Howard Leathers Reaction Paper: The World Food Problem
On November 19, 2008, I attended a seminar with the speaker, Dr. Howard Leathers, associate professor in the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland. The presentation began at 4:30 in McKeldin 6137 and focused on the Causes of Undernutrition in Third World countries. I was looking forward to the talk of Dr. Leathers because I learned in one of my Animal Sciences that food resources in the world exceed the number of people. Thus, I started to wonder why there is hunger in the world; I attended this seminar in hopes of understanding the main problem of food distribution.
Dr. Leathers began by giving the audience some statistics concerning the hunger problem. For instance, globally one billion people are undernourished in spite of the fact that the number of calories available exceed average requirements. In addition, the majority of individuals who are undernourished are infants and children. This information surprised me greatly because I always envisioned adults as being affected the most.
Then, he offers the common arguments offered by people and how they are not feasible in practice. For example, Dr. Leathers described public and private charity drives in developed countries and how the donations from these policies will enable the redistribution of food in poorer countries. He points out that although the intentions of people are good most individuals will not donate enough to sustain undernourished people elsewhere. Let's imagine that you have some extra money to spend from your check this week, will you donate it all to a hunger charity drive or eat at a nice restaurant? Personally, I would have chosen the restaurant and I'm sure many others would too. But shouldn't we give up small luxuries to help those in need, every-time or is sometime o.k.? As Dr. Leathers talked, I started to realize that some of the smallest decisions we make have the greatest impact on the hunger problem.
After the audience heard of the depressing reality, Dr. Leathers tried to cheer them up with some more statistics. He stated that food production per captia has increased around the world due to technological advancements. Therefore, food is less expensive as farmers have increased yields which ultimately drives down the prices of food on the market. As a result as populations grow, the number of undernourished people decline. All of this is good news but how does this stop hunger? Well, decreased food prices will stimulate growth in incomes of poor families so they can afford to eat better, BINGO!
So, what can developed countries do to help? Find ways to improve technology in agricultural regions of poor communities so that they can produce more food. More accessible goods drives the prices down of food, lower prices enable poor people greater opportunities to receive nourishment as they will have more money in their income to buy cheap food. But who must be involved in this great change? Economists, farmers, politicians, and even consumers because good economic policies will enable the continuation of nutritional improvement.
I have to say that Dr. Leathers has opened my eyes to the light, and I hope the rest of world will catch on soon so world hunger can finally end.
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