Where do we stand in the fight against world hunger, on the road to the #ZeroHunger goal to be achieved by 2030. The FAO takes stock on the occasion of World Food Day and the State of Food and Agriculture 2018.
820 million people suffered from hunger in 2017, a scourge that kills more people than AIDS and tuberculosis. Of these, 70 per cent live in rural areas and work in agriculture, while 45 per cent of child deaths are caused by malnutrition. The paradox, then, is that one in nine people finds themselves in this situation despite the Earth producing enough food for everyone.
This is also why the theme chosen by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) for the 2018 edition of World Food Day is: "Our actions are our future. A #ZeroHunger world by 2030 is possible." Celebratory events are planned in 150 countries, including marathons, marches, exhibitions and concerts, as well as the main ceremony in Rome, which will be attended by, among others, Queen Letizia of Spain and King Letsie III of Lesotho.
Established in November 1979 during the proceedings of the twentieth general conference of the FAO, World Food Day is celebrated on 16 October to commemorate the founding of the organisation itself, created on 16 October 1945 in Canada with the aim of raising awareness of issues related to food security and poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and the need to act decisively to overcome them. This need is all the more pressing when one considers that, between the economic crisis, wars and weather events linked to climate change, hunger and malnutrition have seen a new and dangerous rise in recent times.
Of the 820 million people at risk of hunger, 60 per cent are women, while 151 million children under the age of five suffer from stunting. At the same time, more than a quarter of the world's population (1.9 billion people) is overweight, and every year 3.4 million people lose their lives due to obesity-related problems. Two further aspects compound the picture: one third of the food produced in the world is lost or wasted, and 6 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by food waste that ends up in landfill.
Hunger and rural development are, moreover, closely linked to the phenomenon of migration. The FAO's State of Food and Agriculture 2018 (Sofa) focuses precisely on these aspects, painting a picture of the situation while at the same time turning the prevailing debate on its head. Starting from the point, as director-general José Graziano da Silva highlighted, that "the objective must be to make migration a choice, not a necessity, to maximise positive impacts and minimise negative ones. In many situations it makes sense to facilitate migration and help prospective migrants overcome the constraints they may face, enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities that migration offers. At the same time, it also means offering attractive alternative opportunities to prospective rural migrants, not least by promoting development in rural areas or in their vicinity."
Then there is the dimension of international migration, which has been the focus of political debate for years; yet internal migration is a significantly larger phenomenon: more than one billion people living in developing countries have moved within their own country, with 80 per cent of those moves involving a rural area.
At government level, measures should not be limited to curbing migration. For countries engaged in their own development, it is essential to promote employment opportunities along the agricultural value chain, in order to provide rural communities with jobs as close as possible to where they live. For those grappling with the difficult challenge of youth employment, it is important to create attractive job opportunities (in agriculture and beyond) in rural areas, while at the same time facilitating orderly migration. Countries at an intermediate level of development should instead prioritise connecting rural and urban areas to expand economic opportunities. Finally, destination countries — the most sought-after destinations, Italy included — for those who leave in search of a better life, should tackle the challenges posed by the poor integration of immigrants.
There is, in short, an enormous amount of work to be done, which also involves revisiting the dominant cultural paradigm. But for the FAO, a zero-hunger world by 2030 is possible, as envisaged by the Sustainable Development Goals, provided that countries, sectors and professions join forces to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has access to an adequate supply of healthy and nutritious food. Greater investment in agriculture from the private sector, social protection programmes for the most vulnerable, and smoother links between food producers and urban areas are all needed.
Sustainability and technological innovation will play an increasingly important role: on the one hand, ensuring the survival of rural communities requires an approach that is mindful of the environment and that harnesses the power of progress to create stable employment opportunities; on the other, smallholder farmers must adopt new sustainable farming methods to increase productivity and income. "Zero Hunger — the FAO's position states — goes beyond resolving conflicts and achieving economic growth, and takes a long-term approach to building peaceful a
