Opposite

Ellen Gustafon, an activist for both decreasing world hunger and improving the global food system, had a talk on how messed up the food system in the world has become. She started talking about hunger being the source of much worldwide insecurity, but then she pointed out one fact. She stated that the number of hungry people in the world is one billion, and then continued to say that the number of obese people is the same. This is such surprising information. It means that while a billion of the population is getting hungry, another billion is going the other extreme. I thought, “For sure, there is a connection between these two somewhere!” And I was not wrong. Ms. Gustafon pointed out that the problem is the global food system.

The food system in America has developed and grown for the past 30 years, she said. This has resulted to significant changes in the way Americans eat. She pointed out to processed food and how big the farmers and the farms in the United States have become. However, on the other side of the world, in Africa, the agricultural system has been left alone. Farmers are skinny because they are hungry. Ellen said that the farmers grow the food that people eat, so it is very important to look at them when addressing this worldwide issue. She said that the large consolidated farming in America has led to more food choices, less hungry in the US, but also more obese people. She said that in the same way that people are going hungry because there is a lack of food supply, the mismanagement of food supply also causes obesity. According to Ellen, the only way to solve this is through a better global food system. I agree with Ellen here. In my country Korea, people invest much in agriculture. The Korean people are very conscious about their health, so eating organic is very common. As a result, South Korea has the lowest obesity rate in Asia.

While advocating for less hunger, Ellen stumbled upon a simple but effective solution—feed bags! She, together with another advocate, started a social company that sells feedbags to people. Feed bags cost only 20 to 60 dollars a bag, but each bag can feed a child for a whole year. So far, Ellen’s company has served more than 50 million free meals to hungry children all over the world. But then, a long-term solution has to be made according to Ellen. As a result, Ellen started another project, the 30 project, which aims to improve the worldwide food system and combat both hunger and obesity. This project’s main goal is to make fresh fruits and vegetables easily accessible to every child, make the production of meat and fish better and sustainable, and have processed food taxed for their negative externalities.

Ellen Gustafon’s talk was really inspiring. It has showed how a little amount of money can go a long way into alleviating the hunger of people all over the world. It has also opened my eyes that hunger is a real problem. I never really thought about it since I do not really experience real hunger. However, listening to her talk, I realized that its not just about me—its about other people as well. Soon, I’ll have to do my CAS projects, which will allow me to do community services. For sure, one of my projects will be to feed the hunger too! Now that my eyes have been opened to what the real situation is, I know I have to do something about it. No matter how small, I still want to help.