Rome, November 23 (BNA): The world must prepare for more shocks to the food sector, the United Nations warned in a new report.
Compared to other economic sectors, agriculture is particularly vulnerable to risks such as climate change, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) wrote in a report published in Rome on Tuesday.
Therefore, the diet must become more flexible from a biological and socio-economic perspective in order to ensure that millions of people continue to be fed, the German news agency (dpa) reported.
The FAO authors added that an estimated 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet today. An additional billion could be added if the shock to the economic system cuts their income by a third.
In the event of disturbances in the diet, such as extreme weather events or animal and plant diseases, there is also a risk of price hikes. Developing and emerging countries are particularly vulnerable.
“The pandemic has highlighted both the resilience and vulnerability of our agricultural food systems,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.
Even before Covid-19, the UN agency felt the world was not on track to meet its pledge to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030.
The experts recommended that countries expand their food systems so that they can better offset the setbacks. It should also support SMEs in the food chain.
According to data, 11 billion tons of food are produced annually in the world food system, that is, in the production, storage, processing, transportation, distribution and consumption of food. According to the FAO, billions of people work directly or indirectly in this sector.
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