Feeding the World

The World Food Programme states, “There are 300 million fewer hungry people than in 1990-92, despite a 1.9 billion increase in the world’s population”. Many non-profit organisations have shifted their focus onto feeding children and adults all over the world, and this has resulted in the reduction of world hunger. However, there is still a substantial amount of the world population undernourished and impoverished, particularly in developing countries.

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The Sustainable Development Goals, better known as the Global Goals, are seventeen goals, agreed upon by world leaders, which the world attempts to achieve by 2030. Goal 2 pledges to “end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. Currently in 2021, this goal seems unachievable, especially due the global pandemic Covid-19, which has caused a decline in economies worldwide. A Save the Children 2020 survey conducted on thirty-seven countries found that three in four families experienced a decline in income because of the pandemic, and eighty-two percent of these families were from the poorer end of the global economic spectrum. The distribution of food across the world is undeniably unequal, with many living in luxury, and many undernourished and living in poverty. According to the World Food Programme, one in three people suffer from malnutrition. In Asia, thirty-six percent of children are stunted. In Africa, twenty-nine percent of children are stunted. This is a result of inequality and the poverty trap. Due to the prominent food insecurity present, the young generations suffer from poor health early on in life, leading to slow progression educationally and these children are therefore unable to support their elders agriculturally and financially as adults. This becomes an endless cycle and further intensifies the gap between the rich and poor, making it exceptionally difficult to end world hunger.