Why do so many people not have food as a basic need?

Make these numbers make sense:

• People on Earth: 8.3 billion (and counting).
• Food available per person each day: Nearly 3,000 calories (about two kilograms).
• Calories needed for healthy living: Around 2,250.
• People experiencing food insecurity: Over 2.4 billion.

Every day, the world produces enough food to feed everyone.

And yet, nearly 30 per cent of people don’t have daily access to food as a basic need.

Why?

Availability isn’t the issue. Access is

Globally, enough food is produced to provide every person with the calories they need each day. That’s relatively straightforward.

Rather, hunger is caused by barriers that prevent food from moving from farms and markets to families and ultimately, their tables:

• Poverty
• Climate change
• Inequality
• Conflict and living in fragile contexts

Food doesn’t nourish people simply because it exists. It must be grown, transported, packaged, sold and prepared. Yet, there are obstacles at every step along that journey.

Understanding those obstacles is key towards understanding why millions of people go hungry in a world that produces enough food for everyone.

Poverty and a lack of purchasing power

Poverty and purchasing power (or lack thereof) are related, but not the same:

• Poverty is about how much money a person has or doesn’t have.
• Purchasing power is about what that money can, or can’t, actually buy.

One is about having less. The other is about doing less with that you have.

Poverty: preventing access to food as a basic need

Poverty is more than just a lack of money. It’s a battle pitting choice against choice:

• Buy food or pay the rent?
• Purchase medicine or keep the lights on?
• Repair the car or repair the roof?

For millions of people, this isn’t a hypothetical scenario, but a daily reality. In the province of Ontario (where World Vision Canada is located), 60 per cent of renters cut back on food to afford their monthly rent.

There’s a term for this: The rent eats first.

Because people would rather go hungry than risk homelessness.

That’s just a local example. Around the world, families may be forced to choose between food and school fees for their children. Or between food and clean water. Or food and transportation to work.

The choices may be different, but the results are universal: nearly 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger.

Purchasing power: when money buys less

Canadians of a certain age may remember walking to the corner store with only a quarter. And walking out with a small bag of candy.

Back then, every penny had enough power to buy something.

Today, the candy still exists. The quarter’s purchasing power does not.

The same principle applies to food.

Imagine you have $100 to spend on groceries. Today, it fills your cart with all the basics your family needs:

• Bread
• Milk
• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Meat
• And a few pantry staples, too

Next month, rising prices mean that same $100 only buys three-quarters of what it did before. So, some things need to stay on the grocery store shelf.

First, it’s extras like snacks, breakfast cereal and dessert. And as prices continue to increase, you need to reduce the number of healthy fruits and vegetables you buy.

You didn’t lose any money, but you effectively became poorer because your purchasing power declined.

Global food inflation rose from 1.6 per cent in 2021 to a staggering 13 per cent in 2023. And currently, nearly 3 billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet.

That isn't to say they don't have money. It says that what they have is no longer enough.

Because the food is still on the shelf. It’s simply moved beyond what millions of people can afford.

Climate change

Every single day, farmers around the world grow approximately 27 million tonnes of primary crops.

Growing food, however, is only part of the process. Crops must survive long enough to be harvested. The food needs to be pulled from the ground—or trees or vines—before it can be eaten.

And for millions of farmers worldwide, climate change is making that increasingly difficult because:

• Longer droughts dry out fields before crops can mature.
• Stronger storms flatten harvests just days before collection.
• Powerful floods wash away fertile soil.
• Shifting rainfall patterns make it harder for farmers to know when to plant.
• Rising temperatures spread pests and diseases.

Agrifood systems employ around 1.23 billion people worldwide. And small, family-run farms produce around 80 per cent of the world’s food. Those who rely on farming for both food and income are most at risk of not having food as a basic need due to climate change.

It’s a never-ending cycle. A failed harvest means less food to eat, less money to buy groceries and fewer opportunities to recover before the next growing season.

Of course, when food is scarce, what is available becomes more valuable. And more expensive. Estimates say that, because of climate change, food prices may increase by 4.3 percentage points annually by 2060.

Using a $250 weekly grocery bill as baseline, here’s how it breaks down:

• Weekly bill: $250
• Price increase (4.3 percentage points) due to climate change: $10.75
• New weekly bill: $260.75

A $10.75 increase seems insignificant. But if you shop once a week, that’s an extra $43 per month and $559 per year.

Can the world’s poorest afford that? Can you?

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Helping farmers with FMNR

Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) projects restore land that’s been depleted or damaged by climate change. It’s small, simple agriculture that’s making a big difference.

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Conflict and living in fragile contexts

Think about your local grocery store. The shelves are stocked. Fresh produce fills the aisles. Everything your family needs is just a few minutes away.

But you can’t safely get there because:

• Roads are blocked.
• Bridges have been destroyed.
• Delivery trucks have been hijacked.
• Banks are no longer operating.
• Your family has been forced to flee with only what you can carry.

The neighbourhood grocery store—a place you think you could walk to with your eyes closed—is now a dangerous destination.

Conflict disrupts every step of the journey food takes from farm to family. In the Sudan crisis, conflict has forced an estimated 40 per cent of farmers to abandon their fields before harvest, leaving crops uncollected.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, seven per cent of the country’s cropland (over two million hectares) has been abandoned. And many farmers cannot safely cultivate their fields as they are contaminated with landmines, chemicals or unexploded ordnance.

Roads, bridges and ports become too unsafe to transport food. Markets either close or are taken over. In the Middle East, war has caused around 154 million pounds of food to be stuck in a supply chain breakdown.

All told, more than 147 million people can’t access food as a basic need due to conflict-induced food insecurity.

Inequality

Imagine the world’s food supply as one giant grocery store.

The shelves are stocked. There is more than enough food for everyone.

But not everyone begins their journey to the grocery store from the same place…

• Some people live just down the street. Others are hundreds of kilometres away.
• Some have reliable transportation. Others must walk.
• Some can afford to fill a full cart. Others can only fill a small bag with essentials only.
• Some people have stable jobs and fair wages. Others earn too little to afford what they need, or face barriers that prevent them from working at all.

…and some simply cannot get to the store.

That’s inequality.

Inequality isn’t just about who has the most money.

It’s about who has the access needed to earn that money. And then, who has the access needed to spend that money. And finally, who has the access needed to spend that money on enough food.

Food as a basic need is there. Access is not. Let’s change that

If everyone had access to food:

• Poverty would decrease.
• Hunger would vanish.
• Global health would improve.
• Happiness would skyrocket.

That sounds ideal. And together, we can make it happen. One person at a time.

Give to where most needed: Ensure children receive essentials like food, healthcare and education.

Sponsor a child: Help a child break free from poverty by providing education, healthcare and hope.

Support families in Sudan: Help provide emergency food to families impacted by the ongoing Sudan crisis.

END the cycle of poverty: Feed the hungry, provide clean water and put an end to injustice.