Fixing Food
Hello, everyone! This is another of my Action Projects, this time coming from my Food For Thought class! In this class, we've been discussing the idea of death in this unit and how it affects food. We've been through different texts and videos that discuss how food we eat has been made and and sometimes still being made today. We were then tasked with this AP: to write a position paper on one of SDG 2's targets and describe how we can solve them, also using our course book, Empires of Food, to provide historical sources of civilizations that went through the same thing and how the conquered over it (or didn't). Here is mine! Enjoy!
The idea of ending world hunger is an enticing idea to many. So enticing that it’s become an SDG target. Specifically, a target of SDG 2. The SDGs are basically world goals that the UN wishes to achieve by 2030. SDG 2 focuses on hunger and ending, with Target 2.1 specifically targeting world hunger. Some of the reasons include how many people still go hungry, how many are still undernourished and especially how many children suffer from malnutrition. The purpose of this paper is to try and solve this issue through importation and possible fundraising.
As stated before, I am addressing Target 2.1 of Goal 2 in the SDG project. Target 2.1 is addressing world hunger and trying to stop it. The reason it is a priority is because, as much food as we have, so many are going hungry. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 132 million people may go hungry as a result of it. Not to mention the already existing 690 million. There’s also malnutrition that 14 million children go through. And, while it might have been impacted due to the virus, there has been much economic growth in many countries yet people still cannot afford to get healthy food, let alone food in general. Yet, while we might mainly associate the idea of hunger, food shortages and people being hungry with more modern settings, this problem has been experienced throughout history by many civilizations. One of which being Rome.
The Rome empire ran into a problem all too familiar to many people in the modern world: they had run out of food to feed themselves. As quoted in the Empires of Food, “By the second century B.C., ROme’s population had already strained her hinterland to its limits. Harvests had been thinning for years.” (53) Though they had won some land from battles, higher powers used that land to grow cash crops and not feed the hungry masses. Gracchus, a soldier who had fought for some of this land, had thought that it was unfair that the lords could use it just to grow crops for themselves then send it off. He then ran for office, which caused a bit of an uproar between the peasants and the nobility. He did however have some success, though it was short lived at best. The eventual food shortages and many more factors played into Rome’s downfall.
While they did have some success using the horrea system, a system which used storehouses, they eventually fell due to nutrients not being present in soil used for growing crops anymore and the soil that did have nutrients not being used for growing crops that could feed those in need. I have learned a couple of things from Rome. however. One is that soil means a lot. It’s the entire basis for growing crops, so it stands to reason that it needs to be taken care of. Another thing is that import can also be important. Having the ability to get things from other countries can help others in need. Finally, everyone needs to be on the same page for things like helping those in need. If not, there’ll be no way TO help.
So, how can the world solve world hunger? I believe that focusing on allowing people to grow their own food and providing the tools to do that could help very much. Importing tools, nutrients and seeds could provide them with a more stable food source. Importing food could also help a ton of people who might be living in more urban areas.
In conclusion, Target 2.1 is a target focused on ending hunger. The fact that many still go hungry is a problem. This, however, does not mean we are the first to experience this same problem. While other civilizations have experienced this problem and not overcome it, we can learn from what they did and create a plan to help the current problem facing us today.
Comments
Post a Comment