FIAN International Annual Report 2022
Exposing causes of food crisis, defending seed biodiversity, supporting grassroots struggles
The world was still reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the right to food and nutrition when food price hikes hit new records in 2022.
Instead of getting closer to achieving the zero hunger Sustainable Development Goal by 2030, we face recurrent food crises, closely intertwined with climate collapse, war and proliferating conflicts, public health emergencies and ever-increasing levels of inequality.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization forecasts that the number of undernourished people may rise by an estimated 7.6 million in a moderate scenario, or by 13.1 million people in a severe shock scenario by 2023, adding to the 811 million already reported hungry in 2020.
Unfair global economic rules lie at the core of the structural causes of recurrent food crises and hunger. FIAN focused its efforts in 2022 on urging the UN to review its food security approach, which is based on global trade. Global food value chains are extremely vulnerable to shocks. Food import dependency makes poor countries and people more vulnerable and less resilient. Countries acting alone cannot solve these problems because structural inequalities in our global economic system prevent governments, especially in poorer countries, from taking necessary action. For our World Food Day mobilization in October, we joined hands with the global movement to cancel debt, highlighting the interlinkages between food and the debt crisis.
There is an urgent need for global policies to address unfair trade and debt rules. The world also needs a new global food security strategy based on the right to food and the human rights principles of dignity, self-sufficiency and solidarity. This requires a move away from fossil-fuel based industrial food systems and deregulated markets, curbing speculation, building food reserves at multiple levels and giving priority to locally produced food from agroecological, small-scale food producers.