Global Food Insecurity: Causes and Solutions

Introduction

The task of this essay is to develop a report to construct a food system that can provide global food security. This analysis will cover three sections. The first section of this essay focuses on the meaning of food security and how population growth plays a role with it. Section two talks about the types of technologies that combat hunger across the globe and improve food security. Additionally, we will deep dive into how these technological solutions work and how utilizing these technologies could cause food insecurity. Finally, in the third Section, we will explore what elements intrude on the progression of nourishment from the source to the individuals in the developing country we choose.

One of the developing countries that I choose is the Philippines. According to Guzman, extreme weather events, conflicts, and disasters are one of the causes of food insecurity in the country. Additionally, access to food is controlled by government officials or the authorities. This type of situation is extremely alarming because the high profile (upper and middle classes) only are the one who has the opportunity to access all of the food (including the quality, healthy, and nutritious food). President Rodrigo Duterte even admitted that the Philippines lack’s when it comes to the agriculture sector. Nevertheless, the country faces a shortage of agricultural research, development, and ongoing corruption that never ends until this day. My ultimate goal with this proposition is to minimize the impact of the technologies (in our environment) that we're utilizing, helping us to develop more healthy and nutritious food to everyone. Proper segmentation of food (mitigating the complete dominance of central access by the government), and combat the hunger across the globe.

Section I. Background

According to HealthyPeople.gov, food insecurity is a global public health crisis. It defines when a group of people doesn't have access to sufficient, healthy, and nutritious food. Additionally, we do not know if you'll have enough food to eat today, tomorrow, and or if you're a farmer when food from your harvest runs out. A person whose food insecurity introduces them to poor health, developmental risk, and poor mental health. It can lead them to disease because their immune system is not receiving proper nutritional pathways. Vice versa, a person who has enough calories and the right kinds of food, can lead them to an active lifestyle and can perform well compared to its other counterpart. Most of the affected by this nature are the developing countries.

As the population rises in the upcoming years, the demand for food globally will be astonishingly in need by many. As the World Resources Institute wrote, there will be a high number of people who will significantly demand food security in the upcoming years and decades. Because the population will keep increasing in both developed and developing countries, the population size is expected to increase to 9.2 billion by 2015. most of the population growth will be coming from developing countries. This issue is very concerning with the country I want to propose along with my analysis, the Philippines. The Philippines' growth of population affected food security in its entirety. There are myriad reasons why the Philippines is still considered as one of the highest in need of assistance when it comes to food security. First, women and children face hunger. Many authors stated that 'most of the reason why women and children face hunger than men is that most of the developing countries women permitted their head of house (husbands) to have the complete responsibilities'. Secondly, food security was affected by extreme weather events, conflicts, and disasters that the Philippines have experienced in recent years. One of the significant natural disasters that tremendously crippled the Philippines maintaining its overall agriculture production was when after the typhoon Yolanda devastated multiple groups of islands in the Philippines. According to the UN World Food Programme, 27% of the population and the island were affected during this disastrous event. This typhoon is considered one of the most potent super typhoon storms of 2013 ever recorded. That’s a lot of people, and they have lost many resources where they depend on most of their income and means of survival on it. Finally, the food is controlled by government authorities. They are segmenting the highest quality and sufficient food to the group of people who have the means of income and provide less nutritious meals to the lowest income.

Section II. Technologies That Can Reduce Hunger and Improve Food Security

When we are considering the forms of technology, we have to think that some other countries (most of them were developing countries) don’t have the incredible infrastructure to help their agriculture sector. For example, in the United States, we can find a large farm with massively automated systems. Everything is efficient. To name a few, they can use sensors, monitor crops, monitor rainfall, and other factors that determine success and failures. Access to this information could give farmers an option. According to Bill Gates, we can use something like a peer-to-peer service called “We Farm”. This is sort of like a Wikipedia from the farmers. The authorities from We Farm services come to the farmers, and it's free for them to sign up. This is an excellent solution because hearing different points of view to many farmers can result in fruitful results that could lead us to fight for food security. For example, if the farmer has a question, he or she can be posted to the group. Other farmers can answer the questions, and it becomes a group of wisdom. Which shared the entire population group of farmers. This service was started in Africa, and It has been spreading like wildfire throughout the developing countries.

Additionally, we can use something like the 'iCow app.' According to Green Dreams TECH (creator of iCow), this app can help to alert the farmers when it's the right time to milk the cows. And follow best practices in dairy farming. The one features that this app stands out is because you can install it on any primary phone. After all, it only uses SMS (short message service) and voice communications. And there's kilimo Salama, a service that sends text messages. According to WordPress, kilimo Salama is used as a service to keep the farmers informed on the climate data. The service also provides the farmers' tips to ensure food security and keep crops safe during times of bad weather and disease outbreaks. Additionally, this type of technology can help determine the probability of floods and droughts when it's going to happen likely. When we combined these different types of technologies I mentioned above, we can come up with a solution that helps address food insecurity.

Data and technology can solve the constraints that many farmers face. Governments and their partners have collected data on farmers for decades. More recently, companies are doing the same. Satellites, remote sensors, and drones can now easily capture data from farms, like plant and soil conditions. It's becoming clear that this data can be harnessed to help alleviate farmers' difficulties and increase their income. As Grameen Foundation and its partners stated, 'In the Philippines, we have launched FarmerLink, which combines data on agricultural practices with weather data and plant science. Using this data, FarmerLink can prevent devastation. Looking at temperatures and humidity, they were able to see that specific coconut farmer were at risk of a pest infestation. Additionally, it can send at-risk messages to farmers on their platform with instructions on how to prevent the infestation and send field agents to train farmers in good agricultural practices'.

Section III. Specific Factors in Chosen Developing Country

The Philippines faces many challenges when it comes to food security. According to Senator Kiko Pangilinan, the agricultural sector has been neglected in the past twenty-five years. Society is the biggest problem. Filipinos have a negative perception of the agriculture industry. Thinking a farmer's job is a poor man's job, which leads to another problem. Young Filipinos now don't want to go into farming. As a result, the number of farmers in the country is now decreasing. This threatens food security in the Philippines. Because we have an aging workforce that continues to till the land in exchange for very little compensation, if this trend continues, the Philippines will be left with land that no one wants to cultivate and no local produce to feed Filipino families. And, which will then force the government to rely on imports. There goes not only food security, but also self-sufficiency. According to OXFAM, the government must do more to help the industry. We need to commit public funding towards the adaptation of agriculture, a matter of top priority.

Additionally, food availability plays a considerable role. The country is intensely relying on agriculture. The pervasiveness of common catastrophes is one of the elements that add to nourishment frailty in the Philippines. The Philippines' area in the Pacific makes the nation powerless to droughts and storms, some with decimating impacts. If we solve agriculture in the Philippines, there will be a potential to address different social issues; related to migration, crime, and economic development. The government continues to uplift the industry, which directly or indirectly employs the labor force in the country. Corruption in the Philippines plays a considerable role when it comes to the proper segmentation of food security to its people. The government prioritizes the people who were able to afford the goods and does not subsidize the group of poor people. According to Investopedia, corruption has been a pandemic to all developing countries; including Africa, Asia, and Latin American nations, to name a few. The Philippines have been fighting this disease for many decades. The only way for this country to maintain itself is to import its natural resources such as rice, vegetables, rice, etc. It has long been seen as the bandage solution by the past administration.

Conclusion

In this essay, we have discussed a lot of reasons why global food insecurity still happens to this day. Eradicating this global pandemic is entirely out of reach. However, we can do something by taking the first step; Informing future policy decisions to the United Nations. Second, the government needs to assist the low-income group of people (farmers) and invest more on the agricultural side. Corruption is one of the major problems in many developing countries. Therefore, we need to empower and support citizens. One person might not be able to pursue local government officials. However, if a group of people supports the fight against this everlasting corruption, we’ll be able to combat hunger and mitigate food insecurity. Additionally, the technologies that I propose earlier will help the developing countries tremendously by; training and support on how to produce more and better food. In addition to improving access to land markets and supplies. Results of creating a very informative of wisdom that their farmers can access and share knowledge. We have to start working in concert with one another. It’s about looking at the bigger picture and seeing the abundance of opportunity. We have to be unapologetic about advocating on the public’s behalf. It is with us that the public and trust, as a nonprofit leaders, as government officials to keep the public in mind. In keeping the public in mind, we have to put a stake in the ground. We have to go from feeding the hungry to solving hunger. To an extent, we have to be willing to put ourselves out of business to ensure that the health of the public is our top priority.

Sources

1. Chad de Guzman. 2018. CNN Philippines. Philippines food security ranking goes up. Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/10/18/Global-Food-Security-Index-2018-Philippines.html
2. HealthyPeople.gov. 2020. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Food Insecurity. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-health/interventions-resources/food-insecurity
3. World Resources Institute. 2018. How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts? Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/12/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts
4. Bread for the World. 2020. About Hunger. Who Experiences Hunger. Retrieved from https://www.bread.org/who-experiences-hunger
5. World Food Programme. Philippines: World Food Programme Clarification on Yolanda Response Funds. Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-statement-yolanda-reponse-funds
6. Bill Gates. 2017. The tech solutions to end global hunger. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/health/tech-apps-solving-global-hunger-famine/index.html
7. iCow. 2020. We aim to secure food production. Retrieved from https://www.icow.co.ke/
8. WordPress. 2020. Kilimo Salama. Since we cannot control the weather. Retrieved from https://kilimosalama.wordpress.com/about/
9. Grameen Foundation. 2020. The end of poverty is finally within reach. Retrieved from https://grameenfoundation.org/?url=https://grameenfoundation.org/&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKnyBRDwARIsALtxe7iX8k7sJWnhLUIi7-zh8cEXVS_OvdMq4hAD4Hq9n-rW4O3wM2oniP0aAgo3EALw_wcB
10. Kiko Pangilinan. 2016. P-Noy Becoming a Farmer Upon Retirement a Big Boost to PH Farmers, Agriculture. Retrieved from https://kikopangilinan.com/2016/03/18/pangilinan-p-noy-becoming-a-farmer-upon-retirement-a-big-boost-to-ph-farmers-agriculture/
11. OXFAM. 2020. The power of people against poverty. Retrieved from https://philippines.oxfam.org/
12. Investopedia. 2019. How Corruption Affects Emerging Economies. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012215/how-corruption-affects-emerging-economies.asp