Food: The New Gold

Food: The New Gold — page 5 — A destitute family in Mauritania in Africa kills its goat to have meat for a few days But by killing the goat the family loses its supply of goat milk for breakfast In Somalia another African nation people look for food in a garbage dump Famine struck the Horn of Africa Somalia Ethiopia Eritrea and Djibouti in 2011 More than 13 million people in this region face malnourishment and starvation By August 2011 approximately thirty thousand children under the age of five had died from famine Of the seven billion people on Earth 925 million 13 percent suffer from hunger Worldwide one third of childhood deaths result from malnutrition unhealthy diet and hunger related illnesses The main cause of hunger and starvation is poverty Around the world one billion people live on less than one dollar per day Poverty itself is the result of many things including social inequalities government corruption and global economics These same forces often prevent food supplies from reaching the people who need them And in times of warfare or natural disaster the suffering of hungry people often orsens FEEDING THE WORLD's POOR Around the world many organizations work to feed the hungry On a local level churches food shelves and other charitable organizations provide food within their communities On a global level private organizations such as Oxfam International Bread for the World and other groups try to alleviate widespread hunger The United Nations UN an international peacekeeping and humanitarian organization is a leading force in feeding the world s poor For instance the UN World Food Programme sends emergency food aid to people living with natural disasters or war Many governments supply food aid to poor nations The United States provides more international food aid about 2 billion each year than any other country The United States distributes this money through the U S Agency for International Development USAID which gives grants money for specific projects to nonprofit organizations th transport deliver and distribute food in poor nations The shipments of food generally include nonperishable unlikely to spoil items such as wheat corn peas and lentils FOOD THE NEW GOLD

Food: The New Gold — page 6 — With skills learned fron the Intern ional Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD this farmer Lanka cears an irrigat canal in his field of onions TEACH A MAN TO FISH Have you ever heard the proverb Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime People dedicated to fighting world hunger often quote this saying They believe that helping hungry people must involve not only giving them food but also teaching and helping them to grow or obtain their own food so they can be self sufficient For example the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD gives loans and technical assistance to poor farmers One IFAD project loaned money to sheep farmers in a mountainous area of Tunisia in North Africa A woman named Siham used her loan to buy four ewes female sheep and a ram a male sheep The animals mated and gave birth to more sheep Siham sold some of the animals to be butchered for food She sold wool from some of the other sheep to a blanket manufacturer She used the money she earned to repay her loan and to expand her business Over time Siham s herd grew to sixteen sheep With her earnings she built a room onto her family house She

Food: The New Gold — page 7 — also paid for health care for her sick brother and job training for her sister In talking about her success she said I feel as if I have been reborn Another IFAD project brought liquid gold honey to a village in Eritrea a country in eastern Africa Eritrean farmers normally grow grains and beans and raise a few animals on small plots of land But during droughts long periods of little or no rainfall crops won't grow and people go hungry The helped farmers learn to keep bees IFAD project and make honey Beekeeping enabled Hablemikael Luul an Eritrean farmer to survive drought He could run his beekeeping operation with small amounts of water Low rainfall didn't hurt his business With the money he made selling honey he was able to buy food even though prices were high I am really happy with my new business This is much better than working on the farm explains Luul I am getting old and farm work is really drudgery Bee keeping on the other hand requires less stamina strength and I make good money Another UN agency the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO helps farmers in poor nations around the world FAO funds projects such as low cost irrigation systems which enable farmers to bring water directly to their crops during dry periods FAO also helps farmers diversify or vary their business operations so they are not devastated financially if one part of their business fails For instance farmers might raise livestock and fish instead of just growing crops The addition of animals to a farm not only increases business but also adds meat to a poor family s diet HUNGER IN THE UNITED STATES In the United States it is rare for people to starve to death Still more than thirty five million Americans are unable to buy enough food They en skip meals Government officials describe these people as food insecure which is another way of saying they are hungry Food costs are rising in the United States and the effects are obvious

Food: The New Gold — page 8 — R G I FAOL 4800 5298 141 in us supermarkets A dozen large eggs cost 93 cents in 2001 By 2011 the price was 1 84 per dozen Milk cost 2 89 per gallon in 2001 The price had risen to 3 56 a gallon by 2011 Because of rising prices it is common to see people using coupons for discounts on food items buying groceries on sale and shopping at discount food stores Many U S families young and old low and middle income are trying to eat for less The problem worsened in 2008 when the U S economy entered a severe recession or downturn Millions of people lost their jobs or saw their wages drop Some lost their life savings Others couldn t afford to pay for their homes Many of these Americans have turned for help to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP a U S government food program formerly called the Food Stamp Program Other Americans have turned to state food assistance programs SNAP recipients use government issued cards similar to credit or debit cards to buy food

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