Can We Put an End to World Hunger?

The latest competition from @livesustainably is Zero Hunger. The question asked is “How would you go about solving the hunger problems in our world?”

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I think it's pretty clear by now that the world produces more than enough to feed its current population, so lack of food is not the cause of people going hungry. When Argentina went into economic collapse, people were dying of hunger, yet they were still producing as much food as they always had. So hunger there isn't being caused by the lack of food, but by the lack of ability to purchase food.

Africa has the potential to feed its own population, but there are lots of different reasons why it's currently not; drought, exports, population, war and even trade restrictions between countries. I once heard someone say that if we refused to buy food from countries where people are starving, then they would have enough to go around to stop them going hungry. However, although it might help, the reason that producers sell their food abroad is because they often aren't able to sell it at home. Whether the foods stays in the country or not, there are still those who can't afford to buy it or can't get to it due to restrictions.

So can we stop world hunger? Not individually. It needs to be dealt with at the source. For every area that has people going hungry, there will be different causes and therefore different solutions and these can only be dealt with in situ. It's not enough to just send food occasionally, solutions need to be found to raise them out of these situations and that can only be done by those there. Education of some form often plays a part in it. Think of that old proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The education needed will again depend on the situation.

As the world becomes more accessible to us all with sites like Steemit, I think we have more and more opportunity to help with projects that are tackling hunger at its source. @azizbd has created @SchoolForSDG4, a project which not only offers education to under privileged children, but is also feeding them when funds allow. @sircork has also set up his charity @YouAreHOPE on the Steem blockchain. Through this he reaches out to help with projects all over the world. So just via steemit, we can already start to help these projects that are trying to sort out poverty at the source and the funds can go direct to the sources without the worry that some will get filtered off along the way.

So what would I personally do about world hunger? I'm not in a location where I can do anything personally, but I can reach out to others who are trying to do something about it where they are and try to assist them. Through my account @life-relearnt I've already started to do some fundraising for @SchoolForSDG4 and I'm not the only one. We hope to see their weekly fruit and monthly meal programme grow so that they can offer it more often. Education and working your way out of poverty go hand in hand.

With @YouAreHOPE (Help, Opportunity, Purpose, Empowerment) @sircork is way ahead of me, networking with people in different countries who are making a difference where they are. This is definitely next on my list to start fundraising for when @life-relearnt actually gets off the ground. He is achieving so much in directing funds where they can do the most good.

In the meantime I'll continue to avoid food wastage in my own home and continue learning how to grow my own food while sharing what I learn with others. I would also like to share with this post and donate the liquid SBD earnt to one or both of the above mentioned charities.

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