For its own security as well as global welfare, the United States must strengthen its commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition, says a report issued by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs at its annual food security conference. The think tank’s call for U.S. leadership contrasted with the Trump administration’s proposal to focus on “the highest-priority areas” of food, disaster and refugee aid “while asking the world to pay their fair share.”
The United States is the world’s largest food aid donor, providing $1.5 billion in assistance in 2015, and also operates agricultural development programs to improve local food security overseas.
Written by an independent panel assembled by the Chicago think tank, the report recommends the White House and Congress “make global food security a pillar of U.S. diplomatic and national security engagement and strengthen the integration and coordination of activities both within the United States and around the world.”
Over the past quarter-century, the world has reduced the number of hunger people to around 800 million, a decrease of more than 200 million at the same time the population grew by 1.9 billion, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, chiefly due to changes in highly populated nations such as China and India. In the early 1990s, 18.6 percent of the world’s people suffered from hunger, compared to 10.9 percent, or one in nine people, at present. “Despite overall progress, much remains to be done to eradicate hunger and achieve food security,” said FAO in its 2015 State of Food Insecurity report.
The Chicago Council report says there are enormous challenges: “The threat of rapidly increasing global instability, conflict and migration as a result of inadequate global food supplies and water scarcity,” along with a world population forecast for 9.7 billion at mid-century. Agricultural development programs have proven to be more than twice as effective at reducing poverty than investment in other economic sectors, says the report. Food shortages and volatile food prices are often factors in civil unrest on one hand while nations with adequate food supplies are less susceptible to violence, it says.
“The US government, in close cooperation with the private sector and university system, is well positioned to expand its legacy of commitment to food security and not only bolster the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs around the world, but also open up new business opportunities and partnerships in emerging economies,” says the report, “Stability in the 21st Century: Global food security for peace and prosperity.”
Along with making food security a pillar of U.S. policy, the report recommends giving priority to research to improve agricultural production and food nutrition; public-private partnerships to magnify agricultural and food development in low-income nations; and align U.S. food aid and agricultural development programs so they support low-income countries in building strong farm and food systems.
The report will be available at the Chicago Council website.
The council’s annual food security symposium is in its second and final day. To watch a webcast, click here.