Food Security

Each year around the American harvest season, we celebrate World Food Day by honoring men and women who have advanced the cause of global food security. Dr. Norman Borlaug – father of the Green Revolution. Dr. Muhammad Yunus – trailblazer in global microfinance. Dr. Catherine Feuillet – scientist who decoded the wheat genome. And every farmer and farmhand working around the world. Dr. Borlaug once said, “You can’t build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.”

After nearly a decade of progress, global hunger is on the rise. A UN report on food security and nutrition released last month estimates that 815 million people, or 11 percent of the global population, are chronically malnourished. This is an increase of nearly 40 million people over the previous year.

Since the food price crisis of 2008, a decade of intense domestic attention to agriculture has generated one of the most successful development eras in African history, with poverty rates declining in Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal.

Despite 24-hour cable news, a recent poll found 85% of Americans unaware of the famine crisis endangering 30 million lives in Africa and Yemen. But that poll also shows we’re a compassionate nation. Once informed, millennials see this emergency as one of the most pressing global issues.

If you pull apart global population growth, you’ll see an unprecedented “youth bulge” occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. All the region’s countries, except one, has an average age under 20, with population piling up in rapidly growing cities.

In a few decades, we will invite 3 billion additional people to our global dinner table. The need for advanced solutions in science, technology and research are crucial if America is going to feed itself and the world. That type of innovation requires smart investments.

U.S. wheat is one of America’s strongest tools in the fight against drought, famine and conflict around the world, helping us respond to humanitarian and global security threats. We know food-insecure nations are prone to civil unrest that can impact us at home.

Trade is fundamental to global food security through the supply of affordable, high-quality diets. Local production often does not meet demand so trade is essential to the availability of healthy, nutritious foods.

The same day that five UN agencies announced global hunger is on the rise again, Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency announced its work to address the global food challenge will continue with the support of a $45 million, five-year reinvestment grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and the U.K. Department for International Development.

It’s difficult to overstate how severe the global humanitarian crisis is today. For the first time in a decade, the number of hungry people is steadily on the rise, affecting 11 percent of the world’s population. An unprecedented four famines loom in Africa and the Middle East.

Accelerating the potential of the world’s greatest scientific and educational resource – public research universities – is critical to answering the challenge of achieving global food and nutrition security. No longer can we remain siloed in seeking solutions to this present crisis. A transdisciplinary approach is needed to ensure availability, access and utilization to safe and nutritious food for all.

Pollinators are an essential – and overlooked – contributor to global food security. These natural farmers are responsible for one-third of our diet. Nearly all nutrients, antioxidants and vitamins we consume come from pollinator-dependent plant products.