October 16 is
World Food Day. World food day is about ending hunger and is an achievable goal when we are able to think outside the box of the status quo unsustainable industrial food system.
People who are chronically hungry are undernourished. They don't eat enough to get the energy they need to lead active lives. A hungry person is weak. Tired. Unable to concentrate, study or work. Undernourished children do not grow as quickly as healthy ones. Mentally, they may develop more slowly. Constant hunger weakens the immune system and makes you more vulnerable to diseases.
Why are millions of people hungry?
So far, there is enough food for everyone in the world. Food production is not the main problem. War and natural disasters can disrupt food supplies but are not the main problems either. The problem is that millions of people are poor and can't get their hands on enough good, nutritious food every day.
What can be done?
Since most of the hungry live in the countryside the problem has to be attacked there.
What do country people do for a living?
They try to scratch a living from a small plot of land,or keep a few animals, or pick up a day's work on a farm or in a town.
It's not enough. So ... Give them better work, help them grow more food. In other words, boost the rural economy: improve the roads, build irrigation canals, support rural banking, improve rural communication, give farmers training, empower women. Women are about 43 % of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. if women had the same access to land, technology, credit, education and markets as men, food production would go up and the number of hungry would go down by as much as 150 million. The fact is we already know what works against hunger but most countries have never made it a priority.
Hunger. Now you know.