New Horizons

Poverty and hunger share a tragic intertwined relationship, where each condition can both cause and perpetuate the other.

- 

Widespread poverty results in chronic and persistent hunger. The physical expres sion of continuing the enacted tragedy is the condition of undernutrition which manifests itself among large sections of the poor, particularly women and children. This condition of undernutrition reduces working capacity and productivity among adults and enhances mortality and morbidity amongst children. Such reduced productivity translates into reduced earning capacity, leading to further poverty; the vicious cycle goes on.

Poverty and hunger have dogged mankind throughout its existence on earth. The 20th century witnessed the largest numbers of deaths owing to hunger, more than the numbers killed by the wars waged in the century. If we take into account the hidden hunger (malnutrition), victims of the hunger will be much more than the actual deaths it caused. The cruel irony is that despite the impressive increase in food production in the last 50 years, the world grapples with the chronic problem of undernutrition and hunger.

Theoretically there is enough food to feed everybody, but the world's "margin of safety" has declined substantially. The J-shaped curve of the early rapid growth of agriculture worldwide slows down, reaches its limit, and levels off becoming an S-shaped curve.