For most of us in the developed world eating comes naturally. A lot of us even eat more than we need to, I know I do. I tend to just eat anything whenever I feel like it even if I’m not hungry. I just like chewing and tasting, what can I say? If food is placed in front of me, I can’t stop myself from eating it (even if it’s a raisin that I’m supposed to savor for a contemplative practice). Whatever we’re in the mood for we go right to the store and get it, or we can just have Postmates deliver it to us. Unfortunately it is not that simple for everyone. While I’m sitting in class thinking about how I get to eat lunch once we are dismissed, about 21,000 people die from hunger or malnutrition, and that’s just in one day, in a year it’s closer to 9 million deaths. With there being extreme examples of food scarcity in many regions of the world, many go hungry because they are not able to harvest enough crops. They don’t have the option to just pop into their nearest Safeway and buy groceries for dinner, and even if that were an option they would not be able to afford it when many have less than two dollars to spend on food per week. I spend more than that for one snack, it would be impossible for me to last the week. I wish I could say that these contemplative practices have made me change my ways, but they haven’t. Opened my eyes, yes, but given the fact that I just ate an entire bag of chips in one sitting I would say that I am not very sympathetic to the situation. World hunger is a serious problem that has plagued society for countless years and it’s going to take more than one entitled nineteen-year-old to put an end to the devastation, but if enough people cared then there is potential for change.
Hi Sydney,
I feel like you couldn’t have encompassed my sentiments more accurately than you have in your posts. A friend once said to me: “College makes you know better, but do you do better? No.”, and it seems like that is what’s happening here. The thing is, like you said, our individual actions and choices in this respect won’t make too much of a difference. Especially because a majority of this problem of starvation is not even happening in the U.S., so it is even more difficult to have any effect. Beyond this, the countries suffering from such issues are often more vulnerable in other ways, and other countries will take advantage. This can be seen in land grabbing; the country in which land is being grabbed will agree to anything that might bring them additional revenue, even if it is not in their long-term interest, due to desperation. But these issues are so much bigger than us, which means that they should be addressed with actions equally ad big. Sort of like Newton’s law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For additional context I will also say that it is like with systemic racism; it should be addressed systemically, as it was implemented systemically. Anyway, I appreciate you insight on this. Great blog post!