What's New

Climate change poses a growing threat to efforts to build sustainable food systems. The COVID-19 pandemic and the current Ukraine crisis have further exacerbated global food and nutrition insecurity, leading to significant increases in poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. A July 18 launch event for IFPRI’s 2022 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) in Kathmandu, Nepal, explored the potential for more effective policies and programs focused on climate impacts and food systems.

In 2021, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounded the alarm on a looming crisis: Climate change is generating a “code red for humanity” that requires urgent action. Food systems are deeply entwined with this crisis. In many regions, especially in the developing world, climate change has already started to reduce agricultural productivity and disrupt supply chains, putting pressure on livelihoods and threatening to significantly increase hunger and malnutrition, making adaptation efforts crucially important.

Over the last few years, global food systems have been disrupted by conflict, economic shocks, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing global food insecurity and malnutrition.

A Jan. 19 policy seminar examined the implications of fragile agrifood systems and the findings of FAO’s The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 (SOFA) report. The report analyzes the vulnerabilities of food supply chains and how at-risk populations such as those in rural areas cope with risks and shocks.

The FAO Food Price Index rose 3 percent in October to reach its highest level since July 2011. The October Index stood 31.3 percent higher than its October 2020 levels. Last month’s increase was driven primarily by cereal (particularly wheat) and vegetable oil prices.

Alarming levels of hunger and food insecurity are on the rise across the globe. According to the September 2021 mid-year update to the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), an estimated 161 million people in 42 countries/territories have faced Crisis-level (IPC/CH Phase 3) food insecurity or higher. This number is up from the estimated 155 million acutely food-insecure people reported by the GRFC for 2020.