Resolved, Just governments ought to ensure food security for its citizens

Zaradi, it is a pleasure. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, 805 million or one in nine people were suffering from chronic malnourishment in 2014. The UN also predicts that 21,000 die every day of hunger or hunger related illnesses. It can well be stated that hunger and lack of nutrition are some of the largest causes of death in the world today. These facts pose the foundational question of todays resolution. Resolved: a just government ought to ensure food security for its citizens. The topic clearly asks, if there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, yet people still starve, should a government intervene? But before we address the topic in further detail, allow me to provide definitions for some of the terms. Just: acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good. Government: the organization, machinery, or agency through which a political unit exercises authority and performs functions. Ensure: To make sure, certain, or safe: guarantee.Food Security: according to the Beehive Forensics Institute at the University of Utah, Food Security “is one’s access and/or ability to meet their daily caloric needs.” (The average daily caloric need according to the US Department of agriculture is 2,500.) Citizen: A native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it. With those given, let us proceed to the argument. There is a concept generally agreed upon in various fields as to what the proper role of government. Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to enshrine this concept when he wrote those famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” There you have it. The fundamental statement of the just powers of government. A just government, according to Jefferson, ought to protect the inalienable rights of its citizens. This statement, if taken as true, leaves us with one simple question, which if answered correctly leaves no question as to the correct winner of the debate. I will now attempt to address the simple question. Is food security an inalienable right? In order to properly discuss this question, I will offer several quick definitions. Inalienable Rights: a right according to natural law. Natural Law: A body of or a principle which is considered to be inherent in nature and has universal application in determining whether human conduct is right or wrong. All natural rights stem from one universally accepted right, life. Indeed, liberty is simply the ability to do what you will with your life. Property, the physical result of a portion of your life being invested in some activity which produced that property. This being said, we can justly assume that the right to life is the most basic human right. We can derive from this statement that a just government ought to protect the lives of its citizens. We see this principle at work within our own nation as many threats to life are illegal. Murder, driving under the influence, and other traffic traffic violations are all threats to life which are protected by law. Victims of natural disasters are given aid by the government as their lives are in danger. A just government should protect its citizens from any threat to their lives. For that is the most basic role of a just government. With that principle established, I will return to my initial set of statistics. If 850 million suffer from chronic malnourishment and over 7 million die from starvation every day while only 437,000 people were homicide victims in 2012, food insecurity is a much larger threat to life than murder. If it is just to apprehend a murderer, it is so much more just to apprehend food insecurity. It has been shown that, while food security is not a right in and of itself, it is a protection to the right to life, which is the most basic human right. In conclusion, the debate asks the question, what is a just government? It has been shown that a just government protects the rights of its citizens. (1) Given that is the proper function of government, (2) and that the right to life is the most basic right and therefore the most in need of protection,(3) and it being shown that food insecurity is one of the most serious threats to life,(4) we can very clearly see that a just government ought to ensure food security for its citizens as a protection of their right to life. Having very clearly answered the question posed by the resolution, and having shown that food security is a protection to the basic right to life, and that protection falling under the proper role of government, I hold that the resolution is sound, and respectfully solicit the vote of the judge. Thank you. Sources: 2014 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://www.worldhunger.org... hunger facts 2002.htm Hunger and World Poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://www.poverty.com... Just Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com... Government. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com... Ensure. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com... Stewart, D. (n.d.). BFI Food Security LD Brief. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from The Beehive Forensics Institute at the University of Utah Citizen. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com... Jefferson, T. (n.d.). The Declaration of Independence. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.archives.gov... Inalienable Right. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com... Natural Law. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com... Global Study on Homicide. (2013). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.unodc.org...