VOA常速英语2007-UN: More than 850 Million Still Hungry

By Leta Hong Fincher
Washington
12 October 2007
 

The United Nations says that more than 850 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. Poverty, disease and conflict have always threatened food security. But other causes of hunger have emerged: rapid urbanization, the biofuels boom, a sudden spike¹ in food prices, and crop damage from global warming. VOA's Leta Hong Fincher takes a closer look.

This is Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. It has no clean water or sewage system, but it is home to more than 600,000 people. John Otieno is one of them. "The settlement lacks everything. It's kind of a forgotten community."

Such "forgotten communities" also are home to more and more hungry people. Agriculture experts say that urban residents are suffering from food shortages, as tens of millions of people migrate from the countryside to the world's cities each year. Unlike traditional farmers, city dwellers² live far from where their food is grown, and have little control over their resources.

Danielle Nierenberg is a researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental group in Washington. "For livestock³ keepers, for instance, chickens and pigs are like walking credit cards. They allow people to sell off their pigs or chickens or cows in times of need or when their children need school uniforms or when a person in their family gets sick."

Without livestock of their own, Nierenberg says, poor, urban residents spend between 50 and 80 percent of their income on food. This makes them especially vulnerable when food prices increase, as they have in recent months.

Historically, food prices have fluctuated. But some trade experts say the cost of many foods could stay high permanently⁴, because of rising demand from population growth, slower growth in agricultural productivity and shrinking natural resources.

Charlotte Hebebrand is head of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council in Washington. She says governments must ask themselves a key question. "How do we get the most out of our agricultural production in a sustainable fashion, but also in a fashion that really allows us to draw on technological⁵ resources to increase yields, so that we can feed more people, using basically the same amount of land that we have available and possibly decreasing water supplies."

Hebebrand says that world food demand could double by 2050. But new research shows that world food production will face a serious decline in coming decades because of global warming.

William Cline is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. He says developing countries will be hit hardest by crop damage because of their closeness to the equator. "Global agricultural potential could fall by about five to 15 or 20 percent as a result of global warming if nothing is done by the 2080s. But secondly⁶, that would mask a much deeper loss, something like 30 to 40 percent in India, for example, and something like 20 percent or more in Africa and Latin America."

 

Concern about global warming has led governments to invest in biofuels derived⁷ from plants as an alternative to oil. But some environmentalists warn that the boom in biofuels such as ethanol is driving up the price of grain, making food even more unaffordable for the poor.

Lester Brown is head of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. "What we're now seeing is an entirely⁸ new historical phenomenon, something that we've never experienced before," he says. "And that is direct competition between the 860 million people in the world who own automobiles⁹ and the two billion poorest people in the world, who are simply trying to get enough food to survive."

In the future, environmentalists say biofuels can be produced from non-food products such as leaves and wood. Another way to increase food security is to support urban farming so that the world's city dwellers can feed themselves more efficiently¹⁰. Agriculture experts agree that much more investment will be needed to produce more food from fewer resources.

1 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

2 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

4 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

5 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

6 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

7 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

9 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。