Not enough food for everybody?

Yesterday it was World Food Day, but as stated in the Independent on Sunday, it could be ‘more suitably designated Global Lack of Nutrition Day’. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has estimated that a total of 925 million people were undernourished in 2010, two-thirds of whom lived in just seven countries (Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan).

 

But the problem of hunger is not because of scarcity… “In a world that can produce enough food to feed everyone, nearly a billion people will go hungry today. And this is one in seven of us.”

It is not humanity’s inability to grow enough crops but the main reasons are:

1. Rising food prices

2. Stock market speculation in crop futures

3. Political conflicts (e.g. North Korea)

4. Corrupt, repressive regimes

5. Climate change

6. Natural disasters (e.g. droughts followed by floods)

7. Lack of investment in agriculture

8. Short-term solutions

Kostas Stamoulis, director of agricultural development economics for the UN, said: “Unless we stick to a long-term plan for getting regions out of crisis and out of vulnerability, then every five years we’ll be taking about the Horn of Africa.” 

That’s what I think,

MANU