Feeding The Hungry

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:45:17 +0000

Some 900 million people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition at this very moment. The United Nation estimates that every day some 50,000 starve to death. Genetically modified crops seemed to promise to save many of the worlds starving people at one time but now a new report by experts from 60 nations say it does not work. In GM foods genes for desirable traits are spliced into a plants DNA but these crops have been found to be unpredictable and often yield less food than seed without the genetic interference. Also GM seeds cost more and poor farmers cannot afford them. The know how to raise GM foods does not exist in Africa or South Asia where the poorest and hungriest people live. It seems that aid with common farming practices, not cutting edge science has the best chance at this time to reduce world hunger.

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Doctors Without Borders is starting a movement to provide a fortified supplement like a spread that is packed with required nutrients that does not require refrigeration. “For forty years there has been little done to find out what works and what doesn’t, or see how to improve the effectiveness of food aid,” said, Buddhima Lokuge, of Doctors Without Borders. Wheat and corn flour which is provided now is a disaster, it inhibits the kids from absorbing nutrients such as zinc, and buying food at home and shipping wastes money which could be spent for food. Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America said, “Half of what you spend for the needy goes for shipping”.

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In Africa just 5% of the land that could grow high yielding rice is doing so. The soil is so depleted it cannot grow the high yielding grain. Fertilizer is beyond the means of the farmers, but with education there are answers. Trees can be planted to supplement the soil with needful nutrients. Agents to advise farmers on when and how to plant new high yield crops and how to improve and fertilize the soil must be provided. It has been done. With such a program in Sauri,Kenya, maize production has risen from 1.9 tons per hectare in 2004 to 6.2 tons today.

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Socyberty » Oxfam America

Feeding The Hungry