{"id":12456,"date":"2021-07-22T11:01:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T05:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=12456"},"modified":"2023-04-10T16:02:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T10:32:40","slug":"one-in-three-couldnt-afford-food-year-round-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/one-in-three-couldnt-afford-food-year-round-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018One in three couldn\u2019t afford food year-round in 2020\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018One in three couldn\u2019t afford food year-round in 2020\u2019<\/h1>\n

G.S paper II: Governance: <\/strong><\/span>
\nIssues relating to development and management of Social Sector\/Services relating to Health,<\/strong><\/span>
\nEducation, Human Resources.<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2022 Issues relating to poverty and hunger.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Pandemic-induced poverty and rise in food prices keep healthy diet out of reach of three billion people<\/p>\n

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Good food or just food? \u201cOur choice is always the latter. We need to survive.\u201d Sukru Ojha, the 56-year-old resident of Koraput, Odisha\u00a0told\u00a0Down To Earth<\/em>\u00a0in April in reply to a query on whether the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic-induced income loss impacted his food intake. Koraput is one of India\u2019s poorest districts.<\/p>\n

It has been widely reported that people\u00a0have cut down overall food intake and have resorted to unhealthy food practices in the face of disruption in normal economic activities and the consequent rise in poverty. In addition, rising food prices makes a wholesome diet unaffordable, as Sukru explained.<\/p>\n

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)\u2019s latest\u00a0State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021<\/em>\u00a0report has a grim reminder of this impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The FAO report has quoted a study done in 63 low- and middle-income countries covering a population of 3.5 billion on changes in the income of people.\u00a0It has extrapolated its impact on choice of diets.<\/p>\n

The study found a significant dip in people\u2019s affordability for healthy food due to a loss in income. \u201cThe analysis suggests that the pandemic led to an additional 141 million people being unable to afford a healthy diet in the countries studied,\u201d concludes the report.<\/p>\n

The primary reason for this is the loss of income. But food price rise has made the situation more acute. By the end of 2020, global consumer food prices were the highest in six years. In the first four months of 2021,\u00a0they continued to rise.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), \u201ca healthy diet contains a balanced, diverse and appropriate selection of foods eaten over a period of time\u201d and \u201cit protects against malnutrition in all its forms, including non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer\u201d.<\/p>\n

In normal times, a healthy diet costs more; at the global level, the cost of a healthy diet in 2019 was $4.04 per person \/ day (compare it with the international poverty line of $1.90 per day). FAO\u2019s analysis shows that the cost of a healthy diet was 60 per cent more than a diet that just meets \u201crequirements for essential nutrients\u201d and almost five times as much as a diet that just meets \u201cthe minimum dietary energy needs through a starchy staple\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2020, some 2.37 billion people couldn\u2019t access adequate food in 2020; an increase of 320 million people in comparison to the 2019 figure. Or, one in three people in the world couldn\u2019t access adequate food\u00a0\u2014 read year-round access to adequate food\u00a0\u2014 in 2020.<\/p>\n

Nearly 12 per cent of the global population faced severe levels of food insecurity or they ran out of food and in worst situations, must have a day without food. In one year\u00a0\u2014 that is 2020\u00a0\u2014 the rise in the food insecure population was more than the combined number of the last five years.<\/p>\n

Add to that, the unaffordability of food that greatly impacted people\u2019s food choice and access.<\/p>\n

More people in 2020 were unable to afford a healthy diet in comparison to 2019. \u201cThe number of people unable to afford even half the cost of a healthy diet was also estimated to have risen from 43 per cent to 50 per cent,\u201d the\u00a0State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021<\/em>\u00a0report says. This has resulted in healthy diets being out of reach of the world\u2019s\u00a0three billion people.<\/p>\n

The overall decline in food intake has also increased hunger levels in 2020, making the primary Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030 impossible now. Between 720 and 811 million people in the world endured hunger in 2020. In comparison to 2019, there\u00a0were\u00a0an additional 161 million people who faced hunger.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew projections confirm that hunger will not be eradicated by 2030 unless bold actions are taken to accelerate progress, especially actions to address inequality in access to food. All other things constant, around 660 million people may still face hunger in 2030 in part due to lasting effects of the pandemic on global food security\u00a0\u2014 30 million more people than in a scenario in which the pandemic had not occurred,\u201d says the FAO report.<\/p>\n

According to the recently released\u00a0Global Food Policy Report 2021<\/em>\u00a0by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), \u201cThe impacts of rising poverty and reduced livelihoods are reflected clearly in rising levels of food insecurity and decreasing diet quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWidespread food insecurity and a shift toward consumption of low-quality diets could, in turn, have devastating consequences for health and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries, especially among women of reproductive age and young children,\u201d says Marie Ruel, director of the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI and Inge D Brouwer, an associate professor in the Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands, who have written a chapter in the report.<\/p>\n

According to the WHO, poor diet is a major reason for malnutrition, stunting and wasting among children, obesity, overweight and underweight and also diet-related non-communicable diseases. WHO estimates that poor diets are responsible for 22 per cent of all deaths among adults in the world.<\/p>\n

It is an alarm bell for the world that already has a high prevalence of undernourishment. \u201cEfforts to eradicate malnutrition in all its forms have been challenged by disruptions in essential nutrition interventions and negative impacts on dietary patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d says FAO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase in the number of undernourished was more than five times greater than the highest increase in undernourishment in the last two decades,\u201d says the FAO report.<\/p>\n

Undernourishment due to the pandemic has impacted children the most, also a global goal to fix by 2030. According to FAO data in the report, in 2020, 149 million children (under five years of age) will grow up stunted or too short for their age. Some 45 million children have been wasted, or do not have the right weight for their height.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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