When we talk about the problem of world hunger, we are not talking about that urge to eat that you feel at lunch or dinner. The hunger problem is related to the lack of food available to people or the impossibility of being able to access or buy food.
Thus, hunger in the world is related to the economic issue, directly linked to the misery that some people and most countries suffer. Currently, it is estimated that 1 billion people worldwide suffer from this problem.
To better understand this issue, social scientists divided hunger into two types: endemic or open and epidemic or hidden.
Epidemic or open hunger: it is one that occurs thanks to specific situations in a given region or locality, such as plagues that affect agriculture and impede the supply of food, and the conduct of wars, which generate many deaths and misery among people in countries reached.
Endemic or hidden hunger: it is one that occurs due to malnutrition, that is, when people do not have access to enough food to guarantee the amount of nutrients needed by the body.
The UN (United Nations Organization) and WHO (World Health Organization) define that, each day, each person needs to consume at least 2500 calories. If people consume, on average, less than that, they are considered to be endemic or hidden hungry.
Hunger occurs in many places, usually in economically weakened countries (some in Africa, others in Asia and the Americas), but this problem is not unique to poor countries or regions. It also manifests itself on the outskirts of large and small cities in rich or emerging countries.
There is no consensus on how to solve the world hunger problem, although it has been decreasing (slowly!) In recent decades.
Many people, countries and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) invest time, money and resources to fight hunger in the world, believing that this is the only way it will end. Other people believe that this alone is not enough, as it would be necessary to combat the economic and social inequalities that exist both between and within countries, mainly increasing the distribution of income.
