  
Why hunger is occurring: Natural problems
Believe it or not, there's plenty of food to go around on this planet. In fact, there's enough for every single person to have about five pounds of food per day. So what's the problem?
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Most of this food is produced in developed nations, like the United States. For it to get to countries that need it, there are huge expenses in packaging, transporting, and distributing this food. A survey of all costs involved in producing a loaf of bread and delivering it to a UK retail store found that less than one third of energy was spent growing and milling the wheat. Getting it to market, including packaging and transportation accounted for almost all of the remaining two thirds of energy needed.
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Machine packages orange juice into bottles
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Reducing these costs should be simple: reduce or eliminate the transportation costs. If food is produced closer to where it is needed, costs are much lower. The dictionary (www.m-w.com) defines "arable" as: fit for or used for the growing of crops. Arable land, therefore, is land that can be used to produce food. Some countries have been thought to have very little arable land. This could be for many reasons, including the soil could be too hard, temperature could be too extreme, or there might not be enough water in the area. Some say that the amount of arable land is decreasing through processes like erosion. One economist, Julian Simon, thinks otherwise:
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"The potential for creating new land has increased as knowledge, machinery, and power sources have improved. At one time, most of Europe could not be planted, because the soils were 'too heavy.' When a plow that could farm the heavy soil was invented, much of Eurpoe suddenly became arable in the eyes of the people who lived there. Most of Ireland and New England were once too hilly and stony for farming, but with effort the stones were removed and the land became 'suitable for crops' […] In the twentieth century, bulldozers and dynamite have cleared out stumps that kept land from being plowed. And in the future, cheap transportation and desalination may transform what are now deserts into arable lands. The definition of 'arable' changes as technology develops and the demand for land rises. Hence any calculation of 'arable' land should be seen for what it is - a rough estimate without permanent force."
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New land is being made available through continually developing technologies. Sometimes, then, the problem is that the land is not being used efficiently enough. Food production per hectare has soared in the last fifty years. More countries are beginning to use fertilizers.
Asian Farmer in paddy field
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Some methods of food production are more efficient than others naturally. Beef production takes about 10 to 20 calories of energy (fuel, feed, etc.) to produce 1 calorie of food. (Some groups, such as VEGFAM, believe that vegetarianism is a solution to world hunger.) Typical US corn production takes about 1 calorie of energy (fuel, fertilizer, etc.) to produce 1 calorie of food. Dry-land Asian rice culture averages using 1 calorie of energy (human labor) to produce 20 calories of food. The range of efficiency here is clear.
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When food can be produced in greater quantities more efficiently in areas geographically closer to where it is needed, costs for this food are reduced. When food costs less, more people can buy sufficient amounts to feed themselves and their families.
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Why hunger is occurring:
Economic issues
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