TED talks are the greatest thing ever. Whenever I watch one, I walk away feeling so much more motivated about life. I think it's because the individuals who are delivering the talks are always so passionate about their topics that it inspires me to do and achieve more!
When I started looking for talks for this project, I found three that I liked, but this one (Ending Hunger Now) was definitely the best! The speaker is Josette Sheeran, director of the World Food Programme. She speaks about different ways the UN is working to end hunger around the world.
As a biological systems engineering major, food insecurity and hunger are issues I hope to combat using my education. However, there are a lot of societal and economic challenges to fighting hunger in addition to the inherent production issues. In the TED talk, Ms. Sheeran addresses three creative ideas of particular interest to me.
The first creative solution is special nutrition packages that use traditional foods to deliver nutrients that are lacking in the diets of certain populations. This interests me because it directly involves food and food processing, which is a focus area for my major. These packages are climate proof and do not need refrigeration or water to deliver the needed nutrition to people. This would be an area where I can directly apply knowledge of food chemistry and processing to help end world hunger.
Whoever came up with the idea of school feeding programs deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. These programs purchase food from local farmers (stimulating economy), serve it to children (providing nutrition) and serve it at school (providing education). It's the trifecta of hunger fighting! Another plus side is that school feeding programs result in more girls enrolled in school. Although this creative solution does not directly involve engineering concepts, it is the kind of application that I would love to pursue with a combined business and engineering degree.
Finally, a hot topic in food insecurity is the fact that communities often become dependent on food aid. This can be combated by a solution such as village managed warehouses. An aid organization builds a warehouse full of food in a community and members of the village replenish the supply with the food they grow themselves. This allows the village to have the infrastructure to become self sufficient and provide their own food for the future. I am also very interested in applying engineering knowledge to creating better storage for food.
Although these three creative solutions are all very different, they are all areas I could see myself exploring in the future. This field is so exciting because there is such a need for innovation and any progress that is made will likely save hundreds of lives. In order to truly end hunger now, we need to combine the knowledge and skills of people in many different disciplines, from agriculture to business to politics to engineering. World hunger is definitely a problem in need of a creative solution and I want to be part of creating and realizing that solution!
#platypus
That food packet idea - using local food to provide nutrition - is genius. Of course they'll eat it, especially if it fits right in with their culture. I also agree with your assessment of the school feeding program. It's a wonderful relationship as those three goals feed off of each other so well.
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