Can the UN Committee on World Food Security tackle the structural shame of ongoing hunger?
Rome, Italy. Worldwide hunger, malnutrition and rising food prices are a result of an unsustainable economic and food system, say, Friends of the Earth International, on the first day of the UN Committee on World Food Security1 (CFS) annual meeting.
The UN CFS is the main body tasked with global coordination on food crises. Today, ministers will open the Committee’s 50th meeting with the latest figures from the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO):
- Up to 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021.2
- In 2020, over 2 billion did not have adequate access to food. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed 150 million more into hunger.3
- Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wheat prices shot up by 70% in some countries4, a significant part due to financial speculation. This global shock was felt keenly in East Africa and the Middle East, which rely heavily on both countries for wheat imports. 5
- Globally, almost 3.1 billion people cannot afford healthy diets.6
Kirtana Chandrasekaran, international Food Sovereignty programme coordinator, highlights:
“Global institutions are failing us. The blind obsession with productivity, profits and global markets has us on the path to further climate breakdown and hunger while corporations pocket billions.”
“We need the UN CFS and governments to put in place policies that realise the Human Right to Food, dismantle the huge power of corporations and protect the small-scale producers that feed the majority of the world whilst doing the least harm to the environment.”
We are in the midst of the third major food crisis in 15 years, but the causes go beyond the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Friends of the Earth International today pointed to the “structural shame” behind these persistent and shocking levels of hunger:
- Our current industrial model of food production, which relies heavily on fossil fuels and chemical inputs, is driving climate changes and biodiversity loss. As extreme weather intensifies and energy costs rise, so does hunger.
- The food system is dominated by a handful of companies, with enormous influence over markets, research and policy. The “big four” grain traders – Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus – reported their highest ever profits in 2021.7 The overall wealth of food corporations and billionaires grew by 45% in 2021/22, to $382 billion.8
- Food prices were rising even before any supply gaps, pushed up by food trader speculation and profiteering in financial markets. Years of free market policies and escalating debt has left countries like Sri Lanka9 unable to cope.
