Despite goals to end global hunger by 2030, the latest report from the UN shows the number of undernourished people has increased rapidly.
The number of people lacking adequate food on the planet increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ (UNFAO) recent report.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 noted that famine struck South Sudan for several months in 2017, and the situations in Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen were close to being identified as famines.
It stated: “Over the past ten years, the number of violent conflicts around the world has increased significantly, in particular in countries already facing food insecurity, hitting rural communities the hardest and having a negative impact on food production and availability.”
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the UNFAO on October 16, the UN-sponsored World Food Day.
In 2015 he criticised the “paradox” of the free flow of the arms trade while petty politics and self-interest block humanitarian aid such as food for starving people.
Stunting of growth affects 155 million children under the age of five around the world due to lack of food, while childhood obesity is on the rise in all regions with the exception of Western Africa, South America and Eastern Asia, who have seen a decline.
Rapid rate
However adult obesity is rising all over the world at a rapid rate. It has more than doubled from 1980 to 2014 – as now more than 600 million adults (13% of world’s adult population) were found to be obese.
“While it varies across regions, the problem is most severe in Northern America, Europe and Oceania, where 28% of adults are classified as obese, compared with 7% in Asia and 11% in Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean roughly one quarter of the adult population is currently considered as obese,” the report states.