As in all battles, there are reports that count the victims. Those who fight hunger in the world now has a number that has become the flag of defeat. A figure - one billion malnourished people on Earth - that alone sums up how little they served in recent years appeals, protests, and proclamations vertices. Counting the latest report of the FAO - 1.02 billion of "hungry" - evokes scenarios of past eras, but is instead a photograph of the increase in inequality and inefficiency of the policies of development aid. Never in the history of humanity from hunger has affected a population so large and widespread geographically, although today's experts have been saying that there would be enough resources and technology to feed everyone on the planet.
compared to last year there are over 100 million men, women and children who have to settle for less than 1,800 calories per day, considered the "frontier of hunger." A sixth of all humanity eats the equivalent of two bowls of cereal, while another billion people are children of the "fast food nations "and overweight. The lack of food remains a scourge of poor countries, with the primacy of the Asian continent (642 million hungry people, +10.5 percent), Africa (307 million, +12.5) and to 'Latin America (53 million, +12.8). But the novelty is that the economic downturn has caused an increase in malnourished people even in rich countries. Indeed, the highest percentage increase (15.4) was just in the "First World", where there are now 15 million people who suffer from hunger. In 2000 there were 2 billion hungry people in the metropolis in 2030 will double. The FAO report also refutes the theory of the Indian Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen according to which democracies do not produce famines because they allow the free expression of social protest. Hunger seems to have a spectrum by which the most advanced societies are forced to live with. The
2009 thus marks a point of no return. Jacques Diouf, President of FAO, has no trouble identifying the culprit. The recession and the financial storm that has committed the government to mobilize billions in the rescue of banking systems. "The same strong public action", said Diouf, "would serve to combat hunger." Food insecurity - as is defined by a few years the chronic lack of food - has increased even more with the global crisis. Many poor countries have suffered widespread declines exports, foreign investment, development aid and remittances from emigrants even in the richest countries. In 2007 the seventeen major economies of Latin America from abroad had received 184 billion dollars in revenue funds: we are now at 44 billion.
For Jeffrey Sachs, an economist who led the UN Millennium Project, the emergency food has four causes. "The first is a chronically low productivity of farmers in poorer countries, because they can not afford to purchase seeds and fertilizers, or to have access to irrigation. The second is the wrong policy of supporting biofuels pursued by Member U.S. and European Union. The third is climate change. The fourth is the growth in global demand for food caused by rising incomes in some populations such as China and India. "
The paradox is that until the nineties were scored important victories in the battle against hunger. Since 1969, when FAO started collecting data, there were 878 million malnourished people. Since then, the statistical curve is slowly decreased until 1995, when he began the ascent, and then the surge of the last five years. "In that moment was a turning point," says Marco De Ponte, secretary general of the NGO ActionAid. "Food is officially become a commodity like any other, then subjected to fluctuations and market uncertainties. " In 1996, there is also the first World Food Summit in Rome, with the solemn commitment of the Heads of State and Government to halve hunger in the world, up to 425 million people by 2015, a promise reiterated in the Millennium Summit of 2000 and in all subsequent summits. Too bad that in the meantime that goal has moved away instead of closer.
"I think conversely that in recent years we have seen positive examples," says De Ponte, "such as China and Brazil." The Beijing government has succeeded in reducing the number of malnourished people with a better distribution of agricultural land, while Brazil's President Lula has allocated funds for its food banks and the "Fome Zero". "It shows that you can fight and win," concluded the head of Action Aid, who yesterday presented a sort of controrapporto on world hunger, giving report cards to the commitments of governments. Italy appears in fourteenth place. "During the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Silvio Berlusconi had promised 400 million to combat hunger, unfortunately, this commitment has not been included in the budget," says Marta Guglielmetti, marketing representative for the UN on the Millennium Goals. "Even on development still remain at 0.10 percent of GDP, slightly lower than in the past and well below the target set to 0.51 in 2010. "
Food insecurity threatens to turn into insecurity tout court. "In the future, hunger and famine caused new conflicts," wrote the scholar Joachim von Braun in a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. In 1960 every human being had available 4,300 square feet on the planet for subsistence food. Today we are down to 2,200 and in 2030 our "living space" will be only 1,800 square meters. According to the American think tank, to ensure peace food production expected to double by 2050, when we will be 9 billion people on Earth. Another factor that
does not lead to optimism is the inflation of food. In poorer areas of the planet, to buy essential food to a family of five now must work an average of ten hours more per week. After the blaze of 2007 and 2008 it was thought that prices would come down again. Not so. Even the recession has calmed prices. Between December and June, the index compiled by the Economist on the price of food has risen by a third. And not for lack of supply. The grain harvest would be plentiful this year: 2.2 billion tons, after the record of 2.3 billion in 2008. But the demand is steadily rising and many experts think that the cost of food will never return to 2006 levels. The high agricultural prices have not even claimed the millions of poor farmers, providing incentives for increased production. The cereal harvest in Africa is on average about one tonne per hectare, compared to three or four tons per hectare in Europe.
"We need emergency action, with good food, aid and safety nets, and a medium-term program of support for peasant agriculture," said the president of FAO addressed the Heads of State and Government who will be in Rome 16 to 18 November for a new World Food Summit. It will be good to remember that the battles are not won with words alone.
Anais Ginori La Repubblica, October 15, 2009
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