Hunger… No Hunger…Zero Hunger!

By S R Ranjan: Food is life, food is hope! We need to secure it for all by developing an inclusive and robust world food system that not only caters to everyone’s plate and life sustainability, but also achieves the global goal of ‘zero hunger’. Needless to say that even today a lot of the ‘organised or unorganized’ world’s food systems are fragile and cannot provide food security to all, compelling millions of people to suffer from hunger, starvation, malnutrition and live in poverty.

“There is 400 trillion dollars’ worth of wealth on the earth today, and the fact that 9 million people die from hunger every year… Shame on us. In the height of Covid, billionaires’ net worth increase was $5.2 billion per day. At the same time 24,000 people die per day from hunger… Shame on us. Every hour the net worth of billionaires during the height of Covid was a substantial $216 million per hour. Yet 1000 people per hour were dying from hunger… Shame on us,” said David Beasley, United Nations World Food Programme executive director at the Food Systems Summit in New York on September 23.

Reportedly, the COVID‑19 pandemic has deteriorated this worrying reality and hit the people harder. “Up to 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020, a 20 per cent increase in just one year and over 41 million are on the doorstep of starvation.” At the same time, “billions could not afford a healthy diet. Malnutrition was deeply entrenched, leading to a broad range of negative health, education, gender and economic impacts.  Drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition — including conflict, climate extremes, and economic volatility — are further exacerbated by poverty and high levels of inequality.” Furthermore, as we recover from the pandemic crisis, a latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that “food production and local producers are increasingly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change”.

On the other hand, paradoxically, it’s not that there is no food. As per the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize laureate United Nations World Food Programme (UNEP) , there is enough food in the world to feed all 7 billion people. But, “food loss and waste can damage the sustainability of these food systems and therefore risk increasing food insecurity.” So, while millions of people go to bed hungry, 1/3 of food is lost or wasted, amounting to a financial loss of about US$ 1 trillion annually. Also, “Food waste contributes directly to climate emergencies that leave millions of people facing hunger”.

Challenges galore! To combat these challenges, the world needs to find a solution — sustainable food systems — to feed a growing global population while protecting the environment, planet and combating the climate change. Beasley called on world leaders to make food security a reality for all and to build a stronger, healthier planet through better food systems. As a people’s and a solutions summit, all UN member states and constituencies around the world, including youth, food producers, indigenous peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector and the UN system came together to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems. It recognized that everyone, everywhere must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. Inspiring visions for transformative food systems were accepted as pathways for the future.

“Now is the time to roll up our sleeves because, you know, children can’t eat empty promises. It’s up to us to deliver and make food security and nutrition a reality…If we’re struggling today to reach the 7.7 billion people, imagine having 10, 11, 12 billion people on earth…,” remarked Beasley.

(Singh Rakesh Ranjan) 

Freelance Journalist

(representational images: sources)