Hangyun KIM 13A
IB English B HL
Discursive / Argumentative Essay (due MON)
QUESTION:
A local charity wants to know what the social problems are that most worry students. It has launched a
competition to write an essay, the first line of which is: “If I could solve just one problem in the
world…” Write your essay presenting what you consider to be a relevant problem and offering
possible solutions.
RESPONSE:
There are various problems concerning the world. Problems include global warming or the recent
subprime mortgage financial crisis. However, if I were to choose a drawback that concerns the world, I
would choose world hunger as a cancer to the world, and a grave threat to national development. There
are countless methods to solve such issue. Every year 15 million children die of hunger, while 34% of
Americans are overweight. One in twelve in the world is malnourished, which includes 160 million
children under the age of 5. Also, there are 500 million people in Asia, Africa and Latin American
countries who are living in ‘absolute poverty’. The entire population of Burundi can be fed for three
days just with the amount of donuts Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme disposes in a day.
Even though the world is plenty, there still exists millions suffering from hunger. Hunger is not only
caused by either less food production distribution; instead it is correlated with the causes of poverty.
Related causes of hunger include war (both civil and international), famine, poor crop yield, drought,
flooding, political instability and inefficient agriculture practice. Then, how can we solve this calamity?
One way of solving hunger is to improve world food distribution’s infrastructure itself. Most of the
economically developed countries have surplus of rice, crops and grains, which can feed more than 20
billion people. However, as food is not distributed equally, economically developing countries do not
have much food to eat. Those poorer countries may benefit from richer countries’ surplus, yet richer
countries are not willing to give away their food due to strategic reasons, such as buffer stock scheme.
New, advanced farming technologies may also contribute in world hunger solution. For example,
farmers in less developed countries could rotate their crops to keep the soil healthy. Genetically
modified crops that can endure even the harshest condition could increase food output. Farmers can
also irrigate non-arable land into arable land so that more crops could be grown. Putting emphasis on
agricultural industry by the government may also act as an incentive for less developed countries’
citizens to start their own farms, thus producing more food.
However, it is not a wise idea for both governments and non-governmental organizations to give out
food without anything in return. Doing so shall make those less developed countries to become more
dependent on other countries’ and NGO’s aid, and ultimately may loose willpower to grow their own
crops. One should teach how to fish, instead of giving fish. If agricultural experts from developed
countries teach proper farming methods for farmers in poorer countries without efficient farming
methods, world hunger would definitely be reduced.
Shockingly, by such methods, world hunger shall not be fully eradicated, since it is a way more
complex system than it may seems like. However they will nevertheless be effective methods of
reducing world hunger significantly. Through changing food distribution system, adopting better
agricultural technologies and richer countries not blatantly giving out food as a form of aid, hungry
people in less developed countries shall decrease drastically. So let us work together for a better world,
a world where lesser people are starving.