FEATURE: Boycotting the UN Food Summit and food shortages in Africa

The planned summit is embroiled in arguments over who is to blame for the growth of hunger and disease, and whether the meeting is biased in favour of corporate, hi-tech intensive farming.

PRETORIA, July 27 (ANA) – The United Nations Food Summit which intends to address growing hunger and diet-related disease is scheduled to take place in September, but human rights groups and farmers are planning a boycott of the event accusing it of side-lining those in hunger in favour of corporate interests.

According to Al Jazeera, In April this year, scores of scientists, researchers, faculty members, and educators who work in agriculture and food systems, also issued an open call to boycott the event.

In its report, the broadcaster explained that a handful of transnational companies dominate the current global food and commodity trade.

These companies also have an influence in the the sowing of seeds and growing of crops to the processing, distribution, and consumption of food, transnational agribusinesses control, and are decision makers. They are now entering into partnerships with Big Tech firms to digitalise the global food system to cement their dominance, Al Jazeera wrote.

The broadcaster said despite their control over nearly 75 percent of the world’s food production-related natural resources, the companies are failing to feed a third of the global population, and they are also responsible for most of the US$400 billion worth of food lost annually and for the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases.

ActionAid says that the way food is currently produced is deepening the climate emergency, with agriculture responsible for almost 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The global charity organisation says its part of 185 civil society organisations and movements that have signed an open letter to the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) saying they can’t be involved in the summit unless there is a radical redirection of the current course.

“We’re calling for a move away from the interests of corporations to prioritise human rights and the knowledge and experiences of those most affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly women and indigenous communities,” ActionAid in a statement posted on its website.

It said global food systems need a major overhaul and sustainable approaches to farming can ensure the right to food for all, mitigate climate change and promote employment and social stability.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 report, the first global assessment of its kind in the pandemic era, makes dire reading for Asia, Africa and Latin America, the three continents most affected by hunger and food insecurity.

While no region in the world is spared, over half of the world’s undernourished are found in Asia (418 million) and a third in Africa (282 million).

Compared with 2019, some 46 million more people in Africa, 57 million more in Asia, and 14 million more in Latin America were affected by hunger in 2020.

The data is demoralising, suggesting that hunger and prevalence of undernourishment will be a permanent feature of the global landscape well beyond the next decade unless there is a seismic change in redress policies.

For South Africa, the report highlights a new range of metrics of national shame. It is in a Group of 20 countries considered to be facing food insecurity crises, and in the top 56 countries with the largest number of undernourished people.

In Africa as a whole, hunger is increasing at an alarming rate, this is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, long time existing issues such as conflict, drought, economic woes, and extreme weather.

According to a report released by ReliefWeb this year April, more than 100 million people in Africa are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and the situation may worsen in the coming months due to the devastating effects deepened by Covid-19.

The humanitarian agency said Covid-19 could have long-lasting affects across the continent, particularly for those living in poverty.

In May, the World Vision said as of 2019, 234 million sub-Saharan Africans were chronically undernourished, more than in any other region. In the whole of Africa, 250 million people were experiencing hunger, which is nearly 20 percent of the population.

The humanitarian aid says conditions are deteriorating across East Africa, where 7 million people are at risk of starvation and another 33.8 million face acute food insecurity, with at least 12.8 million children acutely malnourished in the region.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay