Food = Right + Need
In my Humanities class, my peers and I are studying the SDGs. We're writing about how certain needs, physiological needs, need to be human rights. I chose food. The SDG 2 goal is to completely demolish hunger by 2030. The subject I'm writing about is hunger. On Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, food falls on the physiological bar, which is the base of the entire pyramid. The needs are organized in a hierarchy of prepotency in which more basic needs need to be met before any of the higher needs.
Why should food be a human right? Solving world hunger is at the core of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) agenda for the 21st century. It's one of the 17 SDGs, and one of the most important of all of them. The second SDG states: "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" (United Nations). Access to food should be a human right because almost a billion people go hungry every day. There is enough food available for everyone in the world, but it’s just a means of access. Nearly 900 million people go hungry every day for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason is their not being able to afford it. The second reason is the lack of access. Perhaps you don’t have a vehicle or some way to transport your food easily.
People who suffer from hunger either live in remote places with barely any access, or they live in a food desert, which is an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. The need for food falls on the lowest bar of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s one of the most important needs of humans. “In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that almost 900 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition and that every year over 6 million children die of starvation and related causes,” says Jean Siegler.
Growth in the human population has increased the demand for food, which makes the costs of food escalate. Prices for most grains raised in 2004, and although there was an increase in production, the increase in demand was greater. There is a variety of forces that contribute to rising food prices: high energy prices, increased income, climate change and the increased production of biofuel. (The World Bank). Escalating food prices can push millions more into extreme poverty, causing SDG 2 (Ending World Hunger) to become further and further away from the goal of being completed by 2030.
Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State states in the Commission on Unalienable Rights: “[I] will provide the intellectual grist of what I hope will be one of the most profound re-examinations of inalienable rights in the world since the 1948 Universal Declaration" (Toosi). I believe Mike Pompeo is taking his current status as the Secretary of State for granted. What if he was in the same situation as almost 900 million people, where he little to none access to food? Would he still have the same mindset, the same opinion? Yeah, I didn't think so either.
Cited sources:
Toosi, Nahal. 4 July 2019, “Trump's 'Natural Law' Human Rights Panel Readies for Launch.” POLITICO, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/human-rights-panel-1398636.
World Bank, 13 Sept. 2013, “What Are the Facts about Rising Food Prices and Their Effect on the Region?” https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/09/13/america_latina_crisis_precio_alimentos.
United Nations, "Food.” https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/food/.
Why should food be a human right? Solving world hunger is at the core of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) agenda for the 21st century. It's one of the 17 SDGs, and one of the most important of all of them. The second SDG states: "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" (United Nations). Access to food should be a human right because almost a billion people go hungry every day. There is enough food available for everyone in the world, but it’s just a means of access. Nearly 900 million people go hungry every day for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason is their not being able to afford it. The second reason is the lack of access. Perhaps you don’t have a vehicle or some way to transport your food easily.
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| To, Hiu. Lincoln Park Community Center 2019 |
Growth in the human population has increased the demand for food, which makes the costs of food escalate. Prices for most grains raised in 2004, and although there was an increase in production, the increase in demand was greater. There is a variety of forces that contribute to rising food prices: high energy prices, increased income, climate change and the increased production of biofuel. (The World Bank). Escalating food prices can push millions more into extreme poverty, causing SDG 2 (Ending World Hunger) to become further and further away from the goal of being completed by 2030.
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| The Hunger Project |
Cited sources:
Toosi, Nahal. 4 July 2019, “Trump's 'Natural Law' Human Rights Panel Readies for Launch.” POLITICO, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/human-rights-panel-1398636.
World Bank, 13 Sept. 2013, “What Are the Facts about Rising Food Prices and Their Effect on the Region?” https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/09/13/america_latina_crisis_precio_alimentos.
United Nations, "Food.” https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/food/.
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