A pandemic of hunger

The immediate demands Covid-19 placed on public health systems meant we neglected other areas crucial for human welfare such as food production. But if the world wants to overcome the effects of the pandemic, its priorities need to change, argues Edward Davey.

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In the thick of the Covid emergency, it has been easy to miss the pandemic’s long term consequences. But as we raise our eyes to the horizon, some of the most vital measures we can take relate to the food we eat and the way it is grown, produced, and distributed. Policies to deliver a fairer, healthier, more nutritious and more sustainable global food system should be at the heart of the international response to Covid-19 – not least because healthier populations will help limit the impact of this and future pandemics.

The global public health crisis has shone a spotlight on, and further exacerbated, some of the tragic failings of the world’s food system. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, some 690 million people go to bed hungry every night. This number is set to rise by 130 million people by the end of 2020 if urgent action is not taken.

Hunger stalks the people of the world – from the US, as a powerful recent report demonstrated, to Bangladesh. A further 3 billion people cannot afford to buy a healthy, nutritious, sustainable diet, because of poverty, inequality, and failures in national and global markets. Meanwhile, agriculture and land use change contribute about one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and are also responsible for loss of many of the world’s most precious remaining biodiverse natural habitats – a loss that heightens the risk of pandemics. Some of the world’s 500 million smallholder farms are home to the poorest people in the world, as well as the most malnourished. The world then loses a third of the food it produces, a moral failure as well as an economic waste.

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Once in a lifetime

There is a striking, once-in-a-generation opportunity before us – as well as a pressing ethical obligation – to address these failures and to sow the seeds of a more equitable, resilient, prosperous and nutritious food system for the 21st Century and beyond. Positive, far-sighted action is required on every front – from national governments, regions, cities, investors, the private sector, civil society, faith groups, communities and public figures – to chart a better course. Three particularly urgent priorities present themselves.

First, the world needs to take an immediate set of measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis made worse by the pandemic, and to provide nutritious food and safety nets to all in need (how fitting, therefore, that the World Food Programme has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize). This requires keeping borders open, responding to the UN’s calls for proper funding to emergency appeals, and – in every country – ensuring that children and vulnerable groups have access to the food and vitamins they need. Debt relief and appropriate finance from international institutions needs to be given to the most affected countries, and Covid-19 stimulus and recovery packages tied to these provisions.

Farm to fork

Second, farmers around the world should be supported and incentivised to shift to the more sustainable agricultural practices to which so many of them are committed. The USD700 billion that the world spends every year on subsidies for the existing food and land use system should be imaginatively redeployed to deliver better outcomes in terms of nutrition, environment, livelihoods, and climate. Markets and incentive structures need to be re-designed to support farmers to produce healthy and nutritious food, and to be appropriately rewarded for doing so. 

The UK’s National Food Strategy, published recently, is one example demonstrating how this might be achieved, including through a series of measures linked to providing ‘public money for public goods’. (James Rebanks’ ‘An English Pastoral’ movingly describes how one farmer has reformed his practices over recent years in this direction). The EU’s proposed ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy – if it can be successfully brought to fruition – envisages similar reforms, across the entire food system. The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a former agricultural powerhouse of the Green Revolution, has established a state-wide policy of ‘zero budget natural farming’, incentivising productive agriculture while at the same time making significant reductions to fertilizer and pesticide use. 

Third, we can and must use this unique moment in global affairs to step back and imagine a better food and land use system for the future, agree to this vision, and then come together to work to bring it into being. In September 2021, the UN will hold a Food Systems Summit to bring all key actors together to chart this course. It has invited all nation states, as well as the private sector and community representatives, to come forward with their best ideas, as well as to showcase inspiring examples of where change is already underway. Positive momentum generated at the Food Systems Summit may then contribute to the best possible outcome on food and land use at the all-important climate meetings due to take place in Glasgow in November 2021.

As we continue to address the terrible fallout from this pandemic, and to take immediate steps to ensure that everyone on the planet receives the support they need to come through it, let us also take this opportunity to go back to first principles and to create a radically better food and land use system for the benefit of both people and the planet in the future. This is what the moment demands of us, and there is no time to lose.