| Number of people chronically hungry passes one billion |
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The number of chronically hungry people has exceeded the one billion mark for the first time in human history as the ongoing economic crisis is taking a huge toll on poor countries. One of the main consequences of the current crisis is that food prices have risen, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). From the early 1990s until 2007 there were about 850 million people chronically hungry in the world. This number was relatively constant because of the work being done to fight poverty in the world's poorest countries and because China's economy was growing and having a positive impact on its population. Food prices started to rise in 2007 and since then there has been a dramatic rise to a total of 960 million in 2008 and now beyond one billion. In 2008 more than 30 countries had food riots. This increase in chronic hunger has reversed the past quarter-century’s slow but constant decline in the percentage of undernourished people as a percentage of the developing world’s population. The percentage fell from 20 per cent in 1990-92 to 16 per cent in the 2003-05 period.. The percentage has now increased again to almost 18 per cent. CORI Justice believes that urgent action is required from the global community if the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of the world’s undernourished by 2015 is to be achieved. One of the reasons for the rise in food prices has been the sharp fall in the level of investment in agriculture. The cost of many agricultural commodities is now almost 30 per cent above the 2005 level. The deepening financial crisis is worsening the situation as unemployment grows and credit is limited. CORI Justice believes there is an urgent need to increase investment in agriculture, particularly in the world's poorer countries, as the rise in the world’s population from today’s 6.5bn people to 9bn by 2050 will mean the world needs to double its current food output. |