UN warns of global food crisis following COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact across all sectors, but now the UN is warning that it could lead to the worst global food crisis seen for at least 50 years.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently launched the Policy Brief on the Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition. In its report, he made clear that the world’s food systems are failing, made worse by the ongoing pandemic, and that unless immediate action is taken, a global food emergency that could impact hundreds of millions of children and adults is imminent.

Despite the fact that we produce enough food in the world to feed the population of 7.8 billion people, today, more than 820 million people are hungry.

What’s more, in 2020, an extra 49 million people may fall into extreme poverty owing to the COVID-19 crisis, with the number of people who are acutely food or nutrition insecure set to grow exponentially. Even in countries with abundant food, the UN sees a risk of disruption in the food supply chain.

In the policy brief, Guterres laid out three key findings to address the issue of food security and nutrition.

“We must mobilize to save lives and livelihoods, focusing attention where the risk is most acute. That means designating food and nutrition services as essential, while implementing appropriate protections for food workers. Countries need to scale up support for food processing, transport and local food markets, and they must keep trade corridors open to ensure the continuous functioning of food systems.

“We must strengthen social protection systems for nutrition. Countries need to safeguard access to safe, nutritious foods, particularly for young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older people and other at-risk groups.

“We must invest in the future. Let us build food systems that better address the needs of food producers and workers. Let us provide more inclusive access to healthy and nutritious food so we can eradicate hunger. And let us rebalance the relationship between food systems and the natural environment by transforming them to work better with nature and for the climate.”

Governments are being urged to act quickly. In the UK, food shortages are already a concern as Brexit approaches, whilst the coronavirus pandemic has shed light on the need to reassess the country’s supply chain to make the food sector more resilient in the future.