Have you ever wondered what it takes to get all that food to your supermarket?

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr once said, 

“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world.”

The global food production market is a surprisingly delicate and interconnected structure. For those in countries with strong economies, it means a diversity of choices and competitive prices; for the most part, we can choose what we want to eat and whether we’re going to buy the local, imported, or organic cucumbers.

For people in developing economies, the global nature of food production means a quite different situation – like being highly vulnerable to the price shocks and fluctuations of worldwide events well beyond their control.

What do global production chains have to do with hunger?

There aren’t many countries in the world that are self-sufficient when it comes to food. This creates an interlocking, global maze of production and supply paths between food producers and food buyers.

Just think of all the factors that influence the price of food (its supply chain) before it gets to your house: land for agriculture, land for livestock, water for livestock, water for agriculture, fuel for electricity, gasoline for tractors, fertilizer – and that’s just part of the loop. We might notice a change in the price of bananas, but tiny fluctuations in the chain of production have a much deeper impact on people living in food-insecure countries.

What’s a food insecure country?

According to the World Bank, a country is considered food insecure when its inhabitants don’t have regular access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

It’s hard for many of us even to imagine being hungry and not knowing where our next meal will come from. But for one out of 11 people in the world, that’s a daily reality.

What does all this mean for children?

Safe and reliable access to food and water are the cornerstones of a healthy life and a strong future.

When prices go up, families in food-insecure countries are pushed to make sacrifices so they can put food on the table. It often begins with choosing more affordable, less nutritious food – meaning household health is put at risk. Poor nutrition in a newborn’s first years leads to stunting, poor development, and chronic and lifelong health issues. And any kind of illness affects a family’s ability to earn income.

The next cut is usually education – and girls are almost always taken out of school before boys. If the financial pressure persists, daughters are sometimes pushed into child marriage for the short-term ‘windfall’ of a dowry, or simply to reduce the number of mouths to feed. The long-term result is often more health challenges and generational poverty. As well as being catastrophic for the girl herself, lower levels of education reduce a country’s skilled workforce and weakens its economy.

Romina from Uganda waiting
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What are the solutions?

The good news is you can help children in poverty gain access to nutritious food. Sponsoring a child through World Vision is one of the most effective ways you can help vulnerable communities address hunger, recover from its impacts, and overcome poverty for good.

Powered by Jesus’ love, World Vision is meeting needs for vulnerable families including food security, livelihood stability, healthcare, clean water, child protection, spiritual nurture, and more. They work with communities, donors, partners, and governments to create opportunities for better futures for vulnerable children… even in the places where it’s hardest to be a child.

Help tackle hunger and poverty at the same time by sponsoring a child through World Vision. Your monthly support helps children and their families address the impacts of hunger today while also strengthening their communities with the physical and spiritual resources they need to thrive long-term.