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The Global Food Supply

One of the goals that the international community set for itself in 2000 was to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. While directly improving people’s quality of life, greater food security can also improve maternal and child health, education systems, and countries’ overall economic situations.

There have been significant improvements in food security and nutrition over the past 30 to 40 years and many countries are making progress toward the goal of halving hunger. Others—especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa—are lagging behind or the situation is worsening.

At the global level, over 800 million people still go hungry. Progress towards meeting world food goals has come to a halt, according to the latest “State of Food Insecurity” (SOFI) report produced by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). But, it’s not because the world is running out of food.

Organizations like Action Against Hunger note that “the growth curve of food availability in the world continues to be higher than the increase in population, even in developing countries.” If the Earth has the capacity to feed a growing population, then why are so many people still starving?

Natural and man-made disasters can certainly impact food supplies—such as hunger following recent droughts in Kenya and the earthquake in Pakistan. And now the UN is concerned about serious food shortages in Sri Lanka caused by violence between separatist rebels and government forces. In Zimbabwe and other countries where democracy is in short supply, food aid is often used as a political weapon too.

Part of the problem is the lack of public and private investment in the agricultural sector, say many experts in the field. HIV infection, trade barriers, and poor land use practices can all impact food production as well.

But in broad terms, argues the SOFI report, governments must give priority to agriculture, as it is the lifeblood of the rural areas where over 70 percent of the world’s hungry people live. The FAO adds that, over the past 20 years, resources for this sector have declined by more than 50 percent in real terms. As the role of agriculture in reducing poverty is starting to get more attention, many in the field are hoping that those realities will soon change.

Page 1 - Introduction Page 2 - The Global Food Supply Page 3 - The Future of Small Farms Page 4 - Is Bigger Better? Page 5 - The Debate over Seeds Page 6 - Examining Solutions

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