Food security is a situation whereby every person in region or nation has access to enough and nutritious food. A situation that most governments in the developing countries should work on to achieve development goals. Several cases of famine have been reported to cause deaths due to the insufficiency of food, inadequate shelter and lack of proper medical care (Singer, 234). As individuals, it is very hard to make a significant contribution to donations directed towards saving lives which are a moral activity. Singer argues that it is morally upright to help people from starving through gifts and giving any form of aid. Coming up with projects that are exclusively funded to provide better basic needs to people suffering from famine and every able individual to contribute something say five dollars will be enough funds to rescue the lives we lose every year as a result of hunger (Singer, 241).
Duty and charity are different things but for someone guided by morality will do his or her best to give to charity whether on duty or off duty. Writers like Sidgwick and Urmson have urged that every person needs to have a moral code that should not go far from that of an ordinary man’s failure to which we will break the moral code. They further said that it is through our moral standards that we act rationally while making decisions. We ought to do all that is within our reach to prevent starvation. Singer in his writing elucidates that the government needs not to work solely in helping the famine-affected individuals, but it is the mandate of everyone who has to give to those who are lacking (239). There is a need to organize public campaigns to sensitize affluent nations to provide continually aid to countries affected by famine. Sensitization of the matter will provide a solution because it alerts early enough of a foreseen hunger and measures are put in place soon enough. If one is right in whatever thing he or she is doing, there is need of continuing with the same work so that we help those in needs.
Famine mostly is as a result of the crisis that leaves people homeless, climate change which has caused reduced agricultural production and the constant population growth rate. It is not bad to procreate, but it is under the control of population growth that we can have some control over famine (Singer, 235). Therefore, just giving aid will not solve the problem but having control over population growth will assist. John Author argued that rights and the duty to bring help can carry moral significance, but matters like being fashionably dresses have less moral significance. We need to work to see every individual better off. Although it is not an obligation to give aid, policies need to be formulated to reduce aid to nations that are never making efforts to control population growth rate of their country.
Governments should invest heavily in agriculture so that there is increased food production for the nation. Prevention is better than cure and thus urging governments to invest in the agricultural sector will aid in curbing famine. There is need of storing excess produce during bumper harvests. Storage of the surplus food will prevent food wastage, and it is moral to do so. It is moral not fight because civil war accelerates famine by causing destroying the crops in farms and stagnating most activities (Singer, 230). Take for instance the Bangladesh war that led to the vanishing of the most grain reserves in the United States.
Work cited
Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 3 (Spring 1972), pp. 229-243 [revised edition]
