High food prices have already prompted protests around
the world. There was an uproar over grain prices in Mauritius,
Senegal, African countries,and also disputes over food rationing
in West Bengal. The UN experts predict that prices will
continue to rise in the coming days as well. Rising prices
can bring a lot of changes across the world like food riots,
ups and downs of governments and social unrest. The Food
and Agriculture Organization, a branch of the UN, has identified
the crisis and is trying to bridge what is called the "food
gap". It is a new face of hunger. Huge food scarcity,
global warming, rocketing oil prices and world population
explosion have pushed humanity into one of the biggest quagmires.
Controlling soaring food prices, hunger and poverty is one
of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.
Food crisis is one of the most common problems of several
nations across the globe. Even though the problem seems
to be very simple, it is not. There are two faces to this
problem. One, there is the inadequacy of foodgrains. The
quantity needed often falls short of that needed for a minimum
caloric intake. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO) the overall per capita per day requirement of foodgrains
is 440 grams. For a number of years, the actual availability
has been less than that, although the condition has considerably
improved.
Second, diet is unbalanced with inadequacy of
nutritive items in the diet of many people and almost an
absence of these items in the food of poor people. In other
words, the food taken by most of the people across several
nations is deficient in nutritive elements. Proteins, vitamins
and minerals are important elements of a balanced diet,
but the food intake of several people across the globe lack
these dietary components. As a result, many people suffer
from diseases of malnutrition and efficiency of the working
people is adversely affected.
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