Essay on Hunger in America

It has been a problem for years, but only a few have decided to join and support the cause to solve the world problem. Focusing on America, one sixth of the population in the country suffers from hunger. This starts to become a bigger issue as climate change starts permanently affecting agricultural and leaving less food. However, there is a simple, but complex way to fix this problem and that is realizing and manipulating other beneficial food sources and creating organizations such as the Hunger Project. The Hunger Project was founded in 1977, during the beginning rise of world hunger triggered by the first Rome World Food Conference. Rather than simply being another relief organization to temporarily prevent the situation, The Hunger Project was created as a strategic organization. Over the years, this organization has come in and out of situations to adjust and meet each challenge along the path of ending hunger (Denver et al.). The Hunger Project carried out the world’s largest public education and advocacy campaign on the issue of hunger, designed to motivate the entire world to help end hunger. There are many organizations like this and what better way to start than our own country rather than holding all the eggs in one basket. Process of solving hunger will take extraordinarily long, but can happen with the help of others donating to the poor. Hunger is becoming a larger problem in America due to laziness, global warming, and outdated food being thrown away.

A known but hard-to-change factor for hunger in America is laziness. We can say help hungry people all we want, but typically known acts towards their remarks. Approximately 40% of Americans in 2016 had a struggle to feed their families due to laziness, which results in poverty and leaves a bad reputation to the overall country. Everyone must work individually to earn the standard of living, but people are often drifted away from drug addiction and overall bad choices. A mediocre population of America will buy as much food as they think they need to last a long period of time. The food ends up going bad because they didn’t account the expiration date, and eventually throw the food out. Annually, America produces 430 billion pounds of food, which could feed the approximate 319 million people living in the country (Stanley). However, food being delivered to hunger organizations is often heavily-processed food, typically made to last long with hardly any health benefits, and is not efficient for the world or a single country alone.

Laziness used to be considered a luxury, but could be considered a world issue in itself. There is no start to laziness, however in the 21st century there was mixed feelings over how to spend leisure time. Some Americans used free time to be productive such as attend night school, practice religion, and participate in sports. Others pass this time in a more efficient, but less beneficial way. Taking naps or playing video games to take a break from the real world was their idea of passing the time. Some believed that the Internet was making us lazier others saw it increased out productivity (Weeks).

Besides lacking in productivity, global warming is also a cause of hunger in America. Global warming is an environmental threat unlike any other the world has faced. Global warming is a world issue in itself, but there is a way to help avoid the harm it deals. First, global warming is the increasing of greenhouse gases, resulting in a rise of their concentrations in the atmosphere. This creates the greenhouse effect which traps gases inside the atmosphere, slowly heating up the Earth and tempering with climate. Overall weather patterns start to change according to the effects, and it is destroying important farmlands. It could vary from torrential downpour in any season to long droughts in the summer. Not only is the weather affecting the environment, it is affecting crucial food sources used to feed thousands, including people suffering from hunger (Tacio). However, an alternate way to provide a certain food that is close to becoming the highest nutritional food could revolutionize hunger.

Instead of the stereotypical ‘farm to table’ the idea of ‘boat to plate’, which was using fish as a main source of food, is a beneficial way to provide food and save the land from being used for some farming. However, tracking fish is important because many fish are frequently mistaken for other species of fish. In 2013, approximately 59% of tuna were mislabeled as a different fish. The Safety Fraud and Enforcement for Seafood Act basically decreased the likelihood of fish to be mislabeled or treated in an unsanitary way. Fish do not take up any land, therefore already benefitting the environment, as well as preventing weather to flood them out permanently (Savitz). Sustaining a healthy ocean could benefit by feeding people everywhere in the world rather than creating less healthy ‘stay on the shelf meals’.

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Expiration dates are frequently seen and talked about as the day that food expires. Most of the time the label reads ‘sell by’ and never says ‘expiration date’. There are one of four types of labels put on every food in some way. Approximately 91% of consumers throw out food based on packaging dates ‘sell by’ date indicates how long a store should display a product on its shelves. But foods are still flavorful and safe to eat several days after this date if you store them properly. ‘Best if used by’ date comes straight from manufacturers. The product will be freshest and have the best taste and texture if you eat it by this date. But this date does not refer to food safety. ‘Use by’ date also comes from manufacturers. It’s the last date for peak quality. After this date, taste, texture and quality may go downhill, even if food safety does not. The ‘expiration’ date is the only packaging date related to food safety. If this date has passed, throw the food out (Kirkpatrick). On top of the food labels is also individual food spoil average time. An example of this is dry pasta can last 2 years before beginning to lose peak freshness.

Federal law does not require food to be dated or labeled in most cases. However, there are close to 20 states that have laws about the dates. On most occasions, manufacturers add dates voluntarily. In general, perishable foods such as meat, poultry, eggs and dairy get dates. But those dates aren’t always about spoilage. Some dates simply inform retailers when products are at their best for freshness, taste and texture. A problem between people not wanting to waste food, but save themselves from the risk of food poisoning keeps many from choosing the easier way out, which is simply throwing the food away (Kirkpatrick). Food poisoning is a serious illness and 1 in 6 Americans die every year by receiving food poisoning. E.coli is the direct result of food poisoning and has several ways to avoid simply by looking at your food. Raw meat is the most common cause of E.coli, but fruit and vegetables covered in animal fecal matter can result in the illness as well. Most symptoms are followed by stomach cramping or diarrhea. So, it is important to make sure the food we receive is safe to eat, but does food always need to be tossed out? The key to keeping a healthy diet is reducing sugar consumption, lowering cholesterol and not using substitutes. Food can be judged by the consumer on whether it is edible or not, but it should be taught during a young age to create a healthy living along with making smart choices (Kirkpatrick).

There are plenty of programs striving to help hungry people across the globe, but what better way to start then their country. 20 million people are fed free or reduced lunch in school, and only 10% of that population has access to meals over the summer. Everyone wakes up with the feeling of being hungry, but that’s a different hunger. The real definition of hunger is not knowing when the next meal will be served to eat. A proposed solution supported by many is that of gleaning, which is collecting leftover crops on farmland left by the farm vehicles, and providing a healthier, more efficient food source. To accomplish this, take away the food meant for lasting on the shelves, specifically for hungry people, and produce fresh foods or collect it through gleaning. There is already a surplus in food in America, it just takes time to collect which means to avoid becoming lazy and salvaging what is possible, meanwhile the idea of fish farming begins to rise in popularity. Fish farms create nutritional food and because the oceans are so vast, it is possible to have many self-sustaining farms that will produce unlimited food at a slight pace.

There are many organizations working to change our food choice, but one major problem is distributing the food out to multiple places at once. Many people suffering from hunger are only suffering because they cannot afford food. Organizations and soup kitchens do a good job at locally helping homeless or hungry people with free food, but the food being distributed can be multiplied and produced healthier if we can time actions correctly. Gleaning is an important and beneficial way to prevent food being wasted and provide it to people in need of food. The proposal is to ensure fish farms come about to create extra food sources, and with the extra food sources, pass a law similar to the Safety Fraud and Enforcement for Seafood Act on multiple food along with another law preventing stores from tossing food only slightly damaged or past the ‘sell by’ date. With extended food dates and more sources to get food, hunger in the country could begin to decrease.

Hunger in America has always been a problem, and the country had refused to fix it quickly, which was a lack of responsibility, resulting in a major increase in hungry people. It is said that hunger in America can be solved by 2030, but the likelihood of all these proposed ideas turning into actions are unlikely due to our lack of productivity. The world is left with this problem, but can only be saved if other worldly problems begin to become solved. Hunger in America is truly caused by laziness, global warming, and the judgement of expiration dates.