COVID-19 TO WORSEN GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS, UN WARNS

The United Nations (UN) has warned that the world is in for the worst food crisis in 50 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which could push nearly 50 million more people into extreme poverty but the long-term effects could be worse, as poor nutrition in childhood leads to lifelong suffering, with one in five children (144 million) around the world is now stunted in their growth by the age of five due to food shortages, Fermin Koop wrote for ZME Science on June 15, 2020.

“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Maximo Torero, the chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also told The Guardian that the world’s food systems are under threat as never before in recent times. The pandemic and lockdowns hampered people’s ability to harvest and buy and sell food. “We need to be careful,” he said.

Countries need to designate food and nutrition services as essential, guaranteeing that those workers in the sector have the necessary protections. At the same time, authorities have to scale up support for food processing, transport and local markets, and to ensure food systems can continue to function by keeping trade corridors open. The stimulus packages should be targeted to the most vulnerable, especially small-scale farmers.

“The Covid-19 crisis is attacking us at every angle,” Agnes Kalibata, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for the 2021 food systems summit, told The Guardian. “It has exposed dangerous deficiencies in our food systems and actively threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world.” She added: “It’s a reminder that the challenge from the coronavirus pandemic is still far from over, and we still have multiple challenges to overcome — in terms of public health, economy, and also feeding the planet.”