her helping hand to starving children in Africa. I have mixed feelings over the issue. On the one hand – hurray – there are fewer starving children for the next year. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has been pressing the world on the concern over rising food costs. It has been in the news quite a bit of recent. Which means, if the trend continues, that starvation will be on the increase. This will especially be true in nations where it is already prevalent.

On the other hand, I wonder what, if anything, she has done to help starvation in her own country. I do not honestly know. Maybe she has, maybe she has not. But then it touches on another difficult thing in the west, especially the US. That is the ingratitude of many – including the poor. If they do not get exactly what they want or think that they deserve, they do not want it. Though this can never be a blanket statement for all people. It is difficult and there are no concrete answers. At least not to me.