148 million children suffer from stunted growth & malnutrition : UN Report
Five U.N. agencies said in the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition report that while global hunger numbers stalled between 2021 and 2022 many places are facing deepening food crises.
They pointed to Western Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, where 20% of the continent's population is experiencing hunger, more than twice the global average. «Recovery from the global pandemic has been uneven, and the war in Ukraine has affected the nutritious food and healthy diets,» Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement.
«This is the 'new normal' where climate change, conflict, and economic instability are pushing those on the margins even further from safety.» FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said the FAO food price index has been declining for about 15 months, but «food inflation has continued.» But he said not knowing if the deal that has enabled Ukraine to ship 32 metric tons of grain to world markets and is trying to overcome obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer shipments will be renewed when it expires on July 17 «is not good for the markets.» If it isn't renewed immediately «you will have a new spike for sure» in food prices, but how much and for how long will depend on how markets respond, he said. According to the report, people's access to healthy diets has deteriorated across the world.
More than 3.1 billion people — 42% of the global population — were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021, an increase of 134 million people compared to 2019, it said. Torero told a news conference launching the report that reducing the number of people eating unhealthy diets «is a big challenge, because it's basically telling us that we have substantially to change the way we use our
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