People cannot afford to feed their families anymore. Rising food costs, stagnant wages, budget cuts and mass layoffs due to our economy are making it difficult for many families to make ends meet.

According to Raj Patel, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, 35.5 million people in the United States report being “food insecure,” meaning they are not sure if they are able to put food on the table.

Imagine that. Food is something we all take for granted. We probably waste more of it than we consume. How many of us toss stuff away because it is expired or we simply don’t want it? Many of us can easily and conveniently buy something at a fast-food restaurant, deli or supermarket whenever we are hungry without thinking about the cost. Other people however are not as lucky. They need to plan and budget their money to make sure they can afford their next meal.

As everyone already knows, our environment is in very poor condition. As a result, agriculture and harvests are suffering and oil prices are rising, causing the price of food to go up as well. Surprisingly, policy makers do not consider the 35.5 million food-insecure people a crisis. It’s obviously because they have so much on their hands what with making efforts to end the war and stop the rising price of oil and whatnot.

Women are more likely than men to starve themselves in order to make sure their family members have enough to eat. This is dangerous and alarming because enough women already suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Since many women have issues with body image and weight, the effort to feed their families will justify their skipping meals, and they may think it is okay to go hungry.

What does this have to do with you? Well, what if you couldn't eat whenever you were hungry? Can you even imagine not knowing whether you can afford to buy your next meal? Imagine having to starve to ensure that your younger siblings can eat and develop properly. Imagine your own parents starving so you can eat. It is probably hard to fathom which is why this is such a pressing issue.

So what can you do about it? In a word: conserve. Stop wasting precious food, gas, energy, etc. Part of the reason why our whole world is in such a mess is because we are using up more resources than are available for our rapid consumption. If we don’t do our part in saving our one Earth, we are all going to disappear one by one. The time to act is right now.