ADVERTISEMENT

Hunger Scourge Put at Eight-Year High on Economy, Climate Shocks

Hunger Scourge Put at Eight-Year High on Economy, Climate Shocks

(Bloomberg) -- The number of people suffering from hunger in 2018 climbed to an eight-year high as economic turmoil, civil conflict and climate shocks eroded food security and nutrition, according to a United Nations organization report.

“Things are not improving at all,” Maximo Torero, the UN Food & Agriculture Organization’s assistant director-general for the economic and social development department in Rome, said in a telephone interview. “At the current trend we won’t be able to achieve the Zero Hunger” target set by the group for 2030, he said.

The ranks of the hungry increased by almost 10 million to 821.6 million in 2018, the highest since 2010, the FAO and other food and health groups said Monday in the report. That’s about one for every nine people. The “most alarming” numbers are in Africa with 20% of people undernourished and most subregions posting increases since 2015, according to the report. Rates also climbed in Latin America and the Caribbean, while declining in Asia.

Hunger Scourge Put at Eight-Year High on Economy, Climate Shocks

“Climate change and increasing climate variability and extremes are affecting agricultural productivity, food production and natural resources, with impacts on food systems and rural livelihoods, including a decline in the number of farmers,” the FAO said.

About 2 billion people face “moderate or severe food insecurity,” the report said. While “primarily concentrated in low- and middle-income countries,” the pattern affects 8% of the populations in North America and Europe, the report said.

Of the countries experiencing rising undernourishment caused by economic slowdowns, 80% are heavily reliant on commodities. Changes in raw-material prices indirectly leads to unemployment, declining wages and threats to food security and nutrition.

To contact the reporter on this story: Denitsa Tsekova in New York at dtsekova@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Patrick McKiernan

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.