The latest report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the Worldprepared by five specialized United Nations agencies, indicated that, in 2023, 2.33 billion people faced moderate or severe food insecurity and that 733 million went hungry in the world.
The study signals that food insecurity and malnutrition are worsening due to a combination of factors, including food price inflation, economic downturns, inequality, unaffordable healthy diets and climate change.
Only in Brazil, according to the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas61.3 million people suffer from food insecurity, which represents almost a quarter of the population.
“What we’ve seen is that between 2019 and 2020, there was a huge increase in hunger and food insecurity around the world. We thought that as the Covid-19 pandemic ended, those numbers would go down. But what’s actually happened is that over the last three years, they’ve remained persistently high. We’ve had the war in Ukraine, climate change, and hyperinflation. And all of that means there are millions and millions of people who are still struggling to get enough food,” said Lisa Moon, CEO of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [diretora-executiva] from the The Global FoodBanking Network.
Lisa gave an interview to Brazil Agency during the international seminar Food Systems: Opportunities to Combat Hunger and Waste in Brazil, held today (6) by Sesc and The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), an international entity that works with local organizations to support food banks in more than 50 countries. The event was held at Sesc Belenzinho, in São Paulo.
“This seminar marks the opening of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Sesc Mesa Brasil program and also brings to the fore the entire discussion of climate change, waste, vulnerability and hunger. It is important that we are always discussing this scenario and seeking new ways to mitigate the severe effects that we are encountering, with so many people in a situation of food insecurity,” said Cláudia Roseno, assistance manager at the National Department of Sesc.
One of the topics of discussion promoted by the seminar encompasses the effects of the climate crisis on hunger and food insecurity in the world.
“Climate change impacts the production and distribution circuit [dos alimentos]. A very emblematic and recent example is the tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul,” said Cláudia. In the South, she recalled, the floods affected all family and subsistence farming production, as well as rice production, which affected supply throughout the country.
Asked about these impacts, Lisa highlighted that the communities that have suffered the most from climate change are also the ones most affected by hunger. “We see higher rates of chronic hunger and higher rates of food insecurity in communities that are experiencing the impacts of climate change. At the same time, our food system is producing more than enough food for everyone to have enough, but we are throwing away about a third of all the food produced globally, increasing greenhouse gas emissions,” she noted. “By wasting food, we are exacerbating the problem of climate change,” she added.
In the specific case of Brazil, Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, professor of Law at the University of São Paulo (USP) and visiting professor at the Harvard Law Schoolthis issue of food waste is also related to livestock farming. “If we look at it, Brazil is among the largest meat producers in the world. We have the largest protein producing companies in the world, but we also have a very high level of animal waste and meat waste in the world. And what is the issue with sustainability? If we look at who is the biggest polluter in Brazil, who contributes most negatively to gas emissions, which have an impact on global warming, it is the meat industry. We can see that there is a direct connection between waste and the industry,” he said during the seminar. “Waste is often linked to an economic system in which you need to produce a certain level of production,” he emphasized.
Solutions
The answers to address hunger and the impacts of climate change on food insecurity are not easy, nor are they immediate. But they are urgent.
They also require collective effort and “a lot of discussion,” highlighted Cláudia Roseno. “We need to bring researchers, governments, civil society and initiatives like Sesc Mesa Brasil to the table to discuss this problem. We need to find other ways to reduce the effects of climate change, waste, and also vulnerability and hunger in Brazil,” she said.
In many countries, 733 million will go hungry in 2023, study reveals. – Marcello Casal/Agency Brazil
For Lisa Moon, reducing hunger involves, for example, supporting food banks. “For people who are in poverty, if they don’t have enough money to survive, food is often the last thing they will buy. They will have to buy their own housing, medicine and other things. And that means that hunger is very, very prevalent, even among people who have jobs. And the role of food banks is to help provide that support to people in need. And they not only provide food to meet basic needs, but they also provide vital nutrition,” she said.
Lisa highlights other important actions to reduce hunger and food insecurity in the world, mainly related to donations to food banks. The first of these, she said, concerns liability protection. “If companies and food producers donate in good faith, they should be sure that they will not have any type of legal problems,” she said.
Other points that Lisa highlighted as important are tax incentives, labeling and investments in the third sector.
“In many places, it is more expensive to donate food than to throw it away. With tax incentives, we can help encourage companies to at least alleviate some of their costs when they donate. Another thing is expiration labeling. [dos alimentos]. “Expiration labels are very confusing and cause confusion about whether these are quality labels or food safety labels. Adopting labeling that is truly focused on food safety can be very helpful for donation. The last thing is to really think about how to invest in the third sector that will recover this surplus food. We have found that with small investments in infrastructure grants, we can really increase the capacity of food banks to receive more surplus products and redistribute them to people in need,” Lisa stressed.
For professor Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, from USP and Harvard Law Schoolthe issue of hunger needs to be addressed not only with efficient public policies, but also with social assistance. He points out that there is no point in having good public policies if they do not reach those who need them most. “You need to have people who go to where poverty is. We need to have people who discover the problems of those families specifically and then use the state apparatus to provide a response specifically for that family,” he noted.
“If Brazil is an unequal country and you implement a public policy that ultimately serves the middle class, you are eventually perpetuating this inequality,” said Carlos. “The challenges facing Brazilian society are truly immense. But as I tell my students, if we can solve these problems in Brazil, we will set an example for the world,” he argued.
Brazil Table
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sesc Mesa Brasil program, the largest private network of food banks in Latin America, Sesc, in São Paulo, is promoting a special program, which has been called the Sesc Mesa Brasil Festival.
On August 10 and 11, the units in the capital, coastal and interior of São Paulo will have more than 80 free artistic performances, in addition to opening their spaces to receive donations of non-perishable food items. The items collected will be donated to social institutions. More information about the program can be found at site.
