Food shortage - a global problem?

Societies all over the globe are faced with the effects of a process referred to as Globalization. This process amplifies the worldwide interconnectedness. Thus former boundaries disappear and local actions and developments easily can have consequences for other regions and even the whole world. The world literally gets smaller.

Nature, Nations, societies and individuals are affected by globalization, but the allocation of its benefits is highly unequal. A large number of the world’s population still lives in poverty. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) claims in its world hunger report 2009 that 1.02 billion people are undernourished worldwide [1]. The food shortage especially concerns sub-Saharan Africa and most south-Asian countries [2].

Already in the late fifties the first Federal Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, has indicated that a global co-operation is necessary to overcome the main challenges for societies nowadays:

“Our enemies of today are not other nations. Our enemies of today are poverty, ignorance, disease and discrimination. What we need is co-operation based on the idea that the entire world is one human family. Ignorance and lack of understanding among Asian, African and Western nations is the greatest danger we are facing today” (Konrad Adenauer, 1957).

The following article will discuss the main reasons for and the consequences of massive food shortage. (Then will give a short outlook on the agricultural production in the future.)

Massive food shortage does not seem to be an issue for industrialized countries like the United States of America, Canada, Australia or the nations of the European Union. If one thinks about food shortage, pictures of dying children on the African continent cross one's mind. Indeed most of the countries with a undernourished population are in sub-Saharan Africa and south-Asia, but does that automatically lead to the conclusion massive food shortage is just a regional problem?

The main problem in south-Asia regarding food shortage are undernourished children. One big reason is the low social standing of women. Therefore young mothers often are uneducated and not able to raise their children properly. Most sub-Saharan countries suffer from a dramatic infant mortality rate and a high rate of people not being able to meet their calorie demand.