That was the bitter exclamation of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres when supply shocks caused by economic crisis, conflict, war and climate change are causing 780 million people in the world to face hunger. Meanwhile, the reality is that the world is throwing away 100 billion USD each year just because of food waste.
780 million people face hunger, 462 million people are malnourished
These are the figures given at the United Nations High-Level Conference on the Global Food System held in Rome (Italy) at the end of July 2023. Previously, in a report in early July 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that about 691-783 million people would face hunger in 2022, averaging 735 million people. " We are facing an unprecedented global food crisis and there is every reason to believe that we have not yet seen the worst" - WFP Executive Director David Beasley emphasized.
Distributing free meals to people in Howlwadag, south of Mogadishu, Somalia. Illustration photo: AFP/TTXVN
Even more worrying is that, in a speech to the UN Security Council in mid-September 2023, Ms. Cindy McCain - Executive Director of WFP, said that due to the decline in funding, the increasingly limited budget has forced WFP to reduce the scale of operations, cut food rations for millions of people, and thus could cause an additional 24 million people to fall into a state of emergency hunger in the next 12 months, an increase of 50% compared to the current level. WFP estimates that every 1% reduction in food aid risks pushing more than 400,000 people into a state of emergency hunger, while the funding shortfall in 2023 of WFP has reached more than 60% - the highest level in the agency's 60-year history.
Previously, at the beginning of 2023, WFP released data showing that in the past 3 years, the number of hungry people globally has continuously increased to "new peaks" and this increase will continue as the world continues to face climate shocks, wars, conflicts and economic crises, even the world is facing the risk that 2023 will be another record year of hunger.
“ Let’s be clear: Things can and will get worse unless there is a large-scale, coordinated effort to address the root causes of this crisis. We cannot afford another record-breaking year of hunger, ” WFP Executive Director David Beasley warned in early 2023.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also warned in October 2023 that the world still has a long way to go to achieve the goal of ending hunger by 2030, as the number of hungry people in the world is currently 745 million higher than in 2015.
Also according to WFP, famine is raging most severely in the following countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Central African Republic, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, and Syria.
According to figures released by UN humanitarian agencies at the end of June 2023, in the Horn of Africa (the easternmost part of Africa) alone, up to 60 million people are severely food insecure, including more than 15 million women of reproductive age, 5.6 million adolescent girls and nearly 1.1 million pregnant women. Notably, as shared by Liesbeth Aelbrecht, the World Health Organization (WHO) manager of emergencies in this region: “ About five million children under five years of age will face acute malnutrition by 2023 in the core of the Horn of Africa”.
Homeless people receive food from a relief program for the poor in Hyderabad, India. Photo: AFP/TTXVN
Somalia is perhaps the most devastating of all. Decades of armed conflict, erratic rainfall patterns, and widespread displacement have led to famine in the African country, which is set to worsen in 2023 as Somalia experiences the dire consequences of extreme weather.
“ With floods coming so soon after drought, it feels like a relentless onslaught of climate shocks for families already struggling, ” said Laura Turner, WFP Deputy Country Director in Somalia.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, an estimated 4.3 million Somalis faced severe food insecurity, including 1 million people experiencing extreme hunger, with an estimated 331,000 Somali children at risk of severe malnutrition and possible death. Twenty-five percent of the Somali population, or 4.3 million people, are projected to face crisis-level hunger or worse by the end of the year.
In addition to the dire developments in African and Latin American countries, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation and other factors have pushed countries like Canada into a state of food insecurity. In late September 2023, Food Banks Canada released its first-ever poverty report, which said that nearly 7 million people in the country are struggling to get enough food amid a cost-of-living crisis caused by high inflation.
More than 30% of food production expires and is thrown away every year.
The irony is that while hundreds of millions of people are dying of hunger, according to statistics, each year more than 30% of the planet's food production has expired or is thrown away before reaching consumers. This number corresponds to 1.3 billion tons of food, food is thrown away, equivalent to the world throwing away 100 billion USD each year just because of food waste. 250 billion m3 of water used to produce this amount of food is also wasted.
Among food groups, according to FAO estimates for the period 2021 - 2022, fruits and vegetables are the most lost and wasted. The biggest culprits of food waste are developed industrial countries in Asia, accounting for 28%, South Asia and Southeast Asia 19%, Africa 17%, Europe 17%, America 12% and Latin America 7%. Because of this, a senior FAO leader once emphasized that food waste is a global problem and not limited to rich countries. " We are so used to wasting food that we forget its value" - said the leader of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
Food loss and waste is an urgent global challenge. (Photo: FAO)
It is worth noting that in order to produce 1.3 billion tons of food that is then thrown away like this, factories have created about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, thereby indirectly exacerbating global climate change and threatening the sustainability of agriculture, human livelihoods as well as the quality and safety of humanity's food supply.
For that reason, fighting food waste has been and is being mentioned as the most important solution to both food insecurity and global climate change.
“ Reducing food waste will cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature through land conversion and pollution, increase food availability and thus reduce hunger and save money in times of global recession ” - The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) once emphasized.
And that, “ if you don’t take action against food waste, the cost is triple. It’s not just the loss of the food we’re producing, but also all the natural and financial resources that went into producing that food.”
The Global Food Security Summit held on November 20 also focused international attention on the current deepening global food security crisis, while linking food security issues with climate change.
“ In a world of abundance, no one should die of hunger and no parent should see their child starve” - emphasized by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak - who co-chaired the Conference - can be said to be both a warning and a passionate call for the fight against food waste and hunger globally.
Ha Anh
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