“If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution” – Anonymous
Last week I discussed the enormous waste of food on a global scale. Yet, it is hunger that remains as the top global concern of the United Nations in its Millennium Development goals (MDG). The UN’s MDG 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030 but unfortunately, it is on an alarming level.
ALARMING STATE OF HUNGER
Global statutes assert one of the basic human rights is the right to food, but has become quite irrelevant to those who look at the world as an arena of business and profit. Seemingly the new mantra in this modern world is survival – where those who can afford survive and those who cannot are left suffer and be part of history.
In 2022, 735 million people – or 9.2 percent of the world’s population was in a state of chronic hunger – a staggering rise compared to 2019. Here, hunger is classified showing it is of varying degrees requiring different approaches on how to be addressed. It exposes itself as a growing crisis.
In the same year, more data exposed that around 2.4 billion of the world’s humanity suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity. This classification means that the number of people who have less access to sufficient food escalated by an alarming number of 391 million people after only a three-year difference since 2019. By 2030, 600 million more people worldwide will be facing hunger. The UN’s goal of eliminating hunger in the same year is impossible, putting the world in an immense challenge.
HUNGER DESPITE GLOBAL ADVANCEMENT
Hunger is on an alarming level amidst the brilliance of inventions and innovativeness, and it is at its worst while the world’s advancement surges. There are a few major factors – pandemic, conflict, climate change, and deepening inequalities.
Let us pay attention to the last one – deepening inequalities. Inequalities result in the lack of access to basic needs that is supposed to be a basic human right that is glaringly ignored and neglected, which has now become a privilege. Hunger persists because almost half of the globe’s population have less access to safe food caused by their low economic status – no financial and material possessions. With less or no money and land or less access to agriculture, they are more likely to suffer from hunger and food insecurity.
Moreover, deprived of education, knowledge, and skills, and highly dependent on the services of their governments, where measures are largely palliative and commitments still remain on paper, only worsens their situation. Access to food for consumption becomes nil and narrow because the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities further cuts the bleeding wounds of the hungry.
ZERO HUNGER GLOBAL CAMPAIGNS
On the other hand, there are global advocacies, platforms and movements calling to end hunger.
One is the Action Against Hunger which is a humanitarian organization that aims to end hunger and malnutrition worldwide. It works in over 50 countries reaching millions of people and digs into the root causes of hunger, especially among hunger-stricken countries caused by conflicts and inequality. There is also Why Hunger that supports partners targeting hunger and assists to build solidarity and pursue food sovereignty where basic rights to food, water, land and sustainable livelihood are enjoyed. The World Food Program is working to end hunger by providing food assistance and works against climate change directly resulting in hunger.
Despite all these, hunger still increases, deepens, and widens dramatically on a much wider scale.
HEAL THE WORLD
This clearly requires a multi-dimensional approach – from social protection of the underprivileged to the provision of nutritious food, especially for children, and the transformation of food systems towards an inclusive and sustainable world. Agricultural food production investments are more than a necessity and a must-do measure now. Hunger limits human development and curtails progress and development because the global food system is controlled by a profit-oriented few with less humanitarian concerns that widens the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged.
The fight against hunger might be able to address major challenges on climate change and reduce conflict in some states, but if food system control remains in the hands of the few, zero hunger remains an illusion.
It is said that only 1 percent of the world controls our food system. Sadly, most of us patronize them. They are on our meal tables almost every day (sic).*
