The Issue
Three years ago, it was all over the news: around the world, food and gas prices were rising, and harvests were shrinking. In some poor countries like Haiti, high food prices caused street protests. Globally, children were forced to drop out of school to get jobs, and some were even exploited, all to earn enough money for their families to eat. And then, the news moved on.
Today, food prices are rising again, raising concern about a new food crisis. The truth is that the food price crisis never really went away. Around the world, 925 million people are now food insecure, meaning that they don’t have the access they need to a sufficient supply of nutritious food. Food prices are still higher than they were before the crisis of 2007-08.
Is the world running short of food, again? No, we actually have enough food. However, there are concerns that if next year's harvests are not good (as some reports suggest), we may be facing a food shortage next year. Investors—people who trade in stocks, bonds and other commodities—are hearing those predictions and buying up food-related commodities. This then results in higher food prices. It increases people’s fear that the predictions of poor harvests next year will come true. So prices keep on rising.
For children in poor countries that import food, especially those who live in cities, escalating food prices mean that they are again at risk of choosing between going hungry or leaving school to work.
The situation must be monitored closely so that action can be taken to protect poor families.
What World Vision Is Doing
Ensuring that families have enough safe, nutritious food to eat is integral to World Vision’s work. We do this in poor countries around the world by:
- improving agriculture practices and increasing food production and, in emergencies, providing food aid;
- providing economic opportunities, like skills training for jobs or for growing new food varieties, especially for socially-disadvantaged groups like women, so that they have money to buy or produce the food they need;
- promoting the consumption of healthy, nutritious and safely-prepared food in families and communities.
In addition, World Vision staff in Canada are speaking to the Canadian government to ensure that:
- our government’s support for agriculture in poor countries focuses on small-scale farmers; this support should help these farmers and the communities that depend on them to enjoy food security—in other words, reliable access to safe, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food;
- any government response to the current food price crisis focuses on keeping children healthy.
What Can You Do?
- PRAY: for strong harvests worldwide over the coming year and an end to harmful speculation that is driving up food prices.
- JOIN: the World Vision Justice Network to keep informed and to find out about actions you can take on a wide range of issues affecting children and communities.
- LEARN MORE:
World Food Programme
Food and Agriculture Organization
World Bank
- GIVE: Support the work of World Vision to help families grow the food they need, by purchasing:
