Global Food Crisis: What Will Be the Future of Food?

The prevalence of global food insecurity has risen, contributing to expanding levels of food crisis that have tormented the entire globe. Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to sufficient and nutritious food to meet an individual’s basic needs. According to the 2023 edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report, 783 million people in the world suffered from hunger in 2022, and 345 million people are on the verge of facing acute food insecurity.

Illustration by The Geostrata

It is considered a multifaceted catastrophe whose roots can be traced to inadequate infrastructure, poverty, climate crisis, pandemics, economic shocks and an ever-evolving geopolitical landscape.

CAUSES OF FOOD CRISIS

With the initiation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the severity of the global food crisis has been highly impacted because the two countries account for approximately 30% of global wheat exports. The conflict caused disruption in the world’s food production and distribution, affecting millions of families, particularly in low income countries that are dependent on food imports from other affluent countries even for their sustenance. 

As per the IMF’s estimates, there has been an increase in prices for imports and production of food products due to conflictual geopolitical scenarios that will affect the foreign resources of these countries, making them more vulnerable and prone to food crisis in the long term.

According to the data substantiated by the ‘Global Hunger Index 2023’, the Central African Republic was the worst affected area due to scarcity of food, causing induced hunger and malnutrition among the citizens. Around 1,29,000 people are expected to face drastic famine conditions in various regions of Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan, if the global community fails in delivering its promise of eliminating hunger and malnutrition by 2030. 

The recent geopolitical landscape involving Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflict has been the major reason for the food crisis, forcing people to flee from their homelands, giving up on their income sources, making sustenance a distant dream for them.

Worsening of the climate crisis further deteriorates the condition of food insecurity. It causes disruption in the food and cropping patterns. Continuously increasing world population puts a lot of induced pressure on nature and the increment in food production is not in line with the increased needs of growing population, causing food prices to rise due to inflationary measures leading to massive economic shocks that make food products less accessible and less affordable for a larger chunk of the world’s population, residing in the regions more prone to food crisis. 

REVOLUTIONISED FUTURE OF FOOD

To mitigate the effects and repercussions of the rapidly increasing food crisis in the world, NEOM has launched Topian, a food company aimed at ensuring resilient and sustainable food patterns to curb the food insecurity problem. With the launch of the Topian company, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia focuses on achieving sustainability by revolutionising the global food system. 

Topian works on five pillars: climate-proof agriculture, novel food, regenerative aquaculture, personalised nutrition and sustainable food supply chains. Dr. Juan Carlos, the CEO of Topian company has stated that it is fully committed in contributing towards the long term sustainable food supply chains, partnering with various local and international players in the field to carve out the ‘REVOLUTIONISED FUTURE OF FOOD’, creating a more secure and prosperous future for all. 

NEED FOR IMMEDIATE SOLUTION

Food insecurity, being a global concern, requires timely policy actions and infrastructural developments directed towards mitigating the global food crisis. Protecting the most vulnerable sections of society that are directly affected by the disruption in the food production and distribution system is of prime importance.

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The World Food Programme and other international organisations functional towards maintaining humanitarian aid should provide assistance to dispense relief in these affected areas.

Open trade is considered an important way of diverting the surplus from one region to another region, as was maintained through the Black Sea Grain initiative, at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which aimed at phasing out the bans imposed on food producers.

These protectionist measures continue to worsen the food crisis.

Investments in climate- resilient agriculture and crop diversification are important in present times, but there remains a need for research & development and upgrading the logistics and infrastructural facilities. After Russia-Ukraine’s conflict, various food security programmes have been operational in Georgia, Tanzania, Benim and many other regions so as to address the food security issues.

The issue of the global food crisis is concerning and has been on the rise continuously for the past two years, which has disrupted humanitarian living standards. In this rapidly globalising world, countries need to come together and require a coordinated approach to ensure maximum efficiency and opportunity for an individual's survival.

Food insecurity requires immediate effective policy to be implemented through multilateral organisations including, the IMF, World Bank, World Food Programme, WTO, etc in order to work on aligned interests and leading the world towards a more equitable and sustainable place while maintaining food and nutrition security.

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BY BHUMIKA KANOJIA 

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@geostrata.com