VOA常速英语2018--世界饥饿日

Today, some 815 million people suffer chronically 1 from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, Tuberculosis 2 and Malaria 3 combined.

On May 28th, we observe World Hunger Day. It is an effort to focus attention on the fact that despite a sufficient availability of food nearly everywhere, globally, some 21,000 people die every day from hunger or malnutrition 4.

People do not go hungry because the world does not produce enough food for everyone. According to the World Hunger Education Service, over the past three decades, significant growth in food production, along with improved access to food, helped reduce the percentage of chronically undernourished people in developing countries from 34 percent to 15 percent. The principal problem is that many people in the world still do not have resources to purchase or grow enough food.

Indeed, hunger is a consequence of poverty, and also one of its causes. Hunger exists because many countries lack social safety nets; because in many countries women, although they do most of the farming, do not have as much access as men to training, credit or land.

Conflict, governance systems that do not encourage investment in agriculture, poor management of land and natural resources, lack of educational opportunity, displacement 5 of small farmers by natural disasters, and financial and economic crises that eliminate jobs at the lowest levels, all contribute toward creating conditions that push the poorest into hunger.

Over the past decade, a global push to reduce hunger and extreme poverty has marked some significant successes, thanks in part to the efforts of numerous international and transnational institutions, foundations, NGOs and governments, including the United States.

But on World Hunger Day, let us not forget that with over 815,000 people still living in daily food insecurity, we still have a long way to go before we can safely say that no child goes to bed hungry most nights, that no parent skimps 6 on their own dinner so the children can eat.

如今，有近8.15亿人长期忍饥挨饿。虽然人数比十年前要少很多，但饥饿仍然是第一杀手，其所导致的死亡率要高于艾滋病、肺结核、疟疾的总和。

5月28日是世界饥饿日。这一天让我们将注意力聚焦在一个事实上：虽然几乎全球各地都有充足的粮食供应，但在全球范围内依然有近2.1万人每天死于饥饿或营养不良。

人们饥饿并不是因为粮食的产量不够。根据世界饥饿的教育服务的数据，过去30年间，粮食产量大幅增长，与此同时，人们有更多的机会可以获得粮食，这助力将发展中国家长期营养不良的人口占比从34%减少到了15%。主要问题在于：世界上的很多人没有资源，无法购买以及种植粮食。

诚然，饥饿和贫困互为因果。之所以有饥饿存在是因为很多国家缺乏社会保障；因为很多国家的女性虽然承担了大部分农务，但与男性相比，却鲜少有机会获得培训、贷款和土地所有权。

冲突频发，治理体系不鼓励对农业进行投资，对土地和自然资源管理不力，缺乏教育机会，小农由于自然灾害而流离失所，金融与经济危机导致失业率达到史上新低，这些都为赤贫人群食不果腹创造了条件。

过去10年来，全球范围内推动减少饥饿与赤贫，这项工作取得了一些重大进展，部分原因是无数的国际和跨国机构、基金会、非政府组织、政府都在努力，其中也包括美国。

但在世界饥饿日这一天，请大家不要忘记：鉴于现在仍有81.5万多人仍然每天处于食不果腹的状态，所以我们仍有很长的一段路要走。走过这段路，我们才能万无一失地说：所有孩子都不会饿着肚子睡觉，所有家长都不必自己饿着肚子，只为让孩子能吃一口饭。