By Nick Fragos
In the real world, the loser of the food monopoly game starves…
Nowadays, our world suffers from many problems. One of the most important is hunger and the unequal distribution of food in many countries.
In many countries in the world, 1 in 8 people don’t get enough food to stay healthy. That frightening number has reached 900 million worldwide. 52 million children under the age of 5 suffer from undernourishment. 2 million out of these will eventually die.
In these countries, people suffer from hunger as there is no land to cultivate because there is unequal distribution of land between the rich and the poor. In South America, parts of Asia and Africa there is land grabbing i.e. the local rich land owners as well as multinational companies take advantage of loopholes in the law of the country and usurp the small farmers’ land. Because of that, there is a lot of protest and social unrest, demonstrations and riots going on in these places.
In recent years the price of food has increased a lot. That makes it more difficult for the poorer social groups to buy food. To be able to provide for their families, people are forced to work longer hours. In many countries it’s mainly the women who carry the extra work load, working in the fields and caring for the family.
In the world there is the problem of uneven distribution of food. To overcome this problem, we have to make sure that the price of food will be controlled. The recent rise in prices is another sign of the uneven distribution of global resources. It is likely that people in poorer countries will go hungry during a food crisis. This is due to the fact that these people’s income doesn’t increase to meet the food prices. To solve this problem, we have to be informed as global citizens about the ways food is produced and distributed worldwide. Most importantly we have to make sure that those who control food production and trade will provide equally for all countries. In other words, everyone must be able to have access to food markets.
Hunger and unequal distribution of food should and can be overcome .We, as people, must share the food the planet gives us. If we do this, the road to a world where everyone has enough to eat is not far.
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