Food Security and Climate Change in the Form of Global Warming - Essay Example

Food Security Essay: 1- General statement: It is impossible to remain oblivious to many threats to global food supplies in the present age. 2- Background information about your topic: Climate change in the form of global warming is one of the major reasons behind food supply shortages currently haunting the world. Another key reason is related to population expansion which over last many years has brought explosively damaging transitions in the food production and supply system. 3- Justification (reason) for your choice of topic, what I hope to achieve? I hope to discuss the reasons behind global food crisis in addition to identifying some major solutions. I chose this topic for the essay because global food crisis is one of the biggest challenges faced by humanity today. 5- Thesis statement: Following discussion in this essay seeks to illuminate the reality of this claim that “climate change and rapidly increasing population has spawned fierce competition over land, water, and energy sources culminating in a food crisis.” 6- Preview: Following explication of problems which lay foundation for food crisis, the essay will illuminate some convincing solutions in the light of research literature to develop a connection between those solutions and food supply threats. Research confirms that climate change is one of the biggest and most lethal risks encountered by our food supplied. Global warming has worked to exacerbate tensions rising over food insecurity concerns. The influence of climate on food supplies is so phenomenal that both entities are popularized as being inextricably linked to each other. Food shortage is the reason why people in many parts of the world are driven toward the practice of committing suicide. This is because hunger is a great punishment and many people are bound to suffer from this punishment at hands of heaven-kissing food rates. People from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds suffer the most from this shortage in food supplies and resulting high food rates. Suicide rate is also particularly common among such groups. As food prices spiral out of control and agricultural practices get the worst of climate change, the world is advised to prepare for an upcoming dearth of many basic food products. What is so different now from the past is that masses of people have moved from calm rural areas to chaotic urban areas in response to industrialization and these areas suffer from a climatic risk that is more deadly and influential. It is the result of such mass migration of as many as 650 million people to arid or semi-arid areas that problems like flood, droughts, and skyrocketing food prices affect them the most (Choularton, cited in Vidal 2013). This small statistic helps to gain an insight into the awry situation of the food problem in present contemporary times. Human numbers increasing at an unprecedented rate also serve to exacerbate food insecurity issues. Growing human population makes massive contributions to food shortages due to heightened competition over limited food resources. Such dearth of resources and their unequal distribution also generates political turmoil in the world because wealthy elites in society exploit people from working class to reserve limited valuable resources for themselves in times of distress. This is why as mentioned before people from struggling socioeconomic backgrounds suffer in the worst way imaginable from food crisis. It is also interesting that population growth is more common among such people than among people from more wealthy, resourceful, or educational backgrounds. It is a common trend among less privileged people to equate a higher number of children with wealth because the more children there are, the more income will be brought into the house to afford food (Merrick 2002). While rich people depend on monopolizing money to battle food crisis, poor people depend on more children to face the same challenge. This identifies a relationship between lack of education or lack of awareness and ability to make proper decisions. Increasing awareness regarding family planning to battle the issue of food crisis could prove to be a very wise investment with great payoffs. There is also a definite relationship between poverty and population which should be essentially scrutinized to address global food supply shortages. This is an idea generally accepted by public since the late 18th century when Thomas Malthus first argued after studying depleting land and food resources that “high fertility and poverty went hand in hand” (Merrick 2002). Ensuring provision of educational opportunities and organizing awareness programs can be a very good way to fight the food crisis because lack of knowledge stops people from making wise choices in life. Lack of knowledge also makes people from poorer backgrounds more vulnerable to exploitation by wealthy elites and income inequality. Therefore, creating more opportunities like free education and better employment is a great idea to keep hundreds and thousands of impoverished protestors from aggregating on the streets to protest for food. Education is closely connected to the food crisis which is why everyone should be granted access to awareness programs regarding food shortage and family planning services (Sadik 2015). Women play a key role in food production especially in developing countries. Therefore, another great idea to lessen the effects of the food shortage problem is to acknowledge the dual role played by women who work in the fields all day long in addition to looking after their families. Such women should be made aware of family planning and they should be also provided free maternal and child healthcare services (Sadik 2015). The world has become so populous over the years that food resources have become increasingly fragile consequently (Yorio 2011). Entire forests have been wiped out from the face of the earth to provide more land for growing human population which has served to worsen the issue of global warming. This is why raising awareness about population control is critically valuable. 1-Logical conclusion: Concluding, controlling population growth can prevent fast depletion of important resources which are vital to prevent global warming and other adverse climatic events like hurricanes. 2-Brief summary: Principal issues of food security should be taken into consideration to address ever increasing public’s food demands. 3-Comment on ideas: Much has been written over dangers posed to global food supplies and general consensus is that both global warming and population which are increasing at an unbridled rate are two issues which demand most attention and reforms. 4-Predictions / Recommendations: If humans are made to reconsider the approach they take to family, food, and environment, it is predicted that a lot of damage can be prevented and the looming prospect of famine can be avoided also. References: Merrick, TW 2002, ‘Population and Poverty: New Views on an Old Controversy’, International Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 28, no. 1, viewed, 31 May 2015, Sadik, N 2015, Population growth and the food crisis, viewed, 31 May 2015, Vidal, J 2013, ‘Climate change: how a warming world is a threat to our food supplies’, The Guardian, viewed, 31 May 2015, Yorio, J 2011, ‘Food Solutions’, Stanford Social Innovation Review, viewed, 31 May 2015, Read More