World We Dare To Imagine Part 1

The first step to a better world is addressing the issue of food scarcity. I read this article claiming if the world as whole evenly distributed all of the food produced, each person would get roughly 2,750 calories of food per day. The production and distribution of food are influenced by two main factors: human institution and natural resource endowments. 

The latter focuses on the amount of natural resources a country has, thus how much a given country is able to produce for their people. Human institution concerns topics such as public policy and government to set in place production and distribution systems for the food, but they are also faced with the responsibility to import and export when needed. 

The face of this issue seems easy to address. Countries with a shortage of food should import from countries with an excess, but there are many factors that complicate this. One factor being war. War prevents food from reaching certain areas involved in armed conflict, and countries involved in war may not export goods they are commonly known to produce.

The war in Ukraine is a modern day example of how war impacts food scarcity. Russia and Ukraine export 28% of fertilizers made from nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, so this fertilizer shortage has led to concerns over the price and scarcity of food globally.

Comments

  1. Rear-View MirrorNovember 17, 2022 at 2:17 PM

    Glad you're addressing this issue too - statistics like the one you presented here really highlight how much opportunity there is to improve people's lives. Maybe there's a role for a supranational agency to ensure all countries still have access to food during conflicts, in the same way the Red Cross provides aid in cases of natural disaster regardless of country affiliation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa ChenNovember 18, 2022 at 11:40 AM

    Hi Marc, definitely an important issue! One possible solution to this could be countries building more greenhouses so that farms are able to produce any type of crop because of the controlled environment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LuciaNovember 18, 2022 at 8:37 PM

    Hi Marc, glad you are touching on this issue. Food insecrity is detrimental to the development of people of all ages and is a common issue many are facing. While it can be hard to think of tackling food insecurity on the systematic scale, within communities it would be a start to set up community gardens and food banks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Florence HartingNovember 28, 2022 at 5:41 PM

    Hi Marc! I found it very interesting to learn more about food scarcity, particularly about how wars can make such an impact. I think this is a good and unique angle to take as you progress your idea further!

    ReplyDelete

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