Industrial Food System Failing As UN Finds 733 Million Still Hungry

The UN’s latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, published 24 July, reveals global hunger is stuck at catastrophically high levels, and progress on the global hunger crisis stagnating.

This must be a major wakeup call, says the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).

Our analysis of the UN’s hunger report

• For the third year in a row, global hunger is stuck at catastrophically high levels. Progress on the global hunger crisis has stagnated following a sharp deterioration between 2019 and 2021. 733 million people continue to face hunger today. This is 36% higher than a decade ago. 2.33 billion people – nearly 30% of the world – continue to be moderately or severely food insecure. While about 2.8 billion – one third of people in the world – are unable to access a healthy nutritious diet. The world is far off track to achieve the zero hunger goal or any of the seven global nutrition targets by 2030 – without major changes to food systems.  
• This is not a blip, and can no longer just be blamed on the pandemic. This is an ever-clearer signal that the global industrial food system is failing, and is disastrously vulnerable to increasing climate, hunger, conflict and financial shocks. We need a food system transformation to tackle the new normal of hunger.  
• Climate change was the most prevalent driver of food insecurity and malnutrition in 2023. The major drivers of hunger – conflict, climate change and economic shocks – are occurring more often and at higher intensity, resulting in increasing numbers of hungry and food-insecure people.  Already this year we’ve seen climate shocks devastate staple food production in Brazil, Mexico, China and India, with studies linking higher temperatures with increased food prices. Building climate resilient food systems is literally a matter of life and death — and must be an urgent priority globally. This means more diversified and localized production and food chains, instead of global industrial food chains.
• Rising hunger is not inevitable. With the right policies, countries can build climate resilient food systems and bolster their food security.
• Latin America is one region bucking the global trend, setting a hopeful example. In 2023 hunger fell for a second successive year across the region (though progress was uneven and food insecurity remains high).
• Across the developing world, hunger is highest in rural areas. A huge number of those producing food are unable to achieve decent livelihoods and are going hungry. This underscores the urgent need to reinvest in rural development and ensure viable livelihoods for small-scale producers, family farms, farmworkers. 

Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food, and UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

These hunger figures are a major wakeup call. Global hunger remains catastrophically high, with 733 million people still going to bed hungry every day – 36% more than a decade ago. And 2.8 billion people unable to afford a healthy diet – meaning for one in three, wages are too low or social protection too weak to have adequate nutrition.

This is not just a blip, the global industrial food system is disastrously vulnerable to increasing climate, conflict and economic shocks – with climate change increasingly pounding farmers. Building climate-resilient food systems is now a life-or-death matter. As is establishing social protection floors and ensuring workers are paid living wages.

We desperately need a new recipe for addressing hunger – based on diverse agroecological food production and localized food markets instead of global industrial food chains, and social protection schemes that guarantee the right to food for the world’s poorest.

Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food, and UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

Elisabetta Recine, IPES-Food panel expert and President of the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consea)

Rising hunger is not inevitable. Latin America has now driven down hunger for the second successive year – showing that with the right policies, governments can improve food access and build climate-resilient food systems.

In Brazil, 13 million people were lifted out of hunger last year through programs systematically targeting poor households, providing healthy school food sourced from smallholder farmers, supporting family farming, and implementing food policies for the poorest urban communities. With the right actions, deep participation, and coordinated implementation, we can turn the tide on hunger.

Elisabetta Recine, IPES-Food panel expert and President of the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consea)

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel expert and professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin

Debt servicing at insane interest rates is making it even harder for low income countries to make sure the hungry are fed. In Kenya, a neoliberal government has met its citizens’ hunger not with food but with violence and tax increases. This is, alas, an augury of the world to come.

Climate change is a headwind for yields in all staple crops, and without debt forgiveness and climate reparations, the future looks bleak, particularly for the most indebted low- and middle-income countries.

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel expert and professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin