For this week’s blog, we were asked to conduct research about the biggest problem we think the world is facing today. The main problem I think we have in the world is the scarcity of food to feed all the people in the world. Living in America, we see some poverty and hunger issues, but on a larger scale, our problem is little compared to some third world countries that are facing the same problem. With so many of us focusing on hunger, I think we’ll have some of the same stats about this issue. But when reading some of the other blogs, I did not notice a lot of the students focusing on this issue on a global scale. Of course being that our projects are only meant for small community scales, I think it is still important to show how this issue affects everybody and every country in the world and not just the United States of America.

First, before showing the statistics for hunger in America, I would like to point out how big this issue is on a global scale. Many of us might make a correlation with living in a rich country as not being in poverty and suffer from hunger. This is not the case. Of course low income has a part in causing hunger but many of the leading countries in the world today still face this problem. So those who are ignorant about this subject do not assume that just because we live in a big power nation today that our citizens do not suffer from hunger. These are some statistics on world hunger and the source from which this website obtain the statistics from.

· Every year 15 million children die of hunger

· For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years

· The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you’ve entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

· One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture

· The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world’s hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy

· 3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.

· The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

· One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

· Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

· Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death

· About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age

· To satisfy the world’s sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.

· Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger

· It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.

· Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities, according to the World Health Organization.

As many of you can see, this is a serious issue that affects a lot of people throughout the world and is something that we need to address asap. But many would look at these statistics and say, “Oh, well those are just Asian and African countries who are suffering from hunger.” But this is a bad assumption to make. The following is more statistics about hunger in the world but focuses on the United Kingdom and stats are given by the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO).

· Number of hungry people is estimated to have reached 1.02 billion - up 11 percent from last year’s 915 million.

· The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the world’s hungry to a record 1 billion

Now in America, a lot of companies and famous stars are addressing this hunger issue. Christina Aguilera is one of the most proactive stars in this fight against hunger. She is now the spokesman for World Hunger Relief. Along with her, many companies such as Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut are taking donations in a partnership to help fight hunger. With so many people taking a big part in this movement, we should help or create our own good cause in preventing this from become a epidemic in the world. So now that I have provided statistics and information for hunger in other countries, I will now provide information with how this problem affects the people who live in America.

· According to the USDA, an estimated 12.4 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2007.

· 8 states plus DC have more than 20 percent of children living in food insecure households, the states of Texas (23.58%) and Mississippi (22.84%) have the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food.

· The top four states with the highest rate of food insecure children are Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, and New Mexico.

· Research indicates that even mild undernutrition experienced by young children during critical periods of growth impacts the behavior of children, their school performance, and their overall cognitive development.

· In 2002, 34.9 million people were food insecure, up 1.26 million from 2001. African American and Hispanic American households suffered the worst rates of hunger and food insecurity with 22% and 21.7%, respectively. Among the hungry, 39.1% are male, while 60% are female

With all of these statistics, it is clear that the issue of hunger is in dire need of attention. These stats should be the motivation we need to help this issue and fight it before it claims more and more lives throughout the world. Of course we are not all like Christina Aguilera who can help fight this issue in all the parts in the world, but we can help the people around our community area. Aguilera should be an inspiration for all stars to contribute to the world. More information is available on the internet and in the links at the bottom of this blog. Thanks again for reading!

Sources:

<!–[if supportFields]> BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 <![endif]–>An End to World Hunger: hope for the future. 2000. 13 October 2009 <http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm>.

Feeding America. 2009. 13 October 2009 <http://feedingamerica.org/faces-of-hunger/hunger-101/child-hunger-facts.aspx>.

Hunger Facts: International. 24 February 2009. 13 October 2009 <http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html>.

Institute, The Oakland. Hunger in America. 2004. 13 October 2009 <http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/?q=node/view/104>.

World hunger reaches 1 billion mark: United Nations. 20 June 2009. 13 October 2009 <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/europe/World-hunger-reaches-1-billion-mark-United-Nations/articleshow/4678949.cms>.

<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.