However, hunger remains especially severe in South Asia, where growing poverty, debt, economic decline, poor terms of trade, fast population growth, unfavorable weather, war, and government collapse have all contributed to the continent's food problems. In the United States, the share of the population facing hunger has risen, but hunger in wealthy nations is neither as severe nor as widespread as in developing countries. Hunger is also an environmental problem with fresh water, land, forests, and fisheries continually being used at or beyond capacity. In the competition for resources, poor and hungry people, lacking economic and political clout, have become even more marginalized. This is true especially in countries where land holdings are not even or fair, and poor families are forced to move onto fragile land and to overcrowded cities.
War is also a cause for hunger.
War slows or stops food production and marketing. Food supplies are often taken and used as instruments of war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and breeding livestock are consumed in desperation, and children suffer lasting damage as a result of insufficient food. Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending depletes resources away from food production, education, and health care.