ActionAid Warns of Triple Threat to Food Security

In a recent report, ActionAid, our current poverty beneficiary, warned that one-quarter of the world’s population is on the brink of crisis due to the triple threat of climate change, depleted natural resources, and soaring food prices:

• At least 10 countries, accounting for more than 1.5 billion of the world’s population, are highly vulnerable to a climate-related food crisis. Overall, climate change could add another half a billion people to those facing chronic hunger around the world by 2050. Every rural community surveyed across Africa, Asia and the Americas said that erratic and extreme weather was crippling their ability to feed themselves.

• Unsustainable farming practices and an unprecedented rush from foreign investors to control resources such as minerals, oil, biofuel and water, could leave millions of the poorest people without enough arable land to produce food. In Africa alone, over 6 million hectares of degraded farmland must be regenerated to meet the demand for food from a population set to double by 2050.

• A dangerous new era of high food prices is set to push 44 million more people into poverty. The demand for biofuel – produced from wheat, corn, soybean and sugarcane – means that food prices will keep rising unless rich countries find alternative sources of energy.

Read ActionAid’s full report here: On the Brink: Who’s best prepared for a climate and hunger crisis?