Why can't the hungry of the earth grow food?

Emergency survival - many grow and keep food. Some actually grow most of their own food. The special ops branches in many militaries practice survival and can live off the land for a long time.

I don't understand why there are so many dieing from hunger. There is aid, but why don't they take seeds with the food? Why not teach agriculture to the hungry countries?

Why do I ask? 2 reasons:

One, just wondering why there is still hunger when you can grow food.

Two, if folks are talking about surviving a time when food may not be available, how can they do this if others are starving to death?

For a number of reasons:

First... how would someone in our inner cities (in the US, Canada, and Europe) grow food where they live? Yes, there are hungry people there. How will they get the knowledge and the seeds and the land and the water to do that?

Second, how do you think they can grow food if the area they live in (Africa) is in a constant state of warfare with soldiers driving tanks through crops and crops being burned and destroyed (what isn't eaten by wildlife such as elephants)?

Third, how do you propose they grow food when the area is a semidesert and there isn't flowing water (only wells) for several hundred miles?

Fourth -- yes, a single person can live off the land for a very long time. How do you propose that a hundred thousand live off land that can at best support five families of nomads?

You might consider joining one of the international relief agencies as a volunteer and see what you can do to help the situation.

[edit on 24-10-2005 by Byrd]

Nigeria

news.bbc.co.uk...

Central America

news.bbc.co.uk...

United States of America

www.fhfh.org...

Uganda


Sudan

www.wfp.org...


I think the reasons are many. Millions of people are on the verge of starvation and millions more are just a few meals away from it. I don't think there is any easy answer for this problem because it's been with us from the dawn of time.
Even the worlds most advanced and wealthy nations would be in major trouble if there were to be a sudden interuption to the food distribution chain and it lasted for more than 2 weeks.

Once again, ATS is there to answer questions. Thanks so far for the answers.

Its too bad to have life like that in so many places on earth, especially in todays age.

I would love to go help out overseas in those hungry areas., I just don't know how to get in with those who do.

It is something for those who plan to live off the land in an emergency to think about. If you did grow food in an emergency, you'd risk it getting stolen or getting yourself killed for it.

It's hard to grow food when people burn your crops or there's a devastating drought combined with military situation that doesn't allow aid to arrive. The world's hunger doesn't usually arrive from ignorance as to how to grow crops but larger social / environmental conditions.

i kinda think that farming, growing crops or raising animals for food....
requires ownership &/or control & protection of tracts of land,
something the poor & disenfranchised & migrants or refugees or displaced
do not have.

sure, at one time i grew tomatoes and watermellons on the rooftop when i lived in one of those row-house Brownstones in metro D.C.
-> but my effort was limited to food supplements, not basic need foods <-

i'm sure that any effort or enterprise by those masses of 'poor' to 'grow-their-own'.....
would be quickly stolen by the stronger or more powerful,

or wither from scarce water
or be trodden under foot by armies
replaced by landmines, crushed by armored vehicles,
poisoned to deprive any resources to an enemy-of-the-state

......farming is too labor intensive & too expensive
to keep fertilized, guarded, reaped, stored, processed for consumption
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i can empathise with your thinking,
but the adage that 'G-d helps those that help themselves'
is not always appropriate in every instance

Cuz the hungry countries usually are ruled by elist pricks who don't care if the people starve. They also can't grow food if they are desert dweller's or arctic dweller's.. Many have been conditioned (like in Africa) to sit and wait for international aid, they're like house flies, they dont' know any better.
Tribes in south america and congo ect are self sufficient and know how to grow their own food, hunt, make clothes, houses, and fabrics out of natural resources, and those are the ones who have never depended on government. Those that depend on their government will always be let down. Nomads in northern russia eat meat, they hunt, make their own fabrics, homes, and clothes, and they too have never relied on the government. African's need to get the hell out of the desert, or stop depending on others for aid and learn how to hunt. Certain parts of Africa are just flat out welfare states/countries and those are the ones who will never to learn to be self sufficient, but rather a continuous circular problem.

I would like to know why international aid doesn't send volunteers over there to get people out of the desert and into argicultural zones and educate them on how to be self sufficient instead of spoonfeeding them.. What does that teach them? to rely on them for food, and so they continue to sit and wait until the next load comes.