The global food crisis affects everyone, not just those suffering directly from food shortages. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the consequences of continued inaction to end chronic malnutrition include "Likely impaired mental development, diminished learning ability, reduced work productivity, and increased prevalence of chronic disease." The economic impact of chronic malnutrition on some of the countries that are suffering the most has only recently been studied, and the data is compelling.
Economic Impact of the Global Food Shortage
Chronic malnutrition is now creating a multi-generational public health crisis in some countries. Reuters reported in the June 03, 2007, article titled "UN report highlights economic cost of childhood hunger," that child malnutrition in Central America and the Dominican Republic cost the governments of those countries $6.7 billion just in 2004 - 6.4% of the region's gross domestic product. With the recent wave of drought affecting the region, these numbers are continuing to climb.
Jose Luis Machinea, director of the Economic Commission for Latin America, has come to the conclusion that chronic malnutrition is creating a multi-generational cycle of poverty. In the same article, he states that, "Undernutrition has very serious long-term costs...given the impact on intrauterine growth during pregnancy of malnourished women." He goes on to state, "This cycle will more probably be repeated in their offspring and poverty will be perpetuated generation after generation if we don't act to remedy the situation."
The impact of the global food crisis is not limited to third-world, developing countries; it is affecting the economies of nations like the Unites States as well. In the July 1, 2009, Suite101 article "Hunger in America: Hungry American Children are a Growing Concern," Carmen Livingston reports that one out of every six children in America does not have access to sufficient amounts of nutritious food. She believes this is already affecting America's economy by causing "...more frequent medical problems and hospitalizations due to hunger and a declining number of youth able to enter and compete in American colleges and the workforce."
According to the WHO, the food shortage crisis is becoming a humanitarian catastrophe in the 21 nations it considers the hardest hit. They are calling on nations to come together to end the vicious cycle of malnutrition and poverty and to ensure that every child has the opportunity to become a healthy, productive member of society.
More on the Global Food Crisis
Droughts have been affecting many of the world's biggest food-producing regions, and the 2009 harvest has already experienced massive losses. Read "The Global Food Crisis Continues: World Food Shortages Expected to get Much Worse," to learn more about how bad some experts think the food shortage crisis might get.
Scientists have made tremendous progress in the field of sustainable agriculture. "Ending the Global Food Crisis: Five Ways to End World Hunger," looks at how ending food shortages requires taking a whole new approach to the way food is produced and distributed, and ways individuals can help.
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