Food, a Human Right?

In our Humanities or SDGs class, Sustainable Development Goals, we were talking about the certain goals that could be thought of as a need to be a human right. The options were no poverty, no hunger, and quality education. The goal that I chose was number two, no hunger. I believe that food should be a human right because it is primarily a basic need. We need food to survive and if we do not have it we will obviously die, since that is the only alternative. Before then we went on a field experience to Lincoln Park Community Services in Chicago. There we experienced people who are hungry and we also as a class, cooked for the people that attended the lunch. I personally enjoyed this because I was able to talk with people that needed food and they were really appreciative of the food that they had been given. This led to the action project which is an essay about our chosen goal. The essay is below.

To, Hiu, LPCS 2019, One of the food items cooked was chicken.

Could you imagine being someone, in a region with little to no income, and are struggling to find food not only for yourself but your family? Can you imagine all of that but also with conflict tearing through your country and life? In 1998 government-recruited militias were accused of repeatedly bombing and burning hospitals, refugee camps, churches, and some other civilian targets which led to manipulating food aid, bringing 2.6 million south Sudanese to the brink of starvation. This is what people might think of when talking or writing about global hunger. Not only in third world countries, but even in the most prosperous countries, there is hunger and starvation and death. According to The Borgen Project, “Approximately 9 million people die each year because of starvation and lack of food. This is more than the death count from malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDs combined in 2012” (Turk). We as a country, the United States, need to make food an immediate given, to people who don’t have it, a human right which can start decreasing the amount of people dying from lack of food a year in the U.S., leading to solving world hunger across the globe. By making food a human right, we can begin to end world poverty, deaths of starvation and malnutrition, and creating an economic balance with all countries to maintain a stable environment and planet.

When you do not have food you begin to starve, inevitably leading to death. The chance of missing a single meal can start the effects of a changing mood, thought process, and ability to move. Engulfed with pain, you can feel like you don’t want to live. Some vital organs begin to shut down, not operating because their energy source is the nutrients that you do not have in your body and on your plate. World hunger is a problem around the globe, in the smallest to the biggest of countries and continents. Hunger falls on the lowest part of the hierarchy of needs. It is the most basic need for all people because we need food to survive. We can be refrained from food for a couple of days but after that you begin to starve to death. It is a necessity for all of us. This supports why we need to find ways to reduce world hunger. Many people in the world do not have food because there is a war raging in their country. The soldiers take the livestock and other food items from the homes of people living in the country. They can be forced to move and end up in refugee camps where there is sickness and not enough food that is given out. According to the Global Hunger Index, “During periods of conflict, hunger may be both a cause and a consequence of forced migration. People affected by conflict experience it not only as a threat to their lives but as an assault on their livelihoods that can undermine their ability to provide for their most basic needs, including food” (Hammond). We cannot physically survive without some form of food. Although the refugees are getting food from helpers at the camps it is most likely that the food is old or is given in very small amounts, as to be able to feed everyone. Normally the food is not enough and very quickly they need more and are back to starving. This impacts people trying to make journeys to different countries to seek a better environment. Not everything can be done to help but working towards it would be a big step in the world.

There are many consequences of not fulfilling the need of food. There are also benefits though. When people are not hungry they have the strength and energy to work which strengthens our economy. This also can lead to ending world poverty because most people who are hungry do not have money or the products to create or buy food. A world without hunger can create a positive impact on our economies, health, education, equality and social development. This impact is that of growing industries and businesses and also enhanced agricultural production. When people have the strength to work they can start a job. An easy job could be farming which then produces more food to help more people who are additionally hungry across the globe. Another plus to creating the human right to food would be setting the path to ending world poverty. From Global Issues, “Access to food and other resources is not a matter of availability, but rather of ability to pay. Put bluntly, those with the most money command the most resources, whilst those with little or no money go hungry” (Copeland). If we get to the point where food becomes a human right, there will be a loop of food and money distributing around the world as one big system. Providing food for people that don’t have it, using money from donations to help pay the farmers and contribute to helping the people in poverty so that they could have a better lifestyle and reach greater goals that they never thought they could. This is all creating that strong economy and social development many strive to achieve. This is only the start and one certain path, however, many people have many ideas on fulfilling the need of food.

We all have ideas about different topics and thoughts. Many people and organizations, the United Nations for example, strive to create ideas and possibilities of solving our basic needs and also conflicts in the world. The United Nations covers a large variety of conflicts, but we are focused on number two, no hunger. The point is, many people think that some of the worlds many problems can be solved, we just must work together to achieve this. There are many different targets that explains what we must do to solve the large complication ahead of us. It can start small by saying, “By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons” (United Nations). But it can also go to a large scale, “By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed” (United Nations) A lot of the targets put into place were created by the United Nations. In fact many different organizations talking about ideas to ending world hunger quote the UN targets. There are many different ideas and thoughts about one big thing, but we need to start somewhere. Then we can expand to these big ideas but for now we will cover the basics. Many people have most likely said this but we need to start with granting access of food to everyone. This would mean helping to donate to care places where people that have a lack of food can meet their needs. Then we can start creating a baseline of what amount of food people need to not starve but still be fed. If we then raise that bar a small amount so people have some satisfaction and more strength that helps people as well.

Food needs to be made a human right for all people so that we can begin to end world poverty, the many deaths per year because of starvation and malnutrition, and creating an economic balance with all countries to maintain a stable environment. By giving everyone access to the basics of food and even a little above, we can be set on the path for a better future. This can lead to good relations with other countries and also shorten the list of Sustainable Development Goals, set by the United Nations. Food is a basic human need. We must have it to survive and if we go without it we will die. We are all human and this is the same for every human on the planet. Some people have lots of food, while others have little or even none. We must balance this out but to do that we must first learn to work together, In our modern day society, everything can seem largely independent. Each business only cares for its own business. By branching out and creating connections, our society can solve these global problems one step at a time.

Works Cited

Copeland, Ross. “The Politics of Hunger.” Mots Pluriels Ross Copeland, 27 Sept. 2019

“Goal 2: Zero Hunger - United Nations Sustainable Development.” United Nations, 20 Sept. 2019

Hammond, Laura. “Forced Migration and Hunger.” Global Hunger Index - Peer-Reviewed Annual           Publication Designed to Comprehensively Measure and Track Hunger at the Global, Regional,           and Country Levels, 22 Sept. 2019

Turk, Chasen. “15 Striking World Hunger Statistics.” The Borgen Project, Borgen Project, 20 Sept.          2019



Overall, I thought this project was wonderful because I was able to meet people that did not have direct access to a basic human need. It really makes me want to speak out as other people are trying to do because we all need food. In fact the United States, the country I live in, was the one country to decline food to be a human right in 2002. After hearing about this and working on this essay I began to feel that this needs to change. If you want to, help raise awareness for food being a human right no matter where you live.