Alex Rose-Innes
The Earth is now host to eight billion people needing food and this figure is expected to keep rising at a rate of about 1% every decade until at least 2050 with a predicted 10 billion mouths to feed. Especially on the African continent, the increasing demand for resource-intensive and environmentally impactful food are straining the planet’s resources, compromising global food security and contributing to the acceleration of global warming.
Thousands Die of Starvation Every Day
There are many definitions of global food security. The United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) describes it as a situation in which “all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.” Having adequate access to food is one of the most basic and important human rights and yet, hundreds of millions of people suffer from starvation, with approximately 25,000 succumbing to hunger every day. An estimated 854 million people are also undernourished.
The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily compromised food security around the world, increasing global hunger levels by an estimated 118 million people worldwide in 2020, the most since 2006. Hunger kills more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, the vast majority living in developing countries; countries that are now experiencing the worst consequences of the current food crisis.
In 2012, The Economist first published the Global Food Security Index, an instrument measuring food security in 113 countries. Yearly rankings show this varies greatly around the world. Some regions are more prone to food insecurity due to a lack of fertile land as well as capital to procure sufficient food through imports. However, some external factors such the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war or global health issues like the pandemic can compromise food supplies in ‘safer’ countries as well.
According to the 2021 Index, Ireland, Austria and the United Kingdom share the top rank with the overall GFS score in the range of 81 and 84 points on the index, proving that these countries all have sufficient and affordable food supplies and natural resources to support their population as well as adequate food safety net programmes.
The six worst performing countries in 2021 were all in Africa, with scores ranging from 34 to 37 for their low availability and affordability of food supplies as well as very low quality and safety standards – Global Food Security Index
On the one hand, especially in First World countries, people have become wealthier, having less children and eating better; opting for more resource-intensive and environmentally impactful food. However, as demand grows, resources decline. Today’s agricultural system is struggling to deliver enough food to meet that need.
Africa Receives Largest Share of Global Food Assistance
Another huge problem with the current global food system is the amount of food waste generated. Although demand for food is high, about one-third of global food supplies every year, equivalent to nearly 1.2 billion tonnes of food, are wasted and thrown away annually. Research suggests that if high-income countries reduced post-harvest waste by 50%, the number of undernourished people in poor countries could be reduced by up to 63 million. It becomes clear that simply reducing food waste could drastically improve global food security.
But problems related to our food system are just one of the factors impacting global food supplies. Food security and climate change are also deeply connected, with the latter being a threat multiplier for undernourished people and accounting for one of the biggest causes of food insecurity.
Uneducated African Farmers responsible for Land Degradation
Drivers of climate change such as biodiversity loss, increased pollution and extreme weather-related disasters compromise agricultural production, significantly reducing yields of major crops. Simultaneously, the overexploitation of land and the intensive use of fertilisers and pesticides are destroying entire ecosystems, impacting species population and compromising soil fertility. Evidence suggests that in just over six decades, over 35% of arable land has been degraded due to human-induced activities.
The most obvious effect is increased hunger rates and famine, especially in developing countries, most of them situated in Africa. This is a profound conundrum as the poor keep on having more children who are expected to suffer the most from food scarcity, as undernourishment leaves them weak, vulnerable and less able to fight common childhood diseases. Save the Children estimates that nearly 5.7 million children around the globe are on the brink of starvation. In Africa, more than 59 million children suffer from stunted growth as a result of under nourishment and 14 million from wasting away.
The World Food Programme spends most of its resources (more than 50%) on the African continent, $745 million annually in Regional Bureau of Nairobi (RBN) countries. In 2019, the RBN region moved 1.1 million MT of food throughout East Africa. It disbursed $270 million in cash to 5.4 million beneficiaries in these countries. Only what is left over after Africa receives the lion’s share every year, is then distributed among other developing countries across the world.
What can be Done to ensure Food Security?
Crucial steps to ensure food security will need to include a more effective distribution of food supplies and a drastic change in the current food system. We can no longer produce food for economic profit. We also need to invest in more sustainable agricultural practices and new technologies and educate societies on the repercussions of food waste.
On a policy level, interventions, such as better options for handling resource allocation, land use patterns, food trade and the regulation of food prices, are urgently needed. The European Union recently proposed a €1.5 billion (USD$1.65 billion) funding package to shore up food security as a response to the sudden increase in food prices following the invasion of Ukraine. The money would be used to finance farmers and operations to free up 4 million hectares of fallow land for crops.
While this proposal offers hope that global food security can be restored before it is too late, we must look ahead and focus on strategies to prevent shortages in the first place. This, however, requires a drastic shift in our approach to food production and consumption.
