On this World Food Day, the global food system and food security are at a critical time. The compounded impact of the global pandemic, mounting pressure from the climate crisis, high energy and fertilizer prices, and armed conflicts, including Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, have disrupted production and supply chains and dramatically increased global food insecurity, especially for the most vulnerable. susceptible.
The human impact was staggering. By early 2022, more than 190 million people had experienced acute food insecurity. The war in Ukraine could add 70 million people on top of that. Millions of people face hunger and malnutrition.
Conflict drives unreasonable levels of hunger as violence stops food from getting to those most in need. The pandemic disruption to supply chains has destabilized the food system. The problem of high price and availability reduces the use of fertilizers. From droughts in the Horn of Africa to floods in Pakistan, we also see how climate change is a critical threat to our food supply. Parts of Somalia are threatened with famine for the second time in more than a decade.
The work ahead of us is clear. Only by working together can we overcome the global food security challenges we face. Earlier this year, the United States chaired the Food Security Summit at the United Nations, which unveiled the Roadmap for Global Food Security. At the meeting, we reaffirmed our commitment to world leaders to act with urgency and at scale to respond to the urgent global food crisis and prevent extreme hunger for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. More than 100 countries have signed an initiative calling on them to take seven actions, which include increasing fertilizer production and investing in climate-resilient agriculture.
The United States leads. Last month, at the UN General Assembly, President Biden announced more than $2.9 billion in new aid to tackle global food insecurity. The announcement builds on the $6.9 billion US aid to support global food security that has been done this year. This assistance will save lives through emergency intervention and investing in medium to long term food security assistance to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations, often women and children, from the escalating global food security crisis.
There is no doubt that food security is a very urgent issue globally. So, this World Food Day, let’s stay true to its theme – Leave No One Behind – because the health, stability and well-being of everyone depends on the food security we build together.
