COVID-19 and food security

Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.”- Jacques Diouf

Amidst the international focus on the novel coronavirus, the pending disaster of locust invasion in Africa has escaped the attention of the international community. With 54 sovereign countries on the continent, it is rather troubling that most times the news emerging from the African continent is negative. The continent already is bedevilled by the coronavirus and will now be required to mobilize resources to counter this locust invasion. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation. Millions of Africans, many who are in vulnerable subgroups, are at risk from famine.

The problem of locust invasion is more compounded given the time we now live in; a period of quarantine, social and physical distancing which is necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Countries in East Africa, such as Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan have also been greatly impacted by the locust invasion.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the locust swarms have also been sighted in Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania and Congo. Swarms of locusts in Ethiopia have damaged 200,000 hectares (half a million acres) of cropland and driven around a million people to require emergency food aid. The United Nations (UN) has stated that a significant number of Ethiopians will require emergency food assistance due to the locust invasion.

FAO Ethiopia representative Fatouma Seid said farmers and pastoralists needed help in the form of agricultural inputs and cash transfers to get them through the emergency which was being worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. “It is critical to protect the livelihoods of the affected population especially now that the situation is compounded by the COVID-19 crisis,” Seid said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus. Ethiopia has recorded just 74 cases of COVID-19, but testing has been limited and experts fear the country’s weak health system, like others in the region, could be quickly overwhelmed by an influx of cases.

Food security means having access to reliable, good, healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food. It is important for all countries to reach that place in their development where food security is a priority and is guaranteed to all members of the population.

A country’s national security is intricately linked to the ability of that country to feed itself. According to a report from the World Economic Forum, the global food security challenge is straightforward: by 2050, the world must feed 9 billion people. The demand for food will be 60 per cent greater than it is today.

The United Nations has set ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture as the second of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030. In order to achieve these objectives, several related issues, from gender parity and ageing demographics to skills development and global warming, are critical. Agriculture sectors have to become more productive by adopting efficient business models and forging public-private partnerships. Additionally, they need to become sustainable by addressing greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste.

The evolving world and food safety

Recently, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that, as the world is confronted with the coronavirus pandemic, it is also “on the brink of a hunger pandemic” that could lead to “multiple famines of biblical proportions” within a few months if immediate action is not taken.

According to the WFP, the ten countries with the worst food crises in 2019 were Yemen, Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria and Haiti. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that safe food supplies support national economies, trade and tourism, contribute to food and nutrition security, and underpin sustainable development. According to the WHO, urbanization and changes in consumer habits, including travel, have increased the number of people buying and eating food prepared in public places.

Globalization has triggered growing consumer demand for a wider variety of foods, resulting in an increasingly complex and longer global food chain. As the world’s population grows, the intensification and industrialization of agriculture and animal production to meet increasing demand for food creates both opportunities and challenges for food safety.

Climate change is also predicted to impact food safety, where temperature changes modify food safety risks associated with food production, storage and distribution. The WHO says these challenges put greater responsibility on food producers and handlers to ensure food safety. Local incidents can quickly evolve into international emergencies due to the speed and range of product distribution. Serious foodborne disease outbreaks have occurred on every continent in the past decade, often amplified by globalized trade.

Food safety: a public health priority

The World Health Organization (WHO) commented that unsafe food poses global health threats, endangering everyone. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with an underlying illness are particularly vulnerable.  Every year, 220 million children contract diarrhoeal diseases and 96, 000 die. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of diarrhoea and malnutrition, threatening the nutritional status of the most vulnerable. Where food supplies are insecure, people tend to shift to less healthy diets and consume more “unsafe foods”.  Unfortunately, about one in every five people in Africa, nearly 250 million, already did not have enough food before the virus outbreak, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. A quarter of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished.  Unlike previous wars in which sections of the African continent experienced famine; this time around the famine will not emerge as a result of a manmade disaster. Governments need to be vigilant as price gouging tends to raise its ugly head in this time of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Is there an urgency to safeguard our food security? Is climate change negatively affecting food production?  Unquestionably, now is the time for Jamaica to step up the Grow What We Eat and Eat What We Grow campaign. We need to support our local farmers, especially during these challenging times by purchasing more locally produced food in order for us as a nation to achieve sustainable development. In the words of Pope Benedict XV1, food security is an authentically human requirement. Guaranteeing it for present and future generations also means safeguarding ourselves against the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources.

Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues.

waykam@yahoo.com

@WayneCamo©

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