How Food Insecurity Impacts the World

In simple terms, food security is referred to as inconsistent access to enough food in order for people to live an active and healthy life. Hence, there are millions of people around the world who are suffering from a shortage of food and there is no telling whether they will be able to feed themselves the next day or even at the end of the day. This serves as the basis of defining what food insecurity actually is.

According to a report posted by the Conserve, Energy, and Future, it was found that 1 in 9 Americans had suffered in 2018, largely due to food insecurity issues. This is equivalent to around 37 million people, out of which 11 million of them are children. 

Food insecurity leads to hungry people. And that hunger will lead to diseases and poverty. Consequently, food insecurity is considered a dangerous concept as it does not exist in isolation – low income families can be affected by a number of overlapping issues such as low wages, high medical costs, chronic health problems, etc. all of which could result in food insecurity, therefore making it a dangerous and complex state of life.

What Causes Food Insecurity?

There are a number of things that have led food insecurity to come into existence. Some of them include the following mentioned below.

Little to No Access to Farming Lands

Food is produced or grown on land and simultaneously, it also serves as an income generator. Unfortunately, not many people have their own land or cannot even afford to have any access to farmable land.

Having land ownership works to strengthen agricultural productivity as it can be used to produce a number of food crops of different varieties, even at a small scale level. Without having access to farming lands, it can mean a lack of key resources for cultivating food crops.

Wars, Violence, and Conflict

There are many things that impact food production and supplies; conflicts, war, and violence being one of the main reasons behind it. And what is even worse is that in most countries, civil war has been prevalent over many years, thus leading to high impacts of food insecurity.

According to a report conducted by the FAO in 2018, it was found that around 5.5 million of Syrians have faced food insecurity and conflict plays most of the part in it. In addition to that, food shortages caused by conflict issues can also trigger years of food crisis even if the fighting has ended.

However, a silver lining to the situation is that there are professionals who are relentlessly working to turn the situation around for the better. A prime example of such an individual can be Dave Nayak – a revered American physician, philanthropist, farmer, and Deacon, who also serves as the founder of the Strength to Love Foundation (STL) and the owner of Nayak Farms.

Dave is also the President of the Chicago-based non-profit ‘ ‘Strength to Love Foundation” which was founded in 2019 and is a registered 501c3 non-profit organisation that focuses on improving healthcare access, gun violence, and food security.

Furthermore, his efforts have even extended towards using STL to provide financial assistance for funerals and burials to families that have lost their young children to gun violence in Chicago.

Moreover, at the Nayak Farms Sweet Corn Initiative, Dave has donated more than thousands of sweet corn to the major Illinois Food Brands and has also been involved in the development of an effective infrastructure system required to donate over 1,000,000 pounds of sweet corn by 2026 – to Illinois and the Midwest to counter food insecurity problems to all food-insecure families.