Viet Nam Human Rights
Can the World Tackle the Food Insecurity Crisis in 2021?
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity and disrupted food systems and food supply chains in developed and developing countries alike. In the United States, millions of Americans struggle to put food on the table. Around the world, according to the United Nations over 270 million are hungry, and this is expected to continue to increase.
As a brand new year begins, I can’t help but think what must be done to mitigate these worrying trend?
First and foremost, there should be continued monitoring of the food insecurity statistics. Real time data to know where food insecurity is highest, and interventions are needed the most should continue to be collected by agencies like United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, Feeding America, United Nations World Food Programme.
Moreover, collecting real time data and using data intelligence to tackle food insecurity can be extended to cover the entire agricultural food chain-from production, distribution, processing, supply and consumption.
As an example, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future has real time mapping platform that shows production, distribution, processing and consumption within Maryland’s food system via its Maryland Food System Map Project. Around the world, the United Nations World Food Programme continues to track and monitor hunger and food insecurity through its real time HungerMap.
In the end, this kind of real time collected data should be used to identify gaps. In addition, insights obtained should be used to inform decision makers in country governments, nonprofit institutions, food banks and other people responsible for designing programs and policies to address food insecurity in 2021 and beyond. In the long-term, data obtained from real time mapping of food insecurity can be used to distribute food more equitably and reliably.
Accompanying data and on the ground reality should be the continuation of actions that have proven to be critical in 2020 in efforts to address hunger. Throughout 2020, Feeding America and many foodbanks and food pantries have stepped up to the challenge of feeding everyday people.
It is important that they are restocked and the people working there enumerated well. Restocking foodbanks can be achieved through government funding and donations by businesses and individuals who are in a position to do so.
Among the strategies that proved important in 2020 were home and community gardens. These gardens flourished for the best part of the year across many states, with many people venturing into planting their own gardens. In 2021 and beyond, citizens who want to garden come spring should be encouraged and supported with resources and knowledge about how to successfully grow the crops they choose to.
Luckily, many states have Land-Grant Universities such as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Purdue University that can assist through the Cooperative Extension Service. As such, Universities should find ways to unpack useful and guiding knowledge in formats that can easily be used by citizens as they look to start gardening.
Consistently, throughout the pandemic, many citizens relied on local food solutions and their local farmers and producers to meet their food needs. Moving on in 2021, everyday people should continue to think locally whenever possible.
Of course, thinking locally when it comes to meeting food insecurity may not always be possible, especially with food deserts in many under-resourced areas and with usually higher prices at farmers markets.
Finally, there is room for more innovativesolutions such as food dispensing ATM machines, food finding and food redistribution apps, and as such, we should continue to look for solutions from food security experts and everyday people that are facing food insecurity challenge and highlight those that are making an impact.
Tackling food insecurity will continue to need all of us to step up. Every action, every strategy counts.
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All comments [ 21 ]
To meet surging demand, one food bank created specific plans for separate food sources and drop-off sites in order to get resources into the community as fast as possible with a minimum of waste.
When COVID-19 hit and put millions of people out of work, it created a monumental surge in demand at the Food Depository and hundreds of other food banks across the country.
The number of hungry people in the world reached 821 million in 2017, or one in every nine people, according to the latest issue of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.
Hunger is on the rise in almost all African sub-regions, making Africa the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment.
In times of crisis, the world’s poorest are likely to run out of food, and – at the extreme – to go for days without eating, putting health and wellbeing at risk.
The world economic growth rate has already fallen 1%, compared with a similar period in the previous year, translating into an increase in the extreme poverty rate of between 1.6% and 3% globally, depending on whether the slowdown is through productivity or trade disruption.
This is also exacerbated by the fact that a majority of the world’s poorest people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Covid-19 will have both direct and indirect impacts on food systems. How severe these will be will depend on how national governments and local populations react, and how well-prepared they are.
The signatories comprised of major businesses, farmers’ groups, industry, non-governmental organisations and academia, showing the cross-party consensus on the urgent interventions required.
Some evidence of the impact of Covid-19 on agriculture has already emerged out of China, where farmers are facing a daunting planting season as they deal with shortages in labour, seeds and fertilisers.
Countries around the world do not have the capacity to replicate this.
the UK, US and Europe have a complicated supply chain system and are dependent on food imports from a range of countries.
To maintain their food security, they are very much dependent on the performance of exporting countries.
Unless critical measures are undertaken to ensure supply chains and operations remain open, there would be a fundamental impact on the way we produce, harvest and distribute food.
A few countries have begun to freeze imports and exports, but in the long term, it is important that countries resist protectionism.
Under our current complex trade structures, the fluidity of the food systems must be maintained in order to ensure food and livelihood security.
Most importantly, we need to support countries in Africa, the food basket of the world, in dealing with the crisis before it starts to spread deeper.
A pan-African shutdown will disrupt global food supply in unimaginable ways. Our success depends on their success.
Farmers and producers – mainly in developing countries, although on a global level – are struggling to cope with this crisis
One of the most important components of maintaining the global food supply chain is the creation, access to and use of reliable, up-to-date data for all stakeholders involved. Governments should collect and share data, as well as support research, on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food systems.
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