It’s five o’clock in the evening you just got done with your last class for the day and the first thing you say is, I am so hungry, what is for dinner. So you go to the food court and grab a burger, fries, drink and maybe even a little dessert if you think you deserve it. Before you know it you are so overcome by the amount of food you ate you just plop down on the couch just in time to watch the rerun of Sienfeld. This is an all too common scenario for most Americans. But many people don’t realize where the food we eat comes from. Maybe the lifestyles of Americans would change if they realized how their habits not only compare to others, but how they effect others.

The United States is a completely developed and industrialized state. We take so many things for granted that we can not even appreciate half of the things we have. This all started back when primitive man first came to this world. The first thing they did was search for food, because it is a basic necessity for any living thing to survive. Their means of getting food is no different than the way we get food today. They would go out and hunt for food. They then learned the trades of farming. They learned how to cultivate soil and then how to grow food on this enriched soil. Their primitive societies were based along the lines of this food. Whoever would grow this food would be known as a wealthy individual. So the more food one had the wealthier they were considered. This then led to the trading of food from people to people and places to places. This started a true economy for the world to build around.

If it was not for our primitive fathers there would be know way that they or us could survive in such and environment. The earth could not support more than ten million people if no one planted food and everyone just collected food. Today the earth’s population is approximately six billion people. This can be contributed to the advancement in farming technologies and other genetic technologies. For example irrigation has played a big roll in the advancement in the development of the world. Not only is there irrigation but now we have the use of engines and we can alter the genetics of plants and animals. A perfect example of this deals with the increase in production we have seen with cows. Before cows used to produce six thousand pounds of milk per year. Now cows produce an astonishing twelve thousand pounds of milk per year. There is also another chemical out there called miracle rice. It can double the production of rice under the right circumstances. So there is no doubt that we have the ability to produce plenty of food products. It is said that if food was distributed equally among the world the people of the world would have more than enough food to live a healthy life. Unfortunately this is not the case of the world today. Approximately two thirds of the world are under the proper calorie intake. They are considered malnourished.

Fortunately for the nation of the United States we do not fall under such a category. We are an overfed country. Many people do not stop and even think about what is going on the rest of the world. They believe that the world is here in the United States. But what these people tend not to realize is that we only make up about five percent of the worlds population. Not only are we a small percentage of the population but we are the biggest waster in many products that we consume. For example we waste fifteen percent of global fertilizers on lawn care and golf courses. This seems to be an unfair hobby when looked upon by other starving human beings. The next time you go out to fertilize your lawn to make it look so green just think of how that fertilizer could be used in the production of food for the two thirds of the world that can barely survive because of their lack of food.

Not only does the United States waste a lot of chemical products but they also waste a huge amount of food products on things that are definitely not necessities. The United States most common hobby from college students to the hard working men and women that work eighty hours a week is that of the consumption of beer. The amount of beer Americans drink in a year is an unbelievable amount. With the amount of beer we drink in a year there comes enough grain to feed eighty million people on a regular basis. Just imagine how many times we drink beer for no good reason but just to be social and fit in and act differently that we normally do. Well just think how many more people would not go hungry if we were not as selfish to consume this overwhelming amount of alcohol. In the United States alone there are one hundred and fifteen million registered cats and dogs who are used as pets and other companions across the United States. It is hard to deny that we do not love our pets we treat them as if they were one of us. But just how much more do they deserve than other human beings. The total population of cats and dogs in the United States consume more protein than the whole country of Latin America. Do our dogs and cats really deserve that better of a life than the people of Central America?

With the United States as one of the wealthiest nations in the modern day word comes an increase in rising income. This rising income puts a greater push on the wants for food. The United States is the third leading importer in food and agricultural products in the world today. May I also remind you that we are only five percent of the total world population. We are one of the major drains on food supply. We buy more products from thirty-six of the forty hungriest countries in the world. The major reason these countries do not keep this food is because the U.S. businesses depend on it. This forces the monopolization of third world countries to produce all these products for the export to America. The U.S. imports forty percent of the world trade in beef. The U.S. imports thirty-three percent of world trade in dairy. The U.S. imports thirty-three percent of all world trade in fish and seafood. Just imagine how much of this food imported is the use of unnecessary consumption by wealthy individuals. For example is it really necessary to eat a double quarter-pounder from McDonalds. These consumption’s of overwhelming proportions is totally unnecessary.

These startling statistics display the depletion of the world food supply by wealthy Americans. This degradation of food supply can more or less be blamed on the rich countries of the world today. We as people of such a wealthy country must take it upon ourselves to look at these statistics and realize how many people of the world are suffering. More than two-third of the world population suffers from malnutrition. As a fellow human being I find this most disruptive. How can we really enjoy this great life that we have when we are aware of such tragedies that are taking place to fellow human beings across the world.