What is Hunger?

How many times a day do most of us casually throw around phrases like “I’m starving!” or “I’m dying of hunger!”…? Well, it's time for a reality check!

Today, the 28^th of May, marks World Hunger Day. It is a day to talk about what hunger is, and how we can work towards eradicating it.

So what is hunger?

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) explains the meanings of the words hunger and undernourishment:

Hunger is the condition of stomach pangs and general fatigue. 

Undernourishment is a chronic condition in which person is underweight for his/her age, shows stunted growth, and is deficient in vitamins and minerals.

According to FAO’s reports The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 (SOFI 2015), India has the highest number of undernourished people in the world, at 195 million.

So what causes hunger and how can it be eradicated?

Is there world hunger only because not enough food is being produced? Is the solution as simple as “doubling our food production”, as many have proposed, in order to feed the projected population of 9 billion by 2050?

NO!

If there’s something I have learnt from the online course I am currently taking, it is that the global food system is highly complex. There are several reasons for the current global food crisis. And so the solution for world hunger is far anything as simply are merely doubling food production.

Many experts have suggested steps the world can take, at the global and national policy level, at the local production and distribution level, and at the personal consumer level. And it is probably a combination of these steps, and a conscious global effort that will slowly eradicate world hunger.

But it is reassuring to know that according to SOFI 2015, many parts of the world have made noteworthy improvements in the state of their hunger crisis. India may still claim the highest number of undernourished people in the world. But our country, along with china, accounts for 4/5th of the total diminition of the worlds hungry! It's definitely a start.

With rapid spread of awareness about the food situation in the world, and popularisation of concepts like Slow Food, right to food education, sustainability, and family farming, I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. Eradication of world hunger in the foreseeable future does not seem like such an impossible notion anymore!