STWR - Share The World's Resources

Despite dynamic economic growth, the Asia and Pacific region is home to 62 percent of the world’s undernourished. Governments should develop social protection schemes to improve access to food and invest in sustainable, small-scale argriculture, says a report by UN ESCAP.

With the toll of the hungry already surpassing a billion, a sharp decline in long term agricultural investments is worsening the food crisis. Governments and donors should prioritise agriculture and tailor investments to suit local conditions, says a report by Oxfam. 

Influential orthodox economists like Paul Collier see the food price crisis as the result of insufficient production. But the real cause is the globalised system of industrial agriculture, which prioritises profit over the needs of the global majority and the environment, argues Walden Bello.

Economic recession combined with persistently high food prices is dramatically increasing the number of hungry people globally. Hunger is now a reality for a sixth of the world's population, with both rural and urban communities in developing countries most severely affected, says the FAO. 

The global trend of 'land grabbing' is likely to worsen the impact of the food and climate crises in poor countries, and compromise the land rights of local communities. Governments must regulate investment to prioritise food security and the realisation of human rights, argues Alexandra Spieldoch.

As the global pressure to reduce carbon emissions mounts, corporations from rich countries are buying huge tracts of land in poorer countries to cultivate biofuels. This 'climate colonialism' violates the land-rights of local communities and threatens their food security, argues Seif Madoff.

Policy failures by the EU and US have directly contributed to the ongoing food crisis. A new model of sustainable agriculture is needed to provide a fairer balance between economic profitability and socio-ecological justice, argues a report by the IATP and CIDSE.