Food insecurity in the world has reached epic proportions with as many as 1.7 billion people battling a daily war against hunger. Over 950 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition and 16,000 children die each year as a result of hunger. It is the most basic human rights violation in the world today.

Why is food insecurity such a problem on a global scale? Basic human rights include the right to adequate food and the United Nations has set up the Millennium Development Goals that include cutting the world’s hunger by half by the year 2015. Yet, today human rights are violated as hunger increases in the world.

Hunger in America has risen by 46 percent since 2006, with 26 million suffering from hunger on a domestic front. It is not only the homeless and the indigent who go hungry. Food banks battling hunger in America report that 37% of the food distributed goes to families with one person working a full time job. Hunger in America now affects one in eight people.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that only $30 billion per year, invested in farm production and infrastructure, could erase the base causes of food insecurity in the world by the year 2025.

Not only would the programs address food insecurity and hunger, they would eradicate them by promoting long term commitments and involvement in agriculture in developing third world countries, as well as developing countries introducing the small-scale farmers into markets and stopping the mandating of bio-fuels.

Countries and nations have an obligation to preserve human rights by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the need for adequate food for all people, directly if necessary, and appealing to global communities when they cannot provide this basic human right.

Globally, governments must be held accountable for any human rights violations when it pertains to keeping people free from hunger and food insecurity in the world. They must enact legislation that prevents starvation, ensures a basic social protection and prosecutes any human rights violation that occurs.