What’s
Going On?
Some people don’t get food,
Even when there’s so much left to spare,
What’s more those who already have too
much,
Don’t really seem to care.
How could we have come to this,
When to be human is to be kind?
Not over-stuffing one’s greedy mouth,
While 1 billion1 others
survive on grime.
Some organizations try to do their part,
But we all know something's wrong!
When food distribution and food channels2
don't run as well as the TV's-
One click, and the connection’s on.
Now, can one still feel just like a king,
Snug and warm in one's cushy bed,
Knowing there are still starving souls
out there,
Who can't even access the shade?
Reports have shown that food wastage is rampant;
approximately 30% to 50% of food grown globally is left to rot before it is
brought into the market (Eichenseher) .
According to Ogden, Carroll, Kit and Flegal, in the U.S., more than 78 million
adults and 12.5 million children and adolescents were obese in 2009–2010 (1).
The study conducted between 1999 - 2000 and 2009 - 2010 also showed that there
was an increase of 8% on the prevalence of obesity amongst men, whereas there
are 925 million starving people in 2010 (3).
My first and second stanzas pose the
question, “seeing that there is an increase in the number of people getting
obese, why is it that there is still such a large number of starving people in
the world?” This is the 21st century, whereby a large majority of
people in developed countries has access to news and the ongoings in the world.
Which brings me to question why do people still over consume till the point
where they are clinically deemed as obese when there are so many people out
there who have barely anything to eat?
The third stanza talks about how society has evolved so
quickly that technology (for entertainment), with reference to, “when food
distribution and food channels don't run as well as the TV's - one click, and
the connection’s on,” runs so smoothly, yet it’s difficult to establish a
sustaining food supply to allow people their basic human right of having access
to foods.
The fourth stanza talks about how
we, as a society, are behaving. Knowing that people, especially those in
underdeveloped countries who have poor access to food, shelter and water, are
out there suffering, how is it that we can still go to bed without feeling the
urge to act on the issue now? What will it take for the majority of the society
to make a move?
Bibliography
Argentini, Olivio. "Achieving Urban
Food and Nutrition Security in The Devloping World." August 2000.
International Food Policy Institute. 12 September 2012
<www.ifpri.org/2020/focus/focus03/focus03_05.pdf >.
Byrd, Deborah. How many hungry in a world
with 7 billion? 30 October 2011. 12 September 2012
<http://earthsky.org/human-world/how-many-people-in-the-world-today-are-hungry>.
Eichenseher, Tasha. Waste Food, Waste
Water — A Message From World Water Week. 29 August 2012. 12 September 2012
<http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/29/waste-food-waste-water-a-message-from-world-water-week/>.
Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM.
Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009–2010. NCHS data brief, no 82.
Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2012.
