World Hunger and Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World Hunger and Poverty - Essay Example Despite the wealth of that exists in the developed countries there are many parts of the world in which people live in poverty and often suffer from hunger and malnutrition due to a lack of food. There are approximately 156 emerging economies in the world. An emerging economy is a country that has a gross domestic product per capita below $9,000. The majority of the poverty in the world is located in these nations. It is estimated that over 3 billion people across the world are living on $2.50 or less a day of income (Globalissues). Extreme poverty is directly correlated with hunger. When people lack the economic resources or income necessary to cover for living expenses families often suffer from hunger. Hunger can be defined as the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite (Worldhunger). A related health problem associated with hunger is malnutrition. Malnutrition refers to a lack of the proper diet in which the person does not receive the nutrients necessary for human health. In 2010 there were 925 million people that suffered from hunger. The majority of those people were located in Asia & Pacific and in the Sub-Sahara African region. The increase in world hunger is due to three factors: 1. Neglect of agriculture relevant in areas where very poor people live by government and international agencies 2. The current worldwide economic crisis which started in 2008 3. Food price inflation (Worldhunger). The rise in food prices is a major problem that is hurting the quality of life of po or people in America and billions of humans living in poverty in the world. The total inflation in the United States since 2000 is 31.5% (Usinflationcalculator). Inflation lowers the purchasing power of a person. Inflation has a greater detrimental effect in people that have very low income since it lowers their purchasing power. The amount of hungry people in the world represents over 13% of the world’s population. The problem cannot be ignored any longer and solutions must be found soon. The innocent victims of poverty and hunger are the children. There are over one billion children living in poverty in the world. Children due to their weaker immune system are not able to survive with insufficient food as many days as adults. â€Å"Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year† (Worldhunger). Many of these children simply cannot survive these inhumane conditions and as a consequence millions of kids are dying every year. Over 5 million children died last year of malnutrition. There are non-profit organizations such as Feed The Children