VOA常速英语2016--全球饥饿人口达历史新高

全球饥饿人口达历史新高

The report finds the combined food and economic crises have pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels. It says poor people everywhere are going without food, but nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries.

World Food Program spokeswoman, Emilia Casella, describes the situation as alarming.

"Really, we should be calling this world hunger day, not world food day," said Casella. "Right now at a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory and this is extremely alarming to the World Food Program because we are the ones on the front lines trying to help the most hungry out of the one billion people who are going to bed every night without enough food."

The report pinpoints 1 several factors, which make the current crisis particularly devastating 2. It says the economic crisis has cut the amount of foreign aid and investment going to poor countries. It also has reduced remittances 3 from people working abroad.

It says high food prices are causing families to fall deeper into destitution 4 and the hunger-poverty trap. It says an across-the-board drop in trade and financial inflows has resulted in lower earnings 5 from exports.

The report finds an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic 6 hunger in Asia and the Pacific. In sub-Saharan Africa, 265 million people are going hungry and in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million people are undernourished.

WFP's Casella tells VOA all this hunger translates into some grim statistics.

"14,000 children a day are dying from hunger-related causes. And hunger is killing 7 more people every year than AIDS, malaria 8 and tuberculosis 9 combined," she added.

She calls this situation intolerable especially as the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear exist. 

Casella

"The world does have enough capacity to grow enough food to feed everybody who is on the planet," Casella said. "That is the most frustrating 10 thing about what we are talking about. Let me use Darfur as an example. In south Darfur right now, they are only cultivating about a third of the arable 11 land that they could be cultivating. And, that is due to many factors including conflict and lack of development. But, the point is if the conditions were right and if farmers could get to their fields and if food could get to markets, people all over the world would have enough food to eat and today they do not."

The UN Food agencies are appealing to the richer countries to increase their foreign development aid and to invest in agriculture and economic safety nets in poorer countries. They say these interventions 12 will help to save lives and families.

报告称，粮食和经济的双重危机让饥饿人群达到历史新高。报告称，每个地方的穷人都无饭可吃，但几乎全球所有营养不良的人群都在发展中国家。世界粮食计划署发言人伊米莉亚称，这种情况令人担忧。真的，我们应该将世界粮食日改名为世界饥饿日。当今世界的饥饿人群远多于以往，而粮食援助却是有史以来的最低，这对于世界粮食计划署来说是最大的警告。因为在对这10亿名整天都无法进食的人施救援助的过程中，我们是冲在一线的人。

该报告指出了几个让当前危机尤其具有毁灭性的因素。报告称，经济危机将缩减了对贫困国家的海外援助和投资。也减少了海外侨胞的汇款。报告称，物价居高不下，让很多家庭愈发贫困，陷入了死循环。贸易金融资本流入的全面下滑导致出口收入降低。亚洲和太平洋地区有6.42亿人遭受长期饥饿。在撒哈拉以南的非洲地区，2.65亿人正在遭受饥饿，而在拉丁美洲和加勒比海，有5300万人营养不良。世界粮食计划署的卡塞拉告诉VOA，这些饥饿情况都可以视为可怕的数据。每天有1.4万名儿童的死亡与饥饿有关。每年因饥饿死去的人要高于死于艾滋病、疟疾、肺结核疾病的总数。她认为这种情况是不能容忍的，因为能让饥饿消失的经济手段和技术手段并非不存在。世界是有能力种植足够的食物来养育所有人的。而这也是整件事中最让人感到沮丧的地方。拿达尔富尔举例吧。达尔富尔南部目前只有三分之一的耕地处于利用中。原因有很多，其中包括地区冲突和发展不足。但关键是，如果条件满足，如果农民可以耕地，如果粮食能进入各国市场，全球人民就都会有足够的食物，而当下的情况并非如此。联合国粮食机构正在呼吁富裕国家增加海外援助，在贫穷国家投资农业和经济安全网络。他们认为，这样的介入能帮助挽救无数生命和家庭。