Introduction
When international organizations like UNICEF or Oxfam talk about the world's most pressing problems, they usually talk about poverty. In spite of the fact that the 1980's and 1990's were prosperous decades - the world's economy grew thanks to new technology and trade - the actual gap between rich and poor grew larger. In 1998, 1.2 million people still lived on less than a dollar a day, and 2.8 billion on less than two dollars.
There are many faces to poverty-at its extreme it represents a hungry and homeless African child who has little protection from sickness and disease. But poverty is not restricted to the poor countries of the world. The United States, which currently has the strongest economy in the world, is seeing an increase in poverty. And in Canada, which the U.N. consistently ranks as one of the best countries to live in, poverty continues to grow. In 1989, Canada's House of Commons passed a unanimous resolution to "…seek to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000." what this means for everyday people. Yet a few years into the new millennium, poverty among children has increased by 21%. While statistics show that poverty is on the rise across the globe, it's hard to fathom.
Click here to read one story about poverty - it happens in Canada.
While some people who live in poverty have enough to eat, others do not. Food is fundamental to our survival-we can't live without it. But today there are many hungry people in the world. The solution to this problem seems simple: grow more food. But hunger is not caused by a lack of food - the world currently grows enough food to feed everyone. The problem is in how food is distributed. Even in wealthy countries like Canada, some go hungry while others throw food away.
In today's global economy, the food trade is no simple business. In fact, a surplus of cheap food in one country can actually cause poverty and hunger in another. Click here to find out more.
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