Among the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN has noted a dramatic increase in world hunger. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, one tenth of the global population – as many as 811 million people – were undernourished in 2020, an increase of 118 million from 2019.
The report, published in July 2021 by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies, said that food insecurity is being driven by climate change, conflict and the economic recession. If the world were to continue on the current track, the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030 will be missed by a margin of nearly 660 million people.
Recognizing the urgency of the hunger crisis, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres will convene the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021. In advance of the event, we spoke to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Programme Manager, James Lomax about the challenges and opportunities to transform food systems and end hunger by 2030.
When we discuss global food systems, what exactly are we talking about? What is the problem with the way we are currently producing and consuming food?
Traditionally, discussions of food production and consumption have looked at a specific part of the process – agriculture or diets, for example. But these are only parts of a very elaborate picture, and this is reflected in the problems that we are currently facing.
Today, more than 800 million people in the world are hungry, two billion people are suffering from micronutrient deficiencies and 2 billion people are overweight or obese. But these groups are not necessarily distinct; not all malnutrition is the result of food insufficiency. So when we consider food as a component of global health, it is not just a matter of quantity.
Another issue is the pressure that food systems place on the environment. Food systems are responsible for 70 per cent of the water extracted from nature, cause 60 per cent of biodiversity loss, and generate up to a third of human greenhouse gas emissions. It is poignant that in producing food, we have contributed to climate change, which has come to threaten food security.
Now, when we talk about global food systems, we are using a more holistic lens, expanding the conversation to include the entire value chain – not only production and consumption but also food processing, packaging, transport, retail and food services. By considering the entire system, we are better positioned to understand problems and to address them in a more integrated way.
What is the connection between food systems and the spread of zoonotic diseases, like COVID-19?
Zoonotic diseases are passed from animals to humans and are a serious health risk, as the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear. Wildlife habitats act as natural buffer zones that reduce opportunities for spillover from wild animals to people. When we remove trees and wildlife habitats to create space for things like living and farming and other industries, we are also increasing our exposure to disease risks.
Intensive livestock farming may also be a contributing factor. Pathogens may be passed from wild animals to domesticated (farm) animals, and then from those animals to humans. Livestock also accounts for nearly two-thirds of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions – contributing to climate change and causing changes in temperature, humidity and seasonality that affect the survival of microbes.
Food production is affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic and therefore threatens food security. For example, the closure of borders and restricted movement has limited access of pastoralist farmers to water and pasture. In addition to increased virus risk, this has reduced their economic opportunities and affected household incomes.
If existing production and consumption habits are problematic, why haven’t they been addressed?
To date, our understanding of food systems is incomplete. Most existing data focus on agriculture – where the food chain begins. At the other end of that chain, individual choices and consumption patterns are fragmented. We do not have a clear picture of the middle portion of the chain: what is happening between the farm and the table? This "middle part" is a significant driver of how food is produced, what and how we consume.
At the policy level, nature has not been considered as a form of capital. Consequently, legislation is not designed to prevent pollution and other forms of environmental degradation.
And at the end of the chain, consumers may not know how food reaches their plates or be aware of the health and environmental consequences of their dietary choices.
The world’s population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050. Can we realistically produce food that is nutritious, affordable and environmentally sustainable – for everyone?
Practical, nature-based solutions are entirely within our control but require radical, transformative change.
The world already produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet. But, as a recent UNEP report found, over 17 per cent of food is wasted. Food waste accounts for up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It can occur at the consumer end, where food is thrown away, or as post-harvest loss – in storage, transport, packaging, or other stages before food reaches the table. UNEP found that the global average of 74 kg per capita of food wasted each year is similar from lower-middle-income to high-income countries, which means that most countries have room to improve.
Dietary habits represent another intervention area. Over the past 50 years, diets have become increasingly homogenous, dominated by crops that are rich in energy but poor in macronutrients. Of the thousands of plants and animals used for food in the past, less than 200 currently contribute to global food supplies and just nine crops account for almost 70 per cent of all crop production. In many cases –particularly in developing countries – people do not receive the full range of nutrients essential to human health. In fact, low dietary diversity has surpassed caloric insufficiency as the primary driver of death.
As people become wealthier, they tend to adopt more resource-intensive diets. In addition to its impact on land use, it also affects health. Over 75 per cent of all agricultural land is used for feed production, pasture, and grazing for livestock and overuse of antibiotics – to promote livestock yield, survival and growth – has caused antimicrobial resistance in both humans and animals.
According to the EAT-Lancet Commission, moving toward "diets with a diversity of plant-based foods, low amounts of animal source foods, unsaturated rather than saturated fats, and limited amounts of refined grains, highly-processed foods and added sugars – could prevent between 19 and 24 per cent of all adult deaths, each year.”
These are substantive issues and, while change will not be easy, the benefits are clear.
Reducing food waste and shifting dietary patterns could reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from the food system by as much as 50 per cent. And restoring biodiversity could strengthen the resilience of food systems, enabling farmers to diversify production and cope with pests, diseases and climate change.
To learn more about global food systems, contact James Lomax: james.lomax@un.org
Supporting the transition toward food systems that provide positive impacts on nutrition, the environment and livelihoods; the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a contributor to the One Planet Network Sustainable Food Systems Programme, leading the development of a guideline for collaborative policymaking; and a member of the Transformative Partnership Platform, informing donors and policy makers and fostering innovation. UNEP is also the custodian of the food waste element of Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, committing member states to halve their per capita food waste at the consumer retail level; and is currently developing the Food Waste Index, a global food waste databank enabling countries to track their progress towards the Goal.
