Poverty, Hunger and Malnutrition Every morning when I wake up the first thought in my mind is usually: FOOD! I often stay in bed for a few extra minutes, planning what I'll have for breakfast. Rarely do I stop to think about those less fortunate than me as I go through this routine. I often take it for granted that everyone wakes up and eats breakfast. But this is far from the truth, not everyone shares the luxuries we have in the United States. Some people wake up and wonder if they'll eat anything that day, let alone eat breakfast. Why? Because food, like many other things, is distributed unequally around the world. The struggle to have enough food has been going on for centuries. In primitive times, the first task undertaken by human beings was the search for food. Primitive people were collectors, they found what they could to eat and hoped it was enough. When this failed to meet the needs of the population, humans became hunters and trapped their food. Finally, a few years later, humans began to cultivate the land. Due to the growing demand for food, those who could produce the most crops were considered the most powerful. But the limits of agriculture were also soon discovered. If the earth were to produce food naturally, there would only be enough to feed about ten million people. Considering that the earth's population now exceeds five billion, we can understand how this could be a problem. Because of this huge gap between what the land can produce and what is actually needed, many advances have been made in agriculture that allow us to produce much more. A very important advance was the irrigation system. This system supplies water to the land by means of ditches, pipes or st... means of paper... where the flowers come from, after all it is too cold for flowers to grow in America. But these flowers are not grown here, they are grown in Mexico. Huge plantations of fertile land are purchased by American multinationals and instead of being used for agricultural purposes, the land is used to grow flowers for Valentine's Day. People struggle to provide enough food to feed and nourish their families, while fertile land is wasted growing flowers. Atrocities like this are committed every day by rich countries. We take from other less fortunate countries precious resources that they really need, even if we have many resources of our own to work with. Perhaps if people in the United States (as well as in other wealthy countries) started saving more and wasting less on luxury goods we don't really need, we could take the first step in helping those less fortunate than us..