The United Nations (UN) issued a warning: if urgent measures are not taken, the world will be on the brink of a global food emergency driven by global coronavirus pandemic.
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The UN Secretary General, the Portuguese Antonio Guterres, called on governments to act as soon as possible to avoid a disaster. One of the most urgent measures he suggested taking is greater social protection for the poorest, that in the face of the crisis may lose access to the most basic food sources.
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“We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts in our efforts to control the pandemic.”
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# COVID19 is a threat to food security and nutrition, especially to the most vulnerable.
Without immediate action, we could soon face a massive global food emergency with disastrous long term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults.https://t.co/wYGezfdu8U pic.twitter.com/6VHdmJJb5J
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 9, 2020
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The ravages of covid-19 in food
Although harvests are healthy and staple food supplies like grains are still flowing, according to the UN report, the restrictions stemming from the pandemic are slowing down part of the harvests as millions of seasonal workers cannot work.
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In addition, millions of people obtain their food from local markets, which are vulnerable to quarantines. At the same time, the increase in unemployment and the loss of income associated with the pandemic is hindering access to food, which has become more expensive in some countries.
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Furthermore, food waste has reached detrimental levels, with farmers forced to throw away perishables due to supply chain problems and many meat-processing plants forced to close in some countries, as have become the focus of contagion of the disease.
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The long-term effects will be worse
Although the export bans experts have feared so far have largely been avoided, the worst impact of the pandemic and the resulting recession has yet to be felt. Guterres warned: “Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruption in the food supply chain.”
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Some 50 million people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty this year due to the pandemic, but the long-term effects will be even worse as poor nutrition in childhood causes life-long problems.
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By the age of five, 1 in 5 children worldwide is stunted, and millions more are likely to suffer the same if poverty rates skyrocket, the UN says.
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According to the organization, the pandemic involves a high risk of reversing the progress that has been made in recent decades to lift people out of poverty and improve their access to healthy food.
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Already before the pandemic, the world food system was failing in many areas, said the UN, which pointed to conflicts, natural disasters, the climate crisis and the arrival of pests as the main existing problems that affect agriculture and the production of foods.
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If to all this are added the strong impacts of the pandemic, a food crisis is expected that will create hunger for millions.
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