THERE’S ENOUGH OF IT TO FEED THE WORLD’S HUNGRY
The world needs to produce at least 50 per cent more food to feed the growing 9 billion people by 2050
THE United Nations is continuing to fight a relentless battle to eradicate extreme hunger — particularly in the world’s poorest nations by 2030.
But, it is battling against severe odds: an estimated 800 million people still live in hunger — amidst a warning that the world needs to produce at least 50 per cent more food to feed the growing 9 billion people by 2050 — 20 years beyond the UN’s goal. Also, the World Bank predicts that climate change could cut crop yields by more than 25 per cent undermining the current attempts to fight hunger.
The hunger crisis has been aggravated by widespread military conflicts, even as the Security Council, the most powerful body at the UN, was called upon last month to play a greater role in “breaking the link between hunger and conflict”.
Holding out the prospect of wiping out famine “within our lifetime”, Mark Lowcock, UnderSecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Security Council that almost two-thirds of people living in hunger were in conflict-stricken countries.
He singled out war-devastated Yemen, South Sudan and northeastern Nigeria, which still faced severe levels of hunger, while the food security situation in Ethiopia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo was “extremely worrying”.
In an interview, Alessandro Demaio, chief executive officer of the Norway-based EAT, an international non-governmental organisation engaged in the fight against hunger, said: “At EAT, our mission is simple but ambitious: to transform the global food system and enable us to feed a growing global population with healthy food from a healthy planet — leaving no-one behind.”
“We do this by bringing together leading actors from business, science, policy and civil society to close scientific knowledge gaps, translate research into action, scale up solutions, raise awareness and create engagement,” he said.
Excerpts from the interview:
Question: One of UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to eradicate extreme hunger — particularly in the world’s poorest nations by 2030. Is this is feasible? Answer: Food is, in one way or another, linked to all UNs 17 SDGs. As a doctor, it deeply concerns me that more than 800 million people go hungry and more than two billion are overweight or obese, worldwide. These numbers are accompanied by a ballooning epidemic of diet-related and preventable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers.
There is an unjust disconnect between food availability and quality in different parts of the world. One-third of all food produced gets lost or goes to waste — that’s enough to feed all of the world’s hungry four times over!
But, slow response to increasing pressures from climate change and increasing social inequalities means that not everyone gets access to the right foods. In fact the UN last year declared that hunger, after more than a decade in decline, was on the rise again.
I do believe that we can reach zero hunger by 2030. We have many of the solutions to do so, such as connecting smallholder farmers to markets, removing barriers to trade and boosting food production sustainably.
Q: What is your agenda to help reform the global food system, including increasing agricultural productivity, and recycling food waste?
A: In our work to reform the global food system, we at EAT connect and partner across science, policy, business and civil society to achieve five urgent and radical transformations by 2050:
SHIFT the world to healthy, tasty and sustainable diets; REALIGN food system priorities for people and planet; PRODUCE more of the right food, from less; SAFEGUARD our land and oceans; and, RADICALLY reduce food losses and waste.
About 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted every year, that’s an estimated one in three mouthfuls of food every day. In poorer nations, this waste generally occurs pre-market and can be partsolved by simple technologies in supply chains, including transport, packaging and refrigeration. Technological interventions, such as precision agriculture or investments in post-harvest processes, will make huge differences.
In wealthier countries, the majority of waste occurs after market, in supermarkets and in our homes. This is where buying less but more frequently, avoiding impulse buys and taking measures to reduce the “buy one get one free” that incentivise over-purchasing.
Q: The world needs to produce at least 50 per cent more food to feed the growing 9 billion people by 2050. Is this target achievable?
A: The bad news is that modern agriculture doesn’t feed us all and it does not feed us well. The good news is that we have never had a bigger opportunity, more knowledge or the ingenuity and skills to fix it.
Increasing investment in harvesting infrastructure combined with improving access to markets and technology can result in minimising field losses for farmers in low- and middle-income countries, as well as help to pull millions out of poverty. In high-income countries, business and consumers have a transformative role to play in reducing wasted food.
Through new business models, improved production, packaging and educational campaigns, businesses can nudge consumers in the right direction. By nudging better purchasing habits, better evaluations of portion size and improving food preparation techniques, consumers can dive headlong towards a circular food economy. Every pound of food saved from loss or waste will create economic, health and environmental gains.
Through working with remote communities, health professionals, and science and business leaders, I have seen how plantbased dietary trends have fuelled a rediscovery of countless crop varieties with promising nutritional and environmental profiles.
With their abilities to deliver “more crop per drop” and withstand unpredictable seasonal changes, diversifying what we grow can help meet local and global nutrition needs. In contrast, gene editing or lab grown meats offer to increase productivity, nutrition and tolerance to environmental uncertainties.
Essentially, the future of agriculture doesn’t lie in intensive expansion only — it lies in the harnessing of holistic, precise and tech savvy methods that enhance the production of more nutritious and more climate resilient foods.
There is an unjust disconnect between food availability and quality in different parts of the world. One third of all food produced gets lost or goes to waste — that’s enough to feed all of the world’s hungry four times over!