Hunger

Hunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts. It is an extreme of a normal appetite.

Politics of hunger

As of 2005, hunger continues to be a worldwide problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "850 million people worldwide were undernourished in 1999 to 2005, the most recent years for which figures are available" and the number of hungry people has recently been increasing. An orange awareness ribbon is used to raise awareness of hunger in the world.http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/issue4/0403p66.asp

Related Topics:
As of 2005 - Food and Agriculture Organization - United Nations - Awareness ribbon

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There is a wide range of opinions as to why this problem is so persistent. Organizations such as Food First raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the "free trade" economic order associated with such institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to hunger, claiming that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.

Related Topics:
Food First - Food sovereignty - Free trade - International Monetary Fund - World Bank

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Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work in demonstrating that hunger in modern times was not typically the product of a lack of food; rather, hunger usually arose from problems in food distribution networks or from governmental policies in the developing world.

Related Topics:
Amartya Sen - 1998 - Nobel Prize

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