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00:00Now today, the 16th of October is World Food Day, designed to shine a light on hunger and
00:05malnutrition across the world. Gaza, of course, then, but also countries like Somalia, Haiti
00:12and North Korea. To talk a bit more for us about the global picture, Julia Seager, our
00:17science editor with us. And Julia, you know, as we were seeing there just from Gaza, it
00:22is clear that hunger, unfortunately, still a huge issue in 2024.
00:26That's right. According to the UN, there are 735 million people across the world who
00:31still suffer from hunger worldwide. That's nearly 10 percent of the world population.
00:35And kids, of course, are the first affected because malnutrition makes them weaker and
00:39then more vulnerable to other childlike diseases such as diarrhea and measles. And that leads,
00:45as you said, to dreadful situations that we're seeing in North Korea and Yemen, now in Gaza.
00:51But the theme of this year's World Food Day was the right to foods for a better life and
00:56a better future. So what do we mean when we say the right to foods? Well, we need we need
01:01we mean variety, nutrition, affordability, accessibility and safety. The thing is, if
01:08you because you have to understand that if you lack either in quantity of food or in
01:13quality, well, you're on the path towards some sort of malnutrition. So it can be under
01:18nourishment with nutrition deficiency, but also obesity. So the definition of food security
01:23is actually quite thorough, as you're going to see. And it's not just about access to
01:28enough food. Once again, it's about having access to nutritious food. And that's really
01:33important. Why? Because hunger is a vicious circle. And this is why nations have weaponized
01:37hunger and famine as a tool for war because of the crippling effects it has. If you don't
01:42consume enough foods and regularly and enough nutritious foods, what happens is that it
01:47affects your ability to grow, to learn and to work. It has devastating consequences for
01:52families who can't break out of the cycle of poverty. And it impacts individuals, but
01:56even on a greater level, countries and economies and even political stability. Now, the hunger
02:02map changes every year, of course, because of geopolitical issues like war, but also
02:07because of climate events like droughts, for instance. But if you look at the 2023 hunger
02:11map, you still see that the most affected countries are still in Africa. And it's been
02:16the case for several years now. So developing countries are the hardest hit. But what's
02:20interesting also is that because the definition talks about accessibility and availability
02:25of fresh produce, more and more richer countries are also affected because we're seeing food
02:30deserts because the poverty gap is increasing. So, for instance, south of Chicago is considered
02:35as a food desert. In the UK, there are 7000 food deserts across the country. That means
02:43that people have to travel excessively to be able to access fresh produce and nutritious
02:49options. And Julia, the population of the world is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.
02:58What impact is that going to have on food security? Well, the world population increases
03:04by 1%. That's still more than half than what it was 50 years ago. So that means what it
03:08does mean is that there's going to be a 2 billion more people by 2050. That means more
03:12people to feed. That means a demand in production of food. And it could in turn strain food
03:20supplies for sure. And a lot of people are actually working on this. But what's interesting
03:23is that as of today, our agricultural system produces enough food to meet our needs. And
03:29we have actually a significant room for improvement if we tackle the issue of food waste. Just
03:34to give you an idea, today, there's one third of the world's food supply that is literally
03:39thrown away every year. That's the equivalent of 1.2 billion tons of food just thrown away.
03:46I mean, that is such a huge figure, Julia. How are we losing so much food?
03:51It happens at every level. And it happens in developed and developing countries. So
03:55if you look, for instance, at production, let's say harvest and processing, especially
03:59in developing countries, the lack of modern machinery leads to damage and loss of a lot
04:04of food products. If you look at storage and transportation, once again, there's often
04:08a lack of infrastructure and the absence, for instance, of cold storage facilities.
04:13Now, if you look a little bit down the line at retail and consumer level, particularly
04:18this time in developed countries, there's a lot of things that can be done. Relaxing,
04:22for instance, what we call strict aesthetic standards, the fact that grocery stores refuse
04:26certain produce because they just don't look good, they're misshaped. Or simplifying expiration
04:31labels. So there's a lot of confusion for consumers between expiration and best before
04:37labels. And last but not least, encouraging retailers to donate surplus food because a
04:42lot of them discharge food that is edible. And so that goes through perhaps tax incentives.
04:49There's a lot of different things that can be done on that aspect. So tackling hunger,
04:55one way at least to do it. Of course, there are a lot of other ways, a lot of other issues,
04:58but one way is to first tackle waste.
05:01Julia Seager, thank you very much indeed, talking to us there on World Food Day.