2022 Essay Contest Finalist

Entry by Kimberly Bolanos

Geoscience For Sustainable Development Goals

One goal that I have is to end world hunger & be able to achieve food security, improve nutrition, & promote sustainable agriculture. I believe that this is important because everyone should be able to have enough food to eat, provide for their families, and to ensure a healthy life. It’s very essential that people eat what is safe and nutritious.

Even though enough food is produced to feed everyone in the world it is very challenging due to a toxic cocktail of climate change, conflict, disasters, structural damage, exaggerated prices, lack of agriculture, war, and most importantly poverty.

Imagine having a world where there’s zero hunger. This could positively impact our economies, health, education, equality, and social development. This is a key to building a better future for everyone. A couple ways to achieve this goal and surpass these challenging circumstances is if we all put our part to keep our water + soils clean, use less water, support local food procedures, be a conscientious consumer, understand food labeling, support food donations, urban farming, reduce food waste & government intervention.

According to the USDA there is a mutual connection between chronic diseases and hunger. For example, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Today over 815 Million people are suffering chronic undernourishment according to an FAO report. 149.2 Million of children under the age of five suffer from stunting. As many as 828 Million people go to bed hungry every night.

Science is extremely useful because it produces high nutrient staple crops and they combat nutrition improving food utilization and use. In conclusion, I believe that if we do this and do our part we could accomplish this goal and end world hunger.