In 2018, the Swedish statistician Hans Rosling published an excellent book called ‘Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think’, which, as the title suggests, is a book examining key statistics about human progress.

In the book, Rosling repeatedly highlights the reduction of global food insecurity and malnourishment as one of the greatest achievements of the modern age. The eradication of food poverty is closely linked to improved health outcomes, increased life expectancy, dramatic falls in child mortality and increased social mobility.

In 1970, one in three people in developing countries did not have enough food to eat.

In 1970, one in three people in the developing world did not have enough food to eat, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), but food insecurity has steadily declined year after year for the last 50 years.

Hunger is rising in almost all sub-regions of Africa

According to the FAO, the prevalence of undernourishment in countries in the developing world has since fallen to less than 13%.

However, the trend of falling food insecurity has begun to reverse in the last number of years. In its latest report on food insecurity, the FAO states that more than 820m people in the world are still going hungry today and that number is rising.

“Hunger is rising in almost all sub-regions of Africa and, to a lesser extent, in Latin America and Western Asia. We welcome the great progress seen in Southern Asia in the last five years, but the prevalence of undernourishment in this sub region is still the highest in Asia,” the report stated.

In every continent, the prevalence rate is slightly higher among women than men

“The lack of regular access to nutritious and sufficient food that these people experience puts them at greater risk of malnutrition and poor health. Although primarily concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, moderate or severe food insecurity also affects 8% of the population in Northern America and Europe. In every continent, the prevalence rate is slightly higher among women than men,” it added.

Europe

It is against this backdrop of rising food insecurity that the EU is set to implement major policy changes under its Farm to Fork proposals. These proposals are targeting a major increase in organic food production and a 20% reduction in fertiliser usage, which will undoubtedly lead to a significant drop in overall food supply.

The view of Europe’s policymakers was summed up this week in Brussels, when Virginijus Sinkevicius, the Commissioner for the Environment, said food security is not a major concern for the EU anymore.

It’s a rich man’s solution to tackling climate change, but will it have unintended consequences?

No matter how you frame it, this is an incredibly privileged thing to be able to say, when 820m of our fellow human beings go to bed hungry every night. It’s a rich man’s solution to tackling climate change, but will it have unintended consequences? It is our responsibility to ensure global food supply remains constant.

As one of the largest food producing regions of the world, the EU has a duty to promote the development of countries less well off than us. Supplying affordable, high quality, nutritious food is one of the most effective ways we can do that.