A new United Nations report released on Wednesday outlined the alarming statistics on global hunger levels, showing that billions of people are food insecure or on the brink of starvation.
The report, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World,” says global hunger increased in 2021, with an estimated 2.3 billion people experiencing moderate or severe difficulty getting enough food. The number facing severe food insecurity rose to an estimated 924 million. FILE: Sergei, 11, waits his turn to receive a food donation during a humanitarian aid distribution in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File/AP Newsroom ) Issued by the World Food Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Fund for Rural Development, the report says the 2021 statistics make it clear that “the world is regressing in its efforts of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms.” The heads of the five agencies say in the report that in addition to supply chain disruptions from the war in Ukraine driving up food prices, more frequent and extreme weather events are also causing supply problems, especially in low-income countries. GLOBAL FOOD SHORTAGE IS ‘CATASTROPHE’ SAYS UN CHIEF The report says hunger continued to rise last year in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, but at a slower pace from 2019 to 2020. “In 2021, hunger affected 278 million people in Africa, 425 million in Asia and 56.5 million in Latin America and the Caribbean,” it said. David Beasley, head of the U.N.’s World Food Program, said the analysis shows “a record 345 million hungry people are on the brink of starvation” — a 25 percent increase from 276 million in early 2022 before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. February 24. The number was 135 million before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. A woman walks past sacks of wheat flour piled high at the Hamar-Weyne market in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Newsroom) “There is a real risk that it will go even higher in the coming months,” he said. “Even more worrying is that when this group collapses, 50 million people in 45 countries are just one step away from starvation.” The prevalence of “undernourishment” – when food consumption is insufficient to sustain an active and healthy life – is used to measure hunger, and it continued to rise in 2021. The report estimated that over 828 million people experienced hunger last year. Before the war, Ukraine and Russia together accounted for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and half of its sunflower oil. Russia and its ally Belarus, meanwhile, are the world’s No. 2 and 3 producers of potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer. Beasley called for an urgent political solution that would allow Ukrainian wheat and grain to re-enter world markets. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The UN’s development goals call for an end to extreme poverty and zero hunger by 2030, but the report says projections show that 8% of the world’s population – nearly 670 million people – will face hunger by the end of the decade. It is the same number of people as in 2015 when the targets were approved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.