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Global Issues: World Hunger and Poverty
Jonathan Quiles
Dr. Judit Török
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Many individuals in developed countries take food for granted although it is the main
source of life and hope for many in poverty stricken countries; therefore it is important to
understand how hunger happens, and why ending worldwide poverty is the only solution to the
dire problem of world hunger. In speaking on hunger a moral theory that relates to this issue
would be John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism. Utilitarian theory places emphasis on the value of
happiness and life in all beings. Whilst this theory places its value on life and happiness, hunger
creates the opposite in which it causes despair and death worldwide. The moral obligations of
utilitarianism would strive for equal opportunity to live and be happy. World hunger created by
dire poverty would be an extremely critical concern based on this moral theory because it not
only creates despair and death but it prohibits possibilities of life and happiness. Utilitarianism
weighs moral actions on benefits and costs, ending hunger and poverty worldwide would benefit
the entire world because people would then become productive in societies. In other terms no
possible pain or consequence could come from ending poverty and feeding the hungry.
To understand hunger as a worldwide issue one must first investigate what hunger is and
what happens to those who are hungry. When speaking on worldwide hunger what defines it is
the want or scarcity of food in a country. The effects of hunger are called malnutrition and a new
more commonly used undernutrition. Malnutrition and undernutrition refer to the lack of
nutrients or nutritional elements that are important for healthy human development. There are
two types of malnutrition; there is micronutrient deficiency (vitamin and mineral) and also
protein-energy malnutrition. Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM) is the type that worldwide
hunger deals with. It is a form of malnutrition that essentially refers to a lack of calories and
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protein which ultimately hinders the development of healthy human bodily functions. The kinds
of human bodily functions that are affected by chronic hunger are all of them.
The complications and effects of hunger are vast and extreme; the body of a chronically
hungry person reacts in many ways. These types of reactions are damaging to the body and mind,
especially when it comes to the bodies of developing children. A human body will compensate
for the lack of calories and protein by slowing down mental and physical processes. A hungry
person cannot concentrate, a hungry person cannot be active, and ultimately the cost of this
hunger can be all productivity. John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism would deem these effects as
extremely negative when speaking about this moral theory. These effects of chronic hunger
affect not only the body which is an important aspect of human mobility and happiness but
hunger also affects the minds of individuals negatively. If you cannot think about anything then
how can you possibly be happy? The answer to this dilemma is that you cannot be happy
because you cannot think to be happy, which is a serious problem to utilitarian beliefs because
the entire moral theory revolves around what causes the most happiness and the least amount of
suffering.
Suffering according to Utilitarian theory would equate to evil in the world, and to
promote suffering would be to utilitarianism seen as morally bad and undeniably wrong. What
makes one suffer more than illness of health and mind. One person in eight of all humankind
does not consume enough calories to be a healthy person or lead an active life. This statistic
makes hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide it is a greater health risk
than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Malnutrition leads to infant mortality, increased
illness and infection due to weak immune system, inhibited growth in children both physically
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and mentally. Therefore to bring an end to much human suffering humans must first figure out a
way to solve the growing crisis of chronic hunger and malnutrition.
In investigating human suffering one must illuminate the reasons why there is suffering
in the first place. In this instance one must look at why people are hungry or what causes
worldwide hunger. In understanding the root of a problem one can come to an accurate
conclusion on how to go about fixing the issue. In investigating what causes hunger one must
first see if it is because there is simply not enough food for all. Research and information on the
topic however has come to the concrete answer that there is enough food to feed the global
population of about seven million, yet one in eight in the world is going hungry. The implication
of this on utilitarian theory would then acknowledge that if there is enough food for all to be
happy and healthy developing individuals that those who are going hungry suffer for no reason.
This would change much of the way utilitarian’s would view the problem because if it was a
quantity problem than that issue would be a harder issue to solve but it’s not a quantity issue it’s
another entirely. If the issue is not quantity than one would need to investigate why does hunger
exist? There are many answers to the question of why is there hunger. The main reasons for
hunger are: economic power, war, climate change, and poverty. These are the principle
determinants of who goes hungry.
Poverty seems to be the biggest determinant of who gets fed and who goes hungry in the
issue of world hunger. To simplify the answer people are too poor to get food. The causes of this
poverty though are due to lack of resources, unequal distribution of wealth, conflict and hunger
itself. Extreme poverty in developing countries contributes to the high amounts of hungry in the
world. Hundreds of millions of the extremely poor in these countries live on less than $1.25 a
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day; this in turn brings about a deeper poverty based on economic power, conflict and hunger
itself. Economic power is a cause of poverty and hunger because countries that have power and
economic and military wealth end up with the biggest shares of the resources in a country even if
their share leaves others in extreme poverty and chronic hunger. Conflict contributes to poverty
and hunger because many displaced by conflict and in countries of conflict will not see economic
assistance or growth because their country will likely spend less on public help and those
displaced have no government or economy to seek help from. Not only are you displaced by this
conflict it then strips you from adequate nourishment and/or money to provide you with adequate
nourishment. Hunger as a cause of hunger, because the hungry are poor in health this leads to
low levels of energy, even mental impairment. This advances even greater poverty by disabling
people’s ability to work and learn. This cycle of hunger causing deeper poverty and even deeper
hunger is a travesty. Allowing this type of cycle to occur is morally wrong, to allow that people
suffer and suffer even more is not morally acceptable utilitarian values. One must then inspect
after seeing what hunger is, what it does, and why it happens; what people are doing about it, and
how can people help to stop the cycle of hunger.
To solve the issues of chronic hunger the solutions must go to the root problems which lie
in systemized poverty. The solving of this hunger in these developed countries will have to come
with sustainable and economic roots. The World Food Summit met with a goal to half the
amount of undernourished people worldwide, and while not much progress has been made it
only emphasizes the enormous need for change in the way we go about fixing the issue of world
hunger. Hunger is not only a social issue it is a moral issue and is an important concern to be
examined and repaired as soon as possible for moral and economic reasons.
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In conclusion an important economic and ethical issue that needs to be resolved for the
betterment of mankind is chronic world hunger. Hunger is depravation of essential nutrients that
the body needs to develop normally both physically and mentally. The complications of hunger
bring about death, increased illness and infection, and even developmental issues. Furthermore
the issue of hunger severely impacts the quality of life for anyone suffering from it. This loss of
quality of life goes against the moral theory of utilitarianism because the theory places emphasis
on happiness and the value of life, while chronic hunger only decreases happiness and life
expectancy. Another pressing factor of world hunger issue is the fact that earth has enough food
to sustain the roughly estimated seven billion, so this isn’t an issue of quantity but an issue of
privilege and the unwillingness to help the underprivileged. The only way to fix this issue is
through sustainable and communal efforts worldwide and in communities where the hungry are
suffering. All in all it is our moral duty as human beings and citizens of the earth to put effort
into trying to stop the suffering of human beings who are chronically hungry by any and all
means necessary.
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References
Freedom From Hunger (2012) Hunger Information,. Retrieved from
http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/info/
Global Issues (2010) World Hunger and Poverty,. http://www.globalissues.org/issue/6/world
hunger-and-poverty
Global Issues, Anup Shah (2010) Causes of Hunger are Related to Poverty,.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/7/causes-of-hunger-are-related-to-poverty
The World Bank group (2012) Food Crisis,. http://www.worldbank.org/foodcrisis/
The World Food Programme (2012) Hunger Stats,. retrieved from
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats
The World Food Programme (2012) what is Hunger?,. retrieved from
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/ what-is
World Hunger Education Service (2012) 2012 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics,.
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm#Nu
mber_ of_hungry_people_in_the_world