2021: A World Facing Hunger
In 2020, 2.3 billion, or almost 30% of the world population, were without reliable access to a sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food supply. Of those facing food insecurity, it is estimated that 720-811 million people are facing hunger on an extreme level. Global hunger has been on the rise since 2014, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the extreme inequalities in food security across the world. While one in eight Americans and one in three people across the world are facing food insecurity, one third of the global food supply is lost or wasted each year. Bold systemic change throughout the global food system is essential to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for Zero Hunger by 2030.
World Leaders Convene
The 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) was recently published by top global agencies such as the the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) among others. The collaborative report details the grave extent of widespread hunger and food insecurity throughout the continents. Unfortunately, current global trends indicate a severe shortcoming in reaching the Zero Hunger 2030 goal, with the pandemic only exacerbating inequality and disrupting food supply chains across the globe.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e22c15446a70ae5a8ec2f_Image%201%20(1).jpg)
Recently, leaders from over 100 countries convened both virtually and in person for the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit held in Rome. Poised to prepare for the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit this fall in New York City, the Pre-Summit centered around discussing solutions for food systems around the world in hopes to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the goals of the 2021 summit this fall focus on generating action and progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Looking Ahead: Global Commitments to End Hunger
The most recent 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report details the current inequalities plaguing the global food system, and places a spotlight on the drastic number of people affected this year. At the same time, it also highlights the steps that need to be taken to eliminate widespread hunger. The recommended food pathway transformation includes conflict resolution, poverty support, preparing food systems for climate change, changing food environments, and overall restructuring the food supply chain to enable healthy nutritious food more accessible to all. However, in order for any dramatic changes to occur, world leaders need to commit to change and begin taking action.
Through a series of five pathways, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also identified a more succinct set of goals for food system transformation: to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all, shift to sustainable consumption patterns, boost nature positive production, advance equitable livelihoods, and build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.
Nonetheless, tangible action and effective policy needs to be implemented to have any hopes of achieving these goals. The Pre-Summit created an opportunity to begin these conversations, also highlighting a focus on engaging all actors needed—from public and private sectors to government entities, farmers and youth—to create change. A portion of the pre-summit titled “Youth Priorities and Commitments for a Better Food System” included speakers from youth liaison groups who cited the importance of engaging the youth of today in activism and future solutions.
The Global Food System and the Economy
Engaging a multitude of sectors is essential for solving the international food crisis. The food system impacts every single person on the planet, and The World Bank estimates it represents 10% of the entire global economy.
Climate change, conflict, and high prices are some of the major drivers in keeping secure and healthy diets out of reach for families and individuals across the world.
While global production of food remains good despite external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the agricultural commodity price index has increased by 30% since January of 2020.
High food price inflation at the retail level of food often reflects the lingering supply disruptions of the pandemic, social distancing, and currency devaluations. This in turn has a greater impact on the people in low- and middle-income countries who tend to spend a larger share of their income on food. This results in a loss in perishable food, such as fruits and vegetables, which have more nutritional value, and causes the general consumption to gravitate toward cheaper staples that have a longer shelf life.
2.37 billion people—approximately 30% of the global population—lacked access to adequate food in 2020. The upward trend in food insecurity and hunger further exacerbated the existing effects of extreme climate change, global conflict, and other economic shocks such as the locust outbreak which compounded the crisis in 23 countries.
The world’s current food insecurity is not driven by food shortages, supply disruptions, and inflation that affects agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and seeds, but the prolonged labor shortages currently driven by the pandemic could diminish next season’s crop and result in these issues to spiral.
The International Development Association within the World Bank has provided $5.3 billion in support of fighting food insecurity between April and September of 2020.
Food Security and Global Health
The lasting impact of food insecurity and hunger places additional burdens on young mothers and future generations. Low birth weights and stunted growth are prominent health issues that are pervasive in hunger stricken communities contributing to the cycle of poverty and continuing to inhibit human development.
Global Food Insecurity by the Numbers
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e228b14805319c9380479_Image%202%20(1).png)
While there are certain areas of the world where hunger is more widespread and acute, food insecurity pervades every country in every part of the world. A country’s average income or gross domestic product are often not reflective of the struggles of its food-insecure, food insecurity is a problem that needs to be solved based on all the people it currently impacts.
The United States versus Comparable Developed Nations
Hunger doesn’t discriminate based on a country’s GDP; even in wealthier nations, a large number of citizens are facing food insecurity. In 2012, an estimated 21.7% of Australian households and 15.7% of Japanese households faced food security, comparable to the 15% of US households. Canada and the European Union reported much lower rates of household food insecurity, at 7.7% and 8.7%, respectively. Poverty levels, social safety nets, and government spending on support systems like food banks all play a role in the variation seen among these nations.
The Farmlink Project acknowledges and strives to educate ourselves not only on the food insecurity that exists in the United States, but also globally. New teams have developed in Mexico and Canada to create Farmlink Deals across borders and take larger steps towards ending hunger.
Price Increases Trends that impacted the Food Supply
The United Nations Sustainable Development second goal is to attain Zero Hunger by 2030. While the world was on track to achieve this goal, in 2004, the prices for grains began to rise. The rising production was still unable to keep pace with the even stronger growth in demand, thus causing the prices to raise. Furthermore, disappointing harvests in major food producing countries coupled with increases in oil prices in 2007, caused fertilizer prices, and thus food production cost, to increase.
The ongoing cost escalation factors include production, storage, transport, distribution, and marketing. The UN has found that supporting small-scale producers who grow and sell more nutritious foods and securing their access to the markets, will eliminate the factor of competition with other large scale producers who are able to keep up with the increase in product price, due to all the customers who also have a high demand.
Objective 1 engages with wasted food before the retail level, mainly incorporating USDA and EPA actions to build out food storage infrastructure, increase food donation, and invest in research to prevent food loss at the packaging and transportation level. The most important inclusion in Objective 1 was an added paragraph spotlighting Section 32 as a critical part of the nation’s food safety net. Section 32, a longstanding part of the 1935 Agricultural Adjustment Act (one of the first Farm Bills), uses agricultural customs receipts to fund the large-scale purchase of surplus produce from farmers and its transportation to hunger-fighting charities, schools, and other recipients nationwide. This program keeps millions of pounds of produce out of landfills each year, compensates farmers for their work, and fights food insecurity. Its inclusion as a food loss solution is critical to minimizing on-farm food loss while supporting farmers and reducing hunger. Objective 1 also indicates that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) data can be used to identify points of surplus, an important expansion of current methods. Still, we will continue advocating for Farmlink and other food rescue organizations with existing, diverse networks of farmers and other food suppliers to be incorporated at a national level to better identify and address points of surplus food.
Farmlink is particularly excited about a new prioritization within Objective 2: “All projects aimed at increasing food rescue and donation should assess the quality, nutrition and appropriateness of the food being rescued, not just the quantity (e.g., consistent with Indigenous food sovereignty).” Since Farmlink’s founding, one of our core values has been to prioritize and maintain dignity associated with charitable food distribution, and a new emphasis on quality, nutrition, and appropriateness, especially in terms of indigenous food sovereignty, is a critical step to ensuring that the strategy is fighting hunger in an equitable, open-minded, and just way.
Objective 2 also now has the EPA's commitment to use life cycle assessment techniques to evaluate food waste prevention strategies, the results of which will inform consumer campaigns and incentives. They have also committed to refining and expanding food donation and recovery infrastructure through the Excess Food Opportunities Map. Farmlink will continue to advocate for the inclusion of food rescue organizations with existing networks and relationships to help expand these tools.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e15f6569d732bec2b3/669fc8ce0f88c9bc7ced3ba7_New%20FLW%20Program%20(11).jpeg)
The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< Back2021: A World Facing Hunger
In 2020, 2.3 billion, or almost 30% of the world population, were without reliable access to a sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food supply. Of those facing food insecurity, it is estimated that 720-811 million people are facing hunger on an extreme level. Global hunger has been on the rise since 2014, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the extreme inequalities in food security across the world. While one in eight Americans and one in three people across the world are facing food insecurity, one third of the global food supply is lost or wasted each year. Bold systemic change throughout the global food system is essential to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for Zero Hunger by 2030.
World Leaders Convene
The 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) was recently published by top global agencies such as the the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) among others. The collaborative report details the grave extent of widespread hunger and food insecurity throughout the continents. Unfortunately, current global trends indicate a severe shortcoming in reaching the Zero Hunger 2030 goal, with the pandemic only exacerbating inequality and disrupting food supply chains across the globe.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e22c15446a70ae5a8ec2f_Image%201%20(1).jpg)
Recently, leaders from over 100 countries convened both virtually and in person for the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit held in Rome. Poised to prepare for the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit this fall in New York City, the Pre-Summit centered around discussing solutions for food systems around the world in hopes to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the goals of the 2021 summit this fall focus on generating action and progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Looking Ahead: Global Commitments to End Hunger
The most recent 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report details the current inequalities plaguing the global food system, and places a spotlight on the drastic number of people affected this year. At the same time, it also highlights the steps that need to be taken to eliminate widespread hunger. The recommended food pathway transformation includes conflict resolution, poverty support, preparing food systems for climate change, changing food environments, and overall restructuring the food supply chain to enable healthy nutritious food more accessible to all. However, in order for any dramatic changes to occur, world leaders need to commit to change and begin taking action.
Through a series of five pathways, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also identified a more succinct set of goals for food system transformation: to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all, shift to sustainable consumption patterns, boost nature positive production, advance equitable livelihoods, and build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.
Nonetheless, tangible action and effective policy needs to be implemented to have any hopes of achieving these goals. The Pre-Summit created an opportunity to begin these conversations, also highlighting a focus on engaging all actors needed—from public and private sectors to government entities, farmers and youth—to create change. A portion of the pre-summit titled “Youth Priorities and Commitments for a Better Food System” included speakers from youth liaison groups who cited the importance of engaging the youth of today in activism and future solutions.
The Global Food System and the Economy
Engaging a multitude of sectors is essential for solving the international food crisis. The food system impacts every single person on the planet, and The World Bank estimates it represents 10% of the entire global economy.
Climate change, conflict, and high prices are some of the major drivers in keeping secure and healthy diets out of reach for families and individuals across the world.
While global production of food remains good despite external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the agricultural commodity price index has increased by 30% since January of 2020.
High food price inflation at the retail level of food often reflects the lingering supply disruptions of the pandemic, social distancing, and currency devaluations. This in turn has a greater impact on the people in low- and middle-income countries who tend to spend a larger share of their income on food. This results in a loss in perishable food, such as fruits and vegetables, which have more nutritional value, and causes the general consumption to gravitate toward cheaper staples that have a longer shelf life.
2.37 billion people—approximately 30% of the global population—lacked access to adequate food in 2020. The upward trend in food insecurity and hunger further exacerbated the existing effects of extreme climate change, global conflict, and other economic shocks such as the locust outbreak which compounded the crisis in 23 countries.
The world’s current food insecurity is not driven by food shortages, supply disruptions, and inflation that affects agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and seeds, but the prolonged labor shortages currently driven by the pandemic could diminish next season’s crop and result in these issues to spiral.
The International Development Association within the World Bank has provided $5.3 billion in support of fighting food insecurity between April and September of 2020.
Food Security and Global Health
The lasting impact of food insecurity and hunger places additional burdens on young mothers and future generations. Low birth weights and stunted growth are prominent health issues that are pervasive in hunger stricken communities contributing to the cycle of poverty and continuing to inhibit human development.
Global Food Insecurity by the Numbers
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e228b14805319c9380479_Image%202%20(1).png)
While there are certain areas of the world where hunger is more widespread and acute, food insecurity pervades every country in every part of the world. A country’s average income or gross domestic product are often not reflective of the struggles of its food-insecure, food insecurity is a problem that needs to be solved based on all the people it currently impacts.
The United States versus Comparable Developed Nations
Hunger doesn’t discriminate based on a country’s GDP; even in wealthier nations, a large number of citizens are facing food insecurity. In 2012, an estimated 21.7% of Australian households and 15.7% of Japanese households faced food security, comparable to the 15% of US households. Canada and the European Union reported much lower rates of household food insecurity, at 7.7% and 8.7%, respectively. Poverty levels, social safety nets, and government spending on support systems like food banks all play a role in the variation seen among these nations.
The Farmlink Project acknowledges and strives to educate ourselves not only on the food insecurity that exists in the United States, but also globally. New teams have developed in Mexico and Canada to create Farmlink Deals across borders and take larger steps towards ending hunger.
Price Increases Trends that impacted the Food Supply
The United Nations Sustainable Development second goal is to attain Zero Hunger by 2030. While the world was on track to achieve this goal, in 2004, the prices for grains began to rise. The rising production was still unable to keep pace with the even stronger growth in demand, thus causing the prices to raise. Furthermore, disappointing harvests in major food producing countries coupled with increases in oil prices in 2007, caused fertilizer prices, and thus food production cost, to increase.
The ongoing cost escalation factors include production, storage, transport, distribution, and marketing. The UN has found that supporting small-scale producers who grow and sell more nutritious foods and securing their access to the markets, will eliminate the factor of competition with other large scale producers who are able to keep up with the increase in product price, due to all the customers who also have a high demand.
Food Insecurity: A Global Crisis
2021: A World Facing Hunger
In 2020, 2.3 billion, or almost 30% of the world population, were without reliable access to a sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food supply. Of those facing food insecurity, it is estimated that 720-811 million people are facing hunger on an extreme level. Global hunger has been on the rise since 2014, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the extreme inequalities in food security across the world. While one in eight Americans and one in three people across the world are facing food insecurity, one third of the global food supply is lost or wasted each year. Bold systemic change throughout the global food system is essential to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for Zero Hunger by 2030.
World Leaders Convene
The 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) was recently published by top global agencies such as the the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) among others. The collaborative report details the grave extent of widespread hunger and food insecurity throughout the continents. Unfortunately, current global trends indicate a severe shortcoming in reaching the Zero Hunger 2030 goal, with the pandemic only exacerbating inequality and disrupting food supply chains across the globe.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e22c15446a70ae5a8ec2f_Image%201%20(1).jpg)
Recently, leaders from over 100 countries convened both virtually and in person for the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit held in Rome. Poised to prepare for the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit this fall in New York City, the Pre-Summit centered around discussing solutions for food systems around the world in hopes to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the goals of the 2021 summit this fall focus on generating action and progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Looking Ahead: Global Commitments to End Hunger
The most recent 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report details the current inequalities plaguing the global food system, and places a spotlight on the drastic number of people affected this year. At the same time, it also highlights the steps that need to be taken to eliminate widespread hunger. The recommended food pathway transformation includes conflict resolution, poverty support, preparing food systems for climate change, changing food environments, and overall restructuring the food supply chain to enable healthy nutritious food more accessible to all. However, in order for any dramatic changes to occur, world leaders need to commit to change and begin taking action.
Through a series of five pathways, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also identified a more succinct set of goals for food system transformation: to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all, shift to sustainable consumption patterns, boost nature positive production, advance equitable livelihoods, and build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.
Nonetheless, tangible action and effective policy needs to be implemented to have any hopes of achieving these goals. The Pre-Summit created an opportunity to begin these conversations, also highlighting a focus on engaging all actors needed—from public and private sectors to government entities, farmers and youth—to create change. A portion of the pre-summit titled “Youth Priorities and Commitments for a Better Food System” included speakers from youth liaison groups who cited the importance of engaging the youth of today in activism and future solutions.
The Global Food System and the Economy
Engaging a multitude of sectors is essential for solving the international food crisis. The food system impacts every single person on the planet, and The World Bank estimates it represents 10% of the entire global economy.
Climate change, conflict, and high prices are some of the major drivers in keeping secure and healthy diets out of reach for families and individuals across the world.
While global production of food remains good despite external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the agricultural commodity price index has increased by 30% since January of 2020.
High food price inflation at the retail level of food often reflects the lingering supply disruptions of the pandemic, social distancing, and currency devaluations. This in turn has a greater impact on the people in low- and middle-income countries who tend to spend a larger share of their income on food. This results in a loss in perishable food, such as fruits and vegetables, which have more nutritional value, and causes the general consumption to gravitate toward cheaper staples that have a longer shelf life.
2.37 billion people—approximately 30% of the global population—lacked access to adequate food in 2020. The upward trend in food insecurity and hunger further exacerbated the existing effects of extreme climate change, global conflict, and other economic shocks such as the locust outbreak which compounded the crisis in 23 countries.
The world’s current food insecurity is not driven by food shortages, supply disruptions, and inflation that affects agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and seeds, but the prolonged labor shortages currently driven by the pandemic could diminish next season’s crop and result in these issues to spiral.
The International Development Association within the World Bank has provided $5.3 billion in support of fighting food insecurity between April and September of 2020.
Food Security and Global Health
The lasting impact of food insecurity and hunger places additional burdens on young mothers and future generations. Low birth weights and stunted growth are prominent health issues that are pervasive in hunger stricken communities contributing to the cycle of poverty and continuing to inhibit human development.
Global Food Insecurity by the Numbers
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e1e382856eb6facc3e/611e228b14805319c9380479_Image%202%20(1).png)
While there are certain areas of the world where hunger is more widespread and acute, food insecurity pervades every country in every part of the world. A country’s average income or gross domestic product are often not reflective of the struggles of its food-insecure, food insecurity is a problem that needs to be solved based on all the people it currently impacts.
The United States versus Comparable Developed Nations
Hunger doesn’t discriminate based on a country’s GDP; even in wealthier nations, a large number of citizens are facing food insecurity. In 2012, an estimated 21.7% of Australian households and 15.7% of Japanese households faced food security, comparable to the 15% of US households. Canada and the European Union reported much lower rates of household food insecurity, at 7.7% and 8.7%, respectively. Poverty levels, social safety nets, and government spending on support systems like food banks all play a role in the variation seen among these nations.
The Farmlink Project acknowledges and strives to educate ourselves not only on the food insecurity that exists in the United States, but also globally. New teams have developed in Mexico and Canada to create Farmlink Deals across borders and take larger steps towards ending hunger.
Price Increases Trends that impacted the Food Supply
The United Nations Sustainable Development second goal is to attain Zero Hunger by 2030. While the world was on track to achieve this goal, in 2004, the prices for grains began to rise. The rising production was still unable to keep pace with the even stronger growth in demand, thus causing the prices to raise. Furthermore, disappointing harvests in major food producing countries coupled with increases in oil prices in 2007, caused fertilizer prices, and thus food production cost, to increase.
The ongoing cost escalation factors include production, storage, transport, distribution, and marketing. The UN has found that supporting small-scale producers who grow and sell more nutritious foods and securing their access to the markets, will eliminate the factor of competition with other large scale producers who are able to keep up with the increase in product price, due to all the customers who also have a high demand.