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If the Statistics Haven't Reached You Yet

Posted by the rei in features, food, hunger, millenium development goals

Photo from http://blog.lib.umn.edu

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you know nothing about how many in earth’s population hunger kills at this very same hour.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you don’t know the scarcity in food that applies to all living creatures, you and me, humans and pets, unemployed or employed.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you didn’t hear that in 2006, almost five-hundred million people died of hunger. And every year, the number is adding up.

Hunger is a killer; the statistics will tell you that.

Now that you know, only one thing’s left to be branded – cause. You might wanna stop scratching your head ‘cause we both know the number one reason. Yes, the foe of the first of eight Millenium Development Goals (MDG), poverty. Unicef said that “more than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day” and that every 3.6 seconds, one person dies of starvation. Usually, the fund organization said, it is a child under the age of 5.

And the word poverty branches out towards other words. What am I saying? We all know that families need – in addition to food – shelter, clothing, education and medicine. So the families’ budget is divided among these. Then it all goes down to this: the budget for food becomes not as much if the others are gone, therefore, less food is bought. Less food is served over family tables. Enter hunger. Enter sickness. Add unemployment in the formula and you’ll get the real picture, or something near. Enter death.

Another thing, though it may seem too far a topic, climate change may also affect everyone’s tummy. Other than the fact that some farm food are produced in little amounts due to lack of farming skills, changing climate greatly affects production of food. Climate change affects the cycle of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. CO₂ is decreasing, and as one of the requirements in the process of food production in plants, this decrease affects us all. Enough with science. The bottom line is that hunger will never be eradicated for as long as climate change is felt.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, maybe your stomach can tell. Or mine.