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People in Boston, MA line up to get free food.  Hunger is everywhere!  This is why it is so important to donate to local food pantries.  The food that you give can go directly to people on the streets of boston.

Causes of Hunger

Below is a chart of how hunger is divided into five regions of the world.  As you can see, there is a staggering quantity of hungry people in the world. 

When I read this chart, and other statistics online about the number of hungry people, I wanted to know how it was possible.  What factors caused this many people to go hungry, and be unable to afford such a basic necessity.  The Hunger Project website narrowed it down to five basic categories: Environment, diseases, poverty, sanitation, and gender discrimination.

Environment:

Environmental concerns such as climate change, deforestation, water scarcity, decreasing biodiversity, and soil erosion are all factors that cause hunger.  If people are unable to grow food because of a lack of soil, water, or infertile land, that food is kept from those people.  When natural disasters such as fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornados occur, many food sources are again unavailable.

Diseases:

Diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, have greatly impacted the health of people in undeveloped areas.  People who are sick often cannot work, and therefore not provide for their families.  Without the proper resources, diseases can spread explosively, and infect thousands of people in just a matter of time.  Livestick and crops can also be diseased or contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Poverty:

Poverty is another leading factor of hunger.  People who are poor may not be able to afford healthy food, or even any food at all.

Sanitation:

Sanitation or a lack thereof is another huge factor contributing to world hunger.  A lack of sanitaion spreads diseases, and affects the health of huge amounts of people.

Gender Discrimination:

Women and children suffer the worst of hunger in most places.  Some societies today are still male dominated, and they often consume the majority of their families food.

Can you think of any other leading causes of hunger?  Where you surprised that Asia and the Pacific held such a huge fraction of the word's hungry people?  Please comment and let me know what you think!

Tagul

What is hunger?

What really is hunger?  According ro the Oxford Englsih Dictionary, hunger has three meanings.
1. The uneasy painful sensation caused by want of food; craving apetite.  Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food.
2.The want or scarcity of food in a country.
3. A strong desire or craving.
So, according to this, each one of us has experienced hunger.  Malnutrition, however, is a better definition of world hunger.  Malnutrition is a very general term that indicates a lack of the appropriate sustinence a person needs.

Introduction

Hello!  I am going to be researching and posting about world hunger.  As you know, this is a huge issue in today's society, and I want to learn and help you to learn about it.  I know little to nothing on the topic, and so, as I read and discover more about the problem, I am going to share it with you through this blog.

To start, I would like to know what you know about world hunger.  What is the first thought that comes to mind when someone mentions hunger?  Do you think you think that hunger is something that only happens in 3rd world countries?  Here are some statistics:

• 925 million people so not have enough to eat.
• 2/3 of the world's hungry live in 7 countries: Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

I hope that you will enjoy learning about world hunger along with me, and will find a lot of interesting information along the way.  Thanks for reading!

If you would like some more basic information on hunger, feel free to visit the FAO  or The Hunger Project websites!