Sustainability and food security after COVID-19: relocalizing food systems?
- PDF / 365,826 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 793.701 pts Page_size
- 109 Downloads / 264 Views
EDITORIAL
Agricultural and Food Economics
Open Access
Sustainability and food security after COVID-19: relocalizing food systems? Walter Belik Correspondence: walterbelik@gmail. com Institute of Economics, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Rua Pitágoras, 353 CEP 13083-857 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Considering the current pandemic, in which changes in the food system and the relationship between food and society are under discussion, I take the opportunity with this editorial to offer some points for debate. Undoubtedly, the most striking feature of this pandemic regarding food-related issues is the growing prevalence of malnutrition across the world. It is well known that countries have not been able to achieve the goals set by the 1996 World Food Summit (halving the number of malnourished people by 2015 - based on the year 1992), nor the goals of the 2000 Millennium Summit (halving the percentage of malnourished people). It is also clear by now that countries will not be able to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals signed in 2015, such as ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, among other commitments. Since the financial crisis that lasted until 2010, the number of malnourished people is no longer decreasing, ending a trend that had been going on since the end of the 1990s. Looking at the last decade, worldwide results are disappointing and there are indications that the situation will become even worse. However, what the course of the pandemic is showing so far is that the increase in malnutrition is not occurring because of a lack of food. On the contrary, production remains high, but there is a reduction in the demand for food caused by the interruption of work and entertainment activities such as hotels, restaurants, schools, and industrial facilities. International food trade also suffered due to logistic difficulties and higher sanitary barriers. All of this has been causing an oversupply of food, leading to greater food losses and waste. The COVID-19 crisis is expected to throw millions of workers into unemployment. ILO estimates a loss of 300 million full-time jobs in terms of hours worked (ILO Monitor, 2020). The same organization also predicts that the 2 billion informal workers across the globe will be the ones most affected by the crisis. The loss of jobs and income will be directly reflected in poverty indicators. According to the World Bank, the share of the global population in extreme poverty (living on a per capita monthly income less than US $ 1.90 PPP a day) that had fallen below 10% is now expected to rise again, and a contingent between 71 and 100 million people will return to the extreme poverty condition (Mahler et al. 2020). Globally, the IMF forecasts a 4.9% decline in the GDP for the year 2020 (World Economic Outlook (WEO) 2020). This decline will be felt most intensely in © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproducti
Data Loading...
