When the flow of Ukrainian grain was cut off by Russia’s invasion, there were widespread fears that a global food crisis would ensue.
The food systems of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are facing challenges in meeting the needs of both people and the environment. These challenges include providing sufficient food and adequate diets to over 3 billion people, while addressing environmental issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and land degradation.
This knowledge brief aims to provide a set of evidence regarding the outcomes and impacts of agroecology. There is a strong theoretical basis and empirical evidence that food security outcomes are as good or sometimes even better for agroecological systems than conventional alternatives.
The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises revealed that in 2022, nearly 258 million people in 58 countries and territories were in Crisis or worse acute food insecurity (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC]/Cadre Harmonisé [CH] Phase 3 or above, or the equivalent) – up from 193 million in 53 countries and territories in 2021.
The report covers four key issues related to plant-based meat and the ultra-processed food category and provides five recommendations to address them. The author begins by highlighting the current state of research and policy suggestions which call for a shift to more plant-based diets to achieve climate and net zero targets.
This paper quantifies the impact of drought on household consumption for five main agroecological zones in Africa, developing vulnerability (or damage) functions of the relationship between rainfall deficits and poverty. Damage functions are a key element in models that quantify the risk of extreme weather and the impacts of climate change.
Agricultural research and development (R&D) can help developing countries address their own unique challenges and shore up local food systems to better withstand shocks. The study makes suggestions of how the U.S. government can lead investments in international agricultural research to generate benefits that would simultaneously help smallholder farm families around the world and American farmers and ranchers.
The Food Systems Integrated Program (FSIP), led by FAO and IFAD, will direct $252 million in project financing and $2.2 billion in co-financing to 32 countries. The FSIP focuses on transforming global agrifood systems from farm to table so that they are sustainable, nature positive, resilient, inclusive and pollution-free.
This year, the IPC initiative celebrates its 20th anniversary since its inception, systematically providing information on the scale and severity of food insecurity and malnutrition where food and nutrition crises prevail. The IPC supports decisions in 30 countries globally including in the most complex contexts, such as Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza strip, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen among others.
Dear Subscribers,
The initial annual budget for humanitarian aid this year will be over €1.8 billion.
Soil loss by water erosion represents a key threat to land degradation worldwide. This study employs an integrated quantitative modelling approach to estimate its long-term global sustainability impacts.
A global event at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today highlighted the role of pulses in maintaining soil health and providing vital nutrition to communities worldwide, under the theme 'Pulses: Nourishing Soils and People'.
A U.S. program aims to reintroduce a variety of traditional crops on African farms, warnings of famine in Ethiopia, and a culture shift for our diets.
Reading time: 4 minutes.
FAO is launching under the Food and diet domain a set of four subdomains featuring different types of dietary data that users can easily access.
The Global Risks Report 2024 presents the findings of the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), which captures insights from nearly 1,500 global experts. The report analyses global risks through three time frames to support decision-makers in balancing current crises and longer-term priorities.
In 2022, 738.9 million people faced hunger, nearly 2.4 billion in 2022 lacked regular access to adequate food, and over 3.1 billion could not afford healthy diets. The pandemic added 120 million to the number of the chronically undernourished. In 2030, an estimated 590.3 million will suffer hunger. The planet faces crises, exceeding safe limits on six of nine planetary boundaries, and much of them is due to agrifood systems, which contribute 30 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impede climate goals.
The text emphasizes the urgent need for a transformation of food systems, highlighting the economic, environmental, and social benefits of such a transformation. It outlines the negative impacts of current food systems on health, the environment, and climate change, identifying unaccounted costs estimated at 15 trillion USD a year. The report also discusses the unsustainable trajectory of the global food system and the potential economic benefits of a transformation, estimating them to be worth 5 to 10 trillion USD a year.
The text emphasizes the urgent need for a transformation of food systems, highlighting the economic, environmental, and social benefits of such a transformation. It outlines the negative impacts of current food systems on health, the environment, and climate change, identifying unaccounted costs estimated at 15 trillion USD a year. The report also discusses the unsustainable trajectory of the global food system and the potential economic benefits of a transformation, estimating them to be worth 5 to 10 trillion USD a year.
