Global Food Crisis: COVID-19 worsen the situation

The novel corona-virus disease (COVID-19) is having an unprecedented impact around the world, both in health and socioeconomic terms. Although, a full-blown global food crisis, multiple famines, or prolonged food system problems as a result of COVID-19 could create larger humanitarian damage over the next two to five years compared to direct damage from the virus itself.

While COVID-19 does not discriminate, the 55 countries and territories that are home to 135 million acutely food-insecure people in need of urgent humanitarian food and nutrition assistance are the most vulnerable to the consequences of this pandemic as they have very limited or no capacity to cope with either the health or socioeconomic aspects of the shock.  

Major causes by COVID-19:

On the food supply side, harvests have been good and the 2020 outlook for staple crops is promising. However, movement restrictions necessary to contain the spread of the virus will disrupt the transport and processing of food and other critical goods, increasing delivery times and reducing availability of even the most basic food items.

For households dependent on food production and livestock rearing, disruption in the supply chain of agricultural inputs or the inability to access livestock markets, leading to declines in crop and livestock production and sales. The pandemic disrupted global supply chains, induced panic buying and cleared supermarket shelves. It left perfectly edible produce rotting in fields, and left farmers no choice but to gas, shoot and bury their livestock because slaughter plants were shut down.

It also revealed a glaring problem: Though researchers have known for decades that climate change will roil farming and food systems, there exists no clear global strategy for building resilience and managing risks in the world's food supply, nor a coherent way to tackle the challenge of feeding a growing global population, on a warming planet where food crises are projected to intensify.

 

Rising unemployment and under-employment is likely to severely reduce people’s purchasing power. Urban populations, particularly daily wage earners in the informal economies and service sector employees, are particularly at risk of losing their income sources as a result of regulations on social distancing and government restrictions to minimize transmission. 

Some Potential Solutions to be considered:

When it comes to food production, climate variability can increase disparities between short-term demand and supply among regions. So long as this variability is not correlated across regions, trade flows, combined with storage, could effectively diversify climate risk on a global scale, meaning less volatility in food prices. A rapidly changing climate and volatile markets added to trade restrictions proliferation could put the food security of millions at risk. Therefore, polices that promote free and open trade should be incentivized. The current state of international trade negotiations is moribund; but trade to facilitate adaptation to short-term climate variability related to climate change might be a way to restart negotiations. 

Considering the erratic, shifting climate conditions, an international group of food, farming and environment experts released a "blueprint" for making food production more resilient to both climate and non-climate shocks that calls for $320 billion in public and private funding to transform food systems.   "The disruptions caused by this terrible pandemic have at least awakened the world to the fact that our food systems are far more vulnerable than many realized," said Bruce Campbell, a director with the group that crafted the blueprint. "Climate change is already compounding these problems, but the solutions we present—which seek bold transformations in everything from farming to trade, diets and government policies—offer an opportunity to pursue a much brighter future for people and our planet."

Using a smart scale system to monitor food waste could help manage and reduce food waste. We can initiate or support things by: 1) appointing “Food Waste Champions” in each store to motivate colleagues at work and home; 2) appointing a “Country Implementation Responsible” person for targeted markets to lead implementation and support co-workers.

IKEA, a well known multinational company has implemented this strategies and experienced a 20% reduction in food waste within 12 weeks of starting the food waste-reduction initiative and found that additional investments mostly had a 20-week payback period. IKEA plans to also address food loss and waste with its suppliers and to encourage consumers to reduce food waste at home.

To end this hunger crisis, governments must also build fairer, more robust, and more sustainable food systems, that put the interests of food producers and workers before the profits of big food and agri business.

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Published By

Shamli Deshmukh | World Uncensored.

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