- While the wars in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine and Russia rage on.
- While millions of illegal immigrants invade the U.S. southern border.
- While a rampant crime and drug wave devastates cities across the Nation.
- While private companies are spending billions of dollars sending rockets to the Moon.
- While “silly people” debate the proper pronoun to use with each other.
Almost a billion people in the World are STARVING!
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The 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) reported updates on food security and nutrition around the world. The report was jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Some of the reports’ conclusions were as follows:
- 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – 46 million more than a year earlier.
- The proportion of people affected by hunger jumped to 9.8% of the world population.
- Approximately 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severe food insecure in 2021.
- The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 – 31.9% of women in the world were food insecure, compared to 27.6% of men.
- Approximately 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020 reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices.
- An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from “wasting”, the deadliest form of malnutrition. 149 million children under the age of five had “stunted growth and development” due to chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets.
- Two in three children are not fed a minimum diverse diet required for them to grow and develop to their full potential.
- The report projects that nearly 670 million people (8% of the world population) will still be facing hunger in 2030 – even if a global economic recovery is taken into consideration.
The war between Ukraine and Russia has been disrupting international supply chains. These countries are two of the largest global producers of staple cereals, oilseeds and fertilizer.
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In October of 2023, NPR, published a report entitled, “American families struggle to get food on the table.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that just providing three meals a day to their families was a struggle for millions of Americans. The report found that 44.2 million people lived in households that had difficulty getting enough food to feed everyone in 2022. Those families included more than 17 million children experiencing food insecurity.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, stated that, “These numbers are more than statistics. They paint a picture of just how many Americans faced the heartbreaking challenge last year of struggling to meet a basic need for themselves and their children.”
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The USDA found that nearly 7 million households were so financially squeezed in 2022 that they had to skip meals at times because there wasn’t enough food to go around. Almost all these households said they couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals. In some 381,000 households with children, kids also experienced pangs of hunger – skipping meals or going the whole day without eating.
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The Content Authority explains that “While hunger and starvation are often used interchangeably, they do have different meanings. Hunger refers to the physical sensation of needing food, while starvation is a state of extreme malnutrition resulting from a prolonged period of inadequate or no food intake.”
The symptoms of starvation are revealed in three stages:
Stage One: When meals are missed, the body begins to maintain blood sugar levels by producing glycogen in the liver and breaking down stored fat and protein.
Stage Two: Stage two may last for weeks at a time. In this stage the body uses stored fat for energy. The breakdown occurs in the liver and turns fat into ketones – ketones are a type of sugar and are the body’s main energy source.
Stage Three: The fat stores are gone, and the body begins to turn to stored protein for energy. It breaks down muscle tissues full of protein. The muscles break down very quickly. When the protein runs out, the cells can no longer function.
The cause of death due to starvation is usually an infection or the result of tissue breakdown.
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Since January 24, 2022, American taxpayers have sent aid to Ukraine to fight the Russians. The aid consisted of financial, security assistance, weapons and equipment, and grants and loans for weapons and equipment totaling $74.3 billion.
In November 2023, the House of Representatives approved $14.5 billion in military aid to Israel to eliminate Hamas from Gaza.
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The American taxpayers must force their government to change priorities. Make American citizens the priority. The new priority should be to direct the Nation’s generosity towards the 44.2 million American households who are having difficulty feeding everyone in the family.
Make all Americans food secure now!
James Peifer
