The world's belly hurts... from hunger

United Nations, Sep 5.- Humanoid robots are already serving hotel rooms and serving dishes from molecular gastronomy, a certain billionaire plans to colonize the planet Mars, they inaugurate sophisticated spas for pets and there are those who light their cigarettes using matches with so much gold and sapphires that They cost more than a Ferrari… meanwhile, world hunger reaches levels of absolute shame.

This is confirmed by the latest Report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), published at the end of July by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

It happens that this “Zero Hunger”, conceived within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030, aims to be a distant utopia. So much so, that every day 733 million people go to bed hungry, and this is equivalent to 36% more than a decade ago; This at the same time that, for three years, moderate or severe food insecurity has prevailed on a global scale.

More than a third of the world's population, some 2.8 billion people, cannot afford a healthy diet, the equivalent of saying that, even if they consume enough calories, they do not obtain the necessary nutrients, sometimes even to survive. The majority of these people, 71.5%, are obviously concentrated in low-income countries.

This is what the aforementioned report indicates, whose statistics and considerations confirm that the issues of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition – more than issues, they are a pain, an anguish – continue to be dramatically stagnant.

The data collected in the FAO report reveal that hunger and its related evils continue to increase, especially in rural areas where extreme poverty prevails.

In particular, women, young people and indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected and what a paradox when these groups should potentially be sources of creation, generation and respect for the best life.

But there the little numbers, the inferences, are poking their hairy ear: by the end of the decade, 582 million people will suffer from chronic undernourishment, more than half of them in Africa. The global prevalence of low birth weight and childhood overweight has also stagnated while anemia has increased among women aged 15 to 49 years.

Among so many bad numbers, it becomes a brief glow to know that Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the regions that counteracts the global trend. In this area, in 2023, hunger decreased for the second consecutive year and some 4.3 million people stopped suffering from it.

However, experts clarify, progress in the region was uneven and food insecurity remains high, to the point that 41 million continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition continues to affect millions.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, progress was observed, with a reduction of 4.3 million people who stopped suffering from hunger, but these advances are neither uniform nor sufficient.

There are still 41 million people who suffer from hunger in the region, and malnutrition continues to be a serious problem that affects millions.

Among the main reasons why the world has a belly ache - only as a trend because there are people who are very well and healthily fed - the UN agency points to conflicts, climate variability and extreme weather phenomena, as well as slowdowns and economic recessions.

It mentions, without placing it among the first places, “high and persistent inequality,” and along with it it lists the existence of unhealthy food environments.

But this time FAO's annual summary focuses above all on why the policies and investments necessary to transform agri-food systems have not been implemented as projected.

They point to financing and financial inclusion as the central reason for this significant omission, which constitute, they say, “one of the means of achieving the SDGs and require a more constant political commitment.”

With six years left until the deadline for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, and within them that of “Zero Hunger”, the purpose of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition continues. and hardly any progress. But, for life, it is worth continuing to insist, and the FAO does so this time by calling for a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary perspective in the financial approach to the matter.

As a complement to this approach, the deputy director general and regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean of the FAO, Mario Lubetkin, declared in an interview with Prensa Latina that “it is urgent to adopt comprehensive public policies and practices that promote healthy eating and well-being from an early age, to avoid greater long-term consequences and consolidate more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems.”

Surely there are other alternatives, beyond the powers of the FAO, it would be shameful for humans to try to put them into practice, in addition to those listed above, because, as the FAO says, “A world without hunger, without food insecurity and Without malnutrition it is a world worth saving…” (Text: Vladia Rubio/ Cubasí) (Photo: Cubasí)