How to avert a global food crisis – The National

How to avert a global food crisis – The National

The events of the past two years have placed extraordinary stresses on food supply chains around the world. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, there were bottlenecks in farm labour, processing, transport and logistics, as well as shifts in consumer demand. To minimise the impact of these disruptions, however, policymakers and those in the food industry quickly responded to the circumstances and the world managed to avert a global food crisis.

Nonetheless, the pandemic might have pushed up to 132 million additional people into chronic hunger and the number of undernourished may have increased to as many as 811 million people in 2020, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a number which is a staggering 10.4 per cent of the world's population. The FAO cite the devastating effects of the pandemic on jobs and income, especially in developing countries, as one of the main drivers for this increase.

A man prepares arepas, made from maize, the most popular and traditional food in Venezuela, at a restaurant in Caracas, on October 28, 2021. AFP