World Food Day 2024: The global challenge of hunger and food insecurity

Guardian Nigeria

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00:00Now today, the 16th of October is World Food Day, designed to shine a light on hunger and

00:05malnutrition across the world. Gaza, of course, then, but also countries like Somalia, Haiti

00:12and North Korea. To talk a bit more for us about the global picture, Julia Seager, our

00:17science editor with us. And Julia, you know, as we were seeing there just from Gaza, it

00:22is clear that hunger, unfortunately, still a huge issue in 2024.

00:26That's right. According to the UN, there are 735 million people across the world who

00:31still suffer from hunger worldwide. That's nearly 10 percent of the world population.

00:35And kids, of course, are the first affected because malnutrition makes them weaker and

00:39then more vulnerable to other childlike diseases such as diarrhea and measles. And that leads,

00:45as you said, to dreadful situations that we're seeing in North Korea and Yemen, now in Gaza.

00:51But the theme of this year's World Food Day was the right to foods for a better life and

00:56a better future. So what do we mean when we say the right to foods? Well, we need we need

01:01we mean variety, nutrition, affordability, accessibility and safety. The thing is, if

01:08you because you have to understand that if you lack either in quantity of food or in

01:13quality, well, you're on the path towards some sort of malnutrition. So it can be under

01:18nourishment with nutrition deficiency, but also obesity. So the definition of food security

01:23is actually quite thorough, as you're going to see. And it's not just about access to

01:28enough food. Once again, it's about having access to nutritious food. And that's really

01:33important. Why? Because hunger is a vicious circle. And this is why nations have weaponized

01:37hunger and famine as a tool for war because of the crippling effects it has. If you don't

01:42consume enough foods and regularly and enough nutritious foods, what happens is that it

01:47affects your ability to grow, to learn and to work. It has devastating consequences for

01:52families who can't break out of the cycle of poverty. And it impacts individuals, but

01:56even on a greater level, countries and economies and even political stability. Now, the hunger

02:02map changes every year, of course, because of geopolitical issues like war, but also

02:07because of climate events like droughts, for instance. But if you look at the 2023 hunger

02:11map, you still see that the most affected countries are still in Africa. And it's been

02:16the case for several years now. So developing countries are the hardest hit. But what's

02:20interesting also is that because the definition talks about accessibility and availability

02:25of fresh produce, more and more richer countries are also affected because we're seeing food

02:30deserts because the poverty gap is increasing. So, for instance, south of Chicago is considered

02:35as a food desert. In the UK, there are 7000 food deserts across the country. That means

02:43that people have to travel excessively to be able to access fresh produce and nutritious

02:49options. And Julia, the population of the world is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.

02:58What impact is that going to have on food security? Well, the world population increases

03:04by 1%. That's still more than half than what it was 50 years ago. So that means what it

03:08does mean is that there's going to be a 2 billion more people by 2050. That means more

03:12people to feed. That means a demand in production of food. And it could in turn strain food

03:20supplies for sure. And a lot of people are actually working on this. But what's interesting

03:23is that as of today, our agricultural system produces enough food to meet our needs. And

03:29we have actually a significant room for improvement if we tackle the issue of food waste. Just

03:34to give you an idea, today, there's one third of the world's food supply that is literally

03:39thrown away every year. That's the equivalent of 1.2 billion tons of food just thrown away.

03:46I mean, that is such a huge figure, Julia. How are we losing so much food?

03:51It happens at every level. And it happens in developed and developing countries. So

03:55if you look, for instance, at production, let's say harvest and processing, especially

03:59in developing countries, the lack of modern machinery leads to damage and loss of a lot

04:04of food products. If you look at storage and transportation, once again, there's often

04:08a lack of infrastructure and the absence, for instance, of cold storage facilities.

04:13Now, if you look a little bit down the line at retail and consumer level, particularly

04:18this time in developed countries, there's a lot of things that can be done. Relaxing,

04:22for instance, what we call strict aesthetic standards, the fact that grocery stores refuse

04:26certain produce because they just don't look good, they're misshaped. Or simplifying expiration

04:31labels. So there's a lot of confusion for consumers between expiration and best before

04:37labels. And last but not least, encouraging retailers to donate surplus food because a

04:42lot of them discharge food that is edible. And so that goes through perhaps tax incentives.

04:49There's a lot of different things that can be done on that aspect. So tackling hunger,

04:55one way at least to do it. Of course, there are a lot of other ways, a lot of other issues,

04:58but one way is to first tackle waste.

05:01Julia Seager, thank you very much indeed, talking to us there on World Food Day.

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