In fact, the number of people suffering from hunger is increasing even though they have enough food!

In the previous column, I covered "insufficient water resources" in "insufficient energy resources, water, and food."
This time, I would like to write about "food shortage".

● In fact, at this point, there is enough food in the world for everyone to eat.

• World grain production annually about 2.1 billion tons (from FAO 2007)
• Grain production per person per day = 2.1 billion tons / 6.67 billion people / 365 days = 0.86 kg / person / day
• Assuming an average of about 2,500 kcal per kg of grain
  Grain 0.86kg / person / day = 0.86kg x Approx. 2,500kcal / kg = 2,150kcal / person / day
• Adding calories such as meat, fish and fruits to this, it becomes 2,500 to 3,000 kcal / person / day.
• The average daily calorie intake of Japanese people is about 2,800 kcal.
• In other words, if you divide food evenly in the world, you can get all the same calories as Japanese people.

● However, about 854 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition and hunger.

Of these, more than 350 million are children and more than 820 million are from developing countries.

● Hunger and poverty kill 25,000 people every day.

Of these, 18,000 are children. Every 5 seconds one child dies of hunger and poverty.

● The chronically hungry population is increasing by 4 million every year.

Although the hungry population could be reduced by 27 million in the early 1990s, the hungry population increased by 20 million in the latter half of the 1990s.
All three are from WFP Hunger Facts (WFP: United Nations World Food Program)
https://www.wfp.org
At this point, why is hunger happening and increasing when there is plenty of food on the planet?
I think the main causes are "chronic spread of poverty" and "rising food prices", and the point is that so many people do not have enough money to buy enough food, that is, food is not distributed well. increase.
In particular, soaring food prices are becoming more and more serious, as described below.

● Basic food prices have doubled in five years. Increasingly hunger.

FAO Food Price Index: A food price index calculated from the prices of meat, butter, cheese, grains, rice, oil, sugar, etc.
(FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
From FAO
https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/FoodPricesIndex/en/

In the future, the world's population will increase, food consumption per capita will increase due to improved eating habits in developing countries, and it is predicted that adverse effects on food production will increase due to water shortages and increased natural disasters. Considering that there is a high possibility that the use of originally made bioethanol as an energy resource will increase in the future, there is a possibility that even the absolute amount of food will be insufficient, which will further accelerate hunger. I am afraid that it may be.

Along with the water shortage mentioned above, it is a problem that must be dealt with urgently throughout the world.

September 30, 2008 Hironobu Matsui