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Food and hunger

Last reviewed: 28-10-2009

DYING OF HUNGER


The shadows of girls pounding grain are cast on the mud wall of their hut in a village in Niger. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
The shadows of girls pounding grain are cast on the mud wall of their hut in a village in Niger. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
Enough food is produced globally to feed the planet but even so more than one billion people go to bed hungry every night. Hunger is a leading cause of death, killing more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

  • A child dies of hunger every 6 seconds (U.N. World Food Programme - WFP)
  • A quarter of children in developing countries is underweight (WFP)

    Most of the world's hungry are not short of food because of a one-off disaster or crop failure but because of chronic, long-term poverty that means they cannot afford the food that is readily available in their local markets.

    Additional stresses like food price rises, drought, flooding, war and disease can create local food shortages which, without government or aid agency intervention, can develop into food crises. However, even at the height of a famine, often only certain groups are affected within a particular region.

    While state or aid agency food handouts are seen as a short-term solution and a valuable tool to help, many aid experts say longer-term solutions are needed to address root problems.


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    Prominent Western Sahara independence campaigner Aminatou Haidar smiles during her hunger strike at Guacimeta airport, on Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands December 1, 2009. Haidar has been on hunger strike since ...


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    Last updated:Tue Dec 1 17:28:31 2009