A British medical journal published a finding last month that might be the most encouraging and inspiring bit of news in the history of mankind. And few people noticed. And the ones who did notice did so for all the wrong reasons.
The journal, The Lancet, claimed that obesity is now a bigger health crisis globally than hunger.
Think about that. Throughout human history, the biggest challenge for man has been eating enough calories to work productively, fight off disease and not starve to death. But now, thanks to the development of high-yield, disease-resistant crops, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides — not to mention the increase of capitalism and free trade throughout the world — there is more than enough food to feed all the people on Earth.
The ability to feed all of humanity is a very recent occurrence. Throughout man’s 3 million years of existence (give or take a million, depending on how you define “man”), billions of people died because of malnutrition and other hunger-related causes. In just the last half-century, food production and distribution techniques have advanced so greatly that most instances of starvation in the world today are the result of failed government policies and distribution issues, not a lack of food.
In fact, according to the World Hunger Education Service, “world agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase.”