From COVID-19 to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine to climate change, all the disasters plaguing the world seem to be converging to worsen hunger. The latest United Nations Hunger Report finds that the global increase in the number of undernourished people this year has reversed all gains over the past decade.
But although the world has not seen hunger on this scale in years, scholars have long warned of an impending catastrophe. The world’s food system is more interconnected and complex than ever, built on layers of transnational dependencies. That’s why a war in Europe can exacerbate a famine in Somalia — a country that imports most of its wheat and whose bread supply almost collapsed overnight when exports of Ukrainian wheat were halted.
But instead of reducing the fragility of the food system, recent international efforts led by the United States to end hunger only exacerbate it — particularly for Africa — by further globalizing the system. Just this week, US President Joe Biden promised African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States was “all in” on Africa. But the US needs to make sure everything is right, especially when it comes to food.
The current crisis began as multiple pandemic-related shocks hit the system, including lockdowns, a global economic downturn and disease among food system workers, particularly factory workers and migrant workers. Weather events related to climate change, inflation and the war in Ukraine have exacerbated these stresses, leaving a complex and highly industrialized food system unable to feed the world’s most needy even as it maintains a steady supply of the Global North.
It is becoming increasingly clear that in moments when the world is under great stress, globalization is not a strength but a weakness, not a basis for the stability of the system but a reason for its fragility. Any disaster anywhere in the world – be it a virus outbreak, drought or conflict – is a shock to the entire system, but one that is felt most strongly by the most vulnerable people and in the most vulnerable places.
Today, 80 percent of the world’s population depends at least partially on imported food, and the money they spend on imported food has tripled in the last 25 years. About half of the 50 countries with the highest pandemic-related price increases are also among the countries most dependent on food imports, and about three-quarters of these crops come from the Global South. More than 95 percent of Botswana, Mexico and Jamaica’s rice, wheat and corn imports come from countries hardest hit by the pandemic, leaving countries like them disproportionately vulnerable to its devastating effects.
Still, Washington seems keen to duplicate this globalized system.
In October, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power announced the latest round of Washington’s continent-wide aid to African agriculture. In addition to increasing emergency food aid, the US government will invest an additional $75 million in the long term in “large-scale food fortification,” or adding nutrients to grain crops through industrial processing.
Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, the epicenter of agribusiness in the US, Power described large-scale food fortification as a means of providing African populations with nutrients they might otherwise be lacking.
But as we wrote when USAID unveiled the plan last year, African farmers have been growing nutrient-dense crops for as long as they have existed. Instead of helping them provide nutritious food for Africans, the USAID plan only makes room for the production of goods for factories.
As the world’s attention has shifted to the climate impact of agriculture, US officials and agribusinesses have sought to redesign the industrial model as a solution to this problem as well. The new greenwashing campaign, dubbed ‘climate-friendly agriculture’, was widely unveiled at COP27, although it’s little more than a new facade for farming practices, which account for nearly a third of total greenhouse gas emissions and drive biodiversity loss.
We do not want to claim that the global agricultural system lacks advantages. Without jarring, it is capable of producing and distributing food with extreme efficiency. In theory, at least, greater efficiency improves access to food by keeping food supplies high and prices low.
But the demand for efficiency has pushed farmers to grow single crops or monocultures on large acres, depriving farmland of the biodiversity that makes food nutritious and agriculture resilient to climate change. In a 2018 study, scientists from the University of British Columbia found that farm-level biodiversity decreased as farms grew in size. Today, just three crops — wheat, corn and rice — grown predominantly in just five countries, account for nearly half of all calories consumed worldwide and 86 percent of all grain exports.
Concentrating on just a few crops has made our system extremely vulnerable to price fluctuations. Worse, it concentrates power in the hands of the farmers with the most land, capital and technology, along with the multinational grain traders who make massive profits during food crises. With the entire system designed to exclude them, small and medium-sized farmers, who still produce nearly half of the world’s food calories, are set to lose.
In times of crisis, this approach also endangers our entire food system. In a recent article, nutritionist Jennifer Clapp, a member of the UN’s high-level expert panel on food security and nutrition, described the world’s current food system as rigid, inflexible and unable to adapt to shocks such as war or a pandemic. That’s because, says Clapp, the current hunger spike is the third such crisis in 50 years, and why more crises are very likely in the future.
In a system dependent on so few crops and such a small group of actors, projects like large-scale food fortification and low-carbon agriculture are trying to make the best of a bad situation. But why should we settle for so few plants, technologies and practices anyway?
Even before the current crisis, scientists like Clapp, along with many food sovereignty organizations, were arguing that the global food system needed to be dismantled in favor of more localized systems with shorter supply chains that put small and medium-sized farmers – not multinationals – at the center.
The US and other wealthy governments could encourage this shift by giving farmers the resources to grow biodiversity crops for their communities instead of raw materials that serve industrial processes. This would enable a biologically and ecologically complex, but technologically and economically simple food supply that would allow farmers to feed the world with resources that are readily available in nature and have been used to feed humanity for millennia.
Instead, international efforts only deepen the rule of a global system that concentrates power and marginalizes small and medium-sized farmers while making the most vulnerable more vulnerable to shocks. The world can and must do more to help farmers make food systems more local and resilient. It is our best hope to end hunger and protect the planet.
The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
Does Africa grow enough food to feed itself?
Overall, however, Africa produces more than enough food to sustain itself. See the article : Wow Bao now offers food through high-tech vending machines.
Does Africa produce a lot of food? Africa produces all of the major crops—corn, wheat, and rice—in that order of importance. Corn is the most widespread and is grown in practically all ecological zones. The highest yields per acre are recorded in Egypt and the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where production is irrigated.
Will Africa be able to feed itself?
In 2050, when Africa’s population will be two and a half times its current size, the continent will struggle to grow enough food for its own people.
Is there a food shortage in Africa?
Climate change is exacerbating food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, where Russia’s war in Ukraine and the pandemic are also contributing to food shortages and high prices. Read also : The new food collection system reduces damage and pollution. Climate events that destroy crops and disrupt food transportation are disproportionately common in the region.
Why is there a food problem in Africa? The collision of climate change, population growth and regional conflicts has led to massive food shortages in several African countries.
Which country has the most food shortage?
One of the problems that made Yemen the world’s hungriest country for 2022 is its reliance on food imports. Even before the outbreak of conflict – and a resulting humanitarian crisis – in Ukraine, food prices in Yemen were rising due to the devaluation of the rial and rising fuel costs.
How many people are starving in Africa 2022?
FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (October 16, 2022) – 58 million people1 across West and Central Africa, including nearly 29 million children, are now at acute risk of food insecurity and are in urgent need of food assistance, says an alliance of leading international NGOs in the region.
Why can’t Africa grow its own grain?
“But the fact is that crops like corn and wheat are not really suitable for cultivation in most regions of Africa where water is scarce,” she added. “They are very dependent on regular rainfall, which is becoming a real challenge as climate change progresses.”
Why is farming in Africa so difficult? Many African farmers lack the basic things that many farmers outside the region take for granted, such as access to improved crop varieties, fertilizers and irrigation. While some progress has been made, addressing these vulnerabilities alone is not enough.
Why is Africa unable to feed itself?
Why do people in Africa suffer from chronic hunger? Recurring drought, conflict and instability have led to severe food shortages. Many countries have struggled with extreme poverty for decades, resulting in a lack of state and local family support systems.
Can Africa grow its own wheat?
Africa produces more than 25 million tons of wheat on 10 Mha.
