Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates sound alarm over hunger crisis
Image credit: Vanessa L Facenda
Earlier this month, 153 top Nobel Prize and World Food Prize Laureates issued a wake-up call about the dire consequences of the world’s current approach to climate action and food system change. Many of the areas under threat are coffee and tea-producing countries.
Not mincing words in their new open letter, the Laureates – experts in food systems, economics, science, peacemaking, humanities, and other areas of expertise – said: “Humanity is headed towards an even more food insecure, unstable world by mid-century than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity…Today’s challenges of access to food will be exacerbated by production challenges tomorrow. We are not on track to meet future food needs. Not even close.”
The letter further stated: “We must take bold action to change course. We must be prepared to pursue high risk, high reward, scientific research with the goal of transforming our food systems to meet the nutritional needs of everyone sustainably. These will be planet-friendly “moonshot” efforts leading to substantial, not just incremental, leaps in food production for food and nutrition security…Reversing our current trajectory towards a tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand by mid-century requires definitive action now.”
“As leaders in science and innovation, we ask you to join us in sounding the alarm, raising collective ambitions, and advocating for research moonshots to ensure the world’s future food and nutrition security.”
The full letter can be read here.
As the letter notes, with hundreds of millions of people worldwide already hungry today – while the climate crisis continues to pose new challenges to food production and resource availability – we are “not even close” to meeting the food needs of the future.
The appeal was coordinated by Cary Fowler, joint 2024 World Food Prize Laureate, who is also the outgoing US Special Envoy for Global Food Security. “All the evidence points to an escalating decline in food productivity if the world continues with business as usual,” said Fowler. “With 700 million food insecure people today, and the global population expected to rise by 1.5 billion by 2050, this leaves humanity facing a grossly unequal and unstable world. We know that agricultural research and innovation can be a powerful lever, not only for food and nutrition security, but also improved health, livelihoods and economic development. We need to channel our best scientific efforts into reversing our current trajectory, or today’s crisis will become tomorrow’s catastrophe.”
The Laureates highlighted the threat of climate change to food production, particularly in Africa, where the population is growing fastest yet yields of the staple crop maize are forecast to decline across almost its entire growing area. Other factors undermining crop productivity include soil erosion and land degradation, biodiversity loss, water shortages, conflict, and policies restricting agricultural innovation. “The impacts of climate change are already reducing food production around the world, but particularly in Africa, which bears little historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions yet sees temperatures rising faster than elsewhere,” said President Adesina, who received the World Food Prize in 2017. “Future temperature rises are expected to be most extreme in countries with already low productivity, compounding existing levels of food insecurity. In low-income countries where productivity needs to almost double by 2050 compared to 1990, the stark reality is that it’s likely to rise by less than half. We have just 25 years to change this.”
What is this group of experts calling upon us to do? The open letter outlines big-picture steps aimed at high-level national and global policymakers and food system leaders. But as a recent FoodTank newsletter noted, these must be accompanied by and bolstered by local, grassroots organising.
FoodTank offered a to-do list of ways we can apply the experts’ “moonshot” recommendations to our own lives and communities:
1. Prioritise local, seasonal, and Indigenous foods if and when you’re able.
Many Indigenous and underappreciated crops – foods that Dr. Fowler likes to call “opportunity crops” – are resilient to droughts, have deep root structures to keep water and nutrients in soils, grow perennially so they don’t need to be replanted every year, and taste really good, too. A deeper understanding of what food grows in our communities, and when it’s in season, will go a long way toward strengthening local food systems and making them more resilient.
2. Eat everything in your fridge before it goes bad.
Food waste remains a major food system challenge and hindrance to climate progress, and a moral scourge when so many are hungry. Much of the food the world needs already exists — it’s just being wasted instead of ending up on the plates of those who need it!
Meaningful solutions to food waste represent significant steps toward lower emissions and a nourished world, and this can start in our homes. By shopping carefully, getting creative with food scraps and leftovers, and using our freezers more and better, we can reduce our individual carbon footprints.
3. Elevate farmer voices and success stories in your communities. [This is something both the coffee and tea industry do well.]
Going forward, the experts say in their open letter, we need to support advancements in agricultural research and innovation. Farmers and farm workers have deep embodied knowledge of land, and they must remain at the forefront of any equitable, nourishing transformation. When you see visionary solutions take root in your community, shout them out so other communities can take inspiration from them. Don’t be afraid to brag!
4. Use our voices to move institutions.
Elected officials, from the local level on up, do truly listen to their constituents. Business leaders pay attention to the bottom line and consumer voices. Across the public and private sectors, we all have tremendous power when we speak together.
We need corporations to put people over profit. We need philanthropic dollars to flow toward mission-driven nonprofits, research, and data to fuel the adoption of new solutions. We cannot afford to see backsliding in our countries’ national approaches to global food, health, and climate action!
Echoing the sentiment of the editor of the FoodTank newsletter, Danielle Nierenberg, “as the letter points out, we need to ensure these innovations aren’t happening in a vacuum but are truly reaching communities in need. Food equity concerns like affordability and access must remain central to our discussions of a resilient, sustainable future food system.”
Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal
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