No business as usual on World Food Day
This World Food Day almost one billion people around the globe will go to bed hungry. Rising food prices, the global financial crisis and crop failures are likely to make things worse.
The Food Ethics Council, an independent charity that works for a fairer food system, and the Fairtrade Foundation, are calling for the UK Government to renew its commitment to a sustainable food system at home and abroad.
Despite severe financial constraints on the public sector, we urge our government to face up to the fact that the mass availability of cheap food has come at a huge social and environmental cost. We recommend that our government:
• Commits to reducing global poverty, leading international efforts to reduce food price volatility by imposing regulation to limit food price speculation;
• Supports fairtrade and holds the European Commission to its commitments that poor countries are free to protect their food and farming sectors;
• Ensures that UK benefits and minimum wage levels are high enough for families to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living; and
• Puts its own house in order by committing to the sustainable procurement of all the food that central government buys.
Dr. Tom MacMillan, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council said:
"The facts about world hunger are bleak, and it’s not just in the developing world that we find people living without enough food. Around 925 million people globally are undernourished, almost 200 million of whom are children under five. Even in the UK around 20% of people on low incomes regularly reduce or skip meals because of financial constraints.
"We already grow enough food to feed all the world’s hungry, but the way food and land is distributed is unfair. It’s estimated that the amount of cereal-based food wasted in the UK and US alone could lift 224 million people out of hunger."
Harriet Lamb, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation said:
"The question before us is: Who is paying the price for very these very unfair food policies and practices? Will it continue to be those who can least afford it, or will we be able to re-balance the system and shift the cost to those who are in a far better position to pick up the bill?"
World Food Day is a wake-up call to governments, businesses and citizens to work together to defeat hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition. The latest report from the Food Ethics Council, Food justice, supports that call.
Food justice: the report of the Food and Fairness Inquiry found that our food system is profoundly unfair, and this deep-rooted social injustice hampers our progress towards food security, sustainability and public health.
It examines the symptoms and causes of food-related injustices and analyses the complex relationships between unfairness, environmental degradation and ill-health.
Our Inquiry, comprising 14 experts from across the food sector, including business leaders and trade organisations, found that the UK government has a pivotal role to play in making the global food system sustainable, healthy and fair.
