Xinhua Times Commentary
Original title: "Food Security in the World" has a long way to go
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 16 (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency reporter Ye Shuhong
The problem of eating is a big issue of human survival. On the eve of World Food Day 2024, data released by international organizations such as the World Food Programme showed that global hunger levels remained high for the third consecutive year, and about 733 million people still face hunger in 2023, equivalent to 1 in 11 people in the world not going hungry. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu recently wrote an article calling for concrete global action to fully implement the right to food as a fundamental human right.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, center, attends the Security Council's high-level open debate on climate, food and security at the UN headquarters in New York on February 13. Xinhua News Agency (Photo courtesy of the United Nations/Photo by Roy · Felipe)
Since the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, global food production and transportation have been severely impacted, and the resulting chain effects are not only supply shortages, soaring food prices, but also export bans imposed by some countries to ensure their own food security, thus exacerbating the plight of countries that rely heavily on importing countries for food supplies, and the relevance and fragility of the global food system have been further highlighted. In addition, the armed conflict in Sudan threatens to plunge the East African country into "the world's largest hunger crisis"; The new Israeli-Palestinian conflict has left at least a quarter of families in Gaza facing "catastrophic severe food insecurity"; The escalation of violence has left 5.4 million Haitians unable to access enough food, making the country the highest proportion of people living acutely food insecure in the world...... With the international turmoil, the impact of war and conflict on the global food supply system is intensifying.
Extreme weather caused by climate change has reduced food production in some countries and regions, widening the global food supply gap. With 2023 set to be the hottest year on record, El Niño peaking in early 2024, and the full impact of climate change on the food crisis is emerging. According to the latest Global Food Crisis Report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, extreme weather left 72 million people in 18 countries facing acute food insecurity last year. The World Food Programme report predicts that climate issues could lead to an increase in hunger and malnutrition by nearly 20% by 2050. It is worth noting that the loss of food production caused by widespread drought is exacerbating tensions between humans and nature, and some southern African countries have been forced to kill protected animals that have invaded human settlements to forage for food in order to mitigate the effects of drought and reduce pressure on land and water resources.
Farmers thresh hybrid rice in the field in Kihanga district, Bubanza province, Burundi, June 20, 2023. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Han Xu
Since the beginning of the 21st century, mankind has experienced three food crises, and the causes of the crises are different, but the most stressed are always the disadvantaged groups in the world, especially in low-income countries. Compared with rising food prices or declining choices in developed countries, the crisis has been a precarious source of hunger, food shortages and even deadly conflicts for vulnerable groups in poor countries. According to the UN report, hunger increased between 2022 and 2023 in most regions of West Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, with 1 in 5 people facing hunger in Africa. The report warns that some 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by 2030, half of them in Africa, and that the goal of zero hunger in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development may not be met.
In fact, with the current human food production capacity, it should not be a problem for everyone to have a full stomach. According to the United Nations, the global population in 2022 was about 8 billion and more than 2.7 billion tonnes of cereals were produced, enough to meet everyone's basic food needs. The reason for the frequent occurrence of food crises is that there is an international consensus that there is a problem with distribution. Global food production and trade are highly concentrated in the hands of a few developed countries and their multinational corporations, but consumption is dispersed among many developing countries with a higher proportion of food expenditure, which has created an unfair pattern of "oversupply" and "burning grain for oil" on the one hand, and "not having enough to eat" and "waiting for rice to be cooked" on the other hand. In 2008, the food crisis caused by the continuous rise in global food prices led to the exacerbation of hunger, poverty and social unrest.
On January 21, the representative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria, Ken · Crossley, was interviewed by Xinhua reporters in Damascus, the capital of Syria. He called on the international community to lend a helping hand to help the Syrian people cope with the urgent food crisis. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Monsev)
The so-called global food crisis is essentially a food crisis in developing countries, and there are complex institutional causes behind this unfair global food system. Historically, developed countries have seized the opportunity to gain a larger market share and "kick away" the "ladder" for developing countries to become strong in agriculture and food independence. In the process of advocating neoliberal economic prioritization, the developed countries have further systematized and institutionalized the global food market and gradually occupied the food markets of the developing countries, while the latter's traditional agriculture has gradually disintegrated and become dependent on food imports under the impact of agricultural products enjoyed by the developed countries enjoying huge subsidies, and their ability to regulate production and prices to cope with crises or famines has been greatly weakened...... Therefore, it will not be easy to fundamentally improve the fragile situation of food security in developing countries.
Grain has commodity attributes and is more strategic. All countries should not only diversify their food supply channels through open trade, but also take their jobs in their own hands and firmly grasp the right to grain autonomy. Food security is a development issue as well as an equity issue. The international community needs to strengthen cooperation on poverty reduction and continuously improve the overall capacity of food production, and build more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems to ensure that more people achieve "better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life". The only way to go is to strengthen international cooperation and establish a more fair and just food production and distribution system around the world.
Source: Xinhuanet