ht global health
For the first time, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is greater than 1 billion, according to a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statement, the Financial Times reports (Blas, Financial Times, 6/19). The total number of hungry people is estimated to have reached 1.02 billion – an increase of 11 percent from last year's 915 million, according to the agency, which based its estimate on analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Rizzo, AP/Google.com, 6/20).

"The new U.N. assessment signals that the food and economic crisis of the last two years have reversed the past quarter-century’s slow but constant decline in the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the world’s population," the Financial Times writes (Financial Times, 6/19). Although food prices are lower than "their mid-2008 highs," they are still "stubbornly high" in some domestic markets, according to the FAO. Jacques Diouf, FAO's director-general, said regions across the globe "have been affected by the rise of food insecurity" and that "[n]o part of the world is immune."

AP/Google.com reports that "Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of hungry people – 642 million, up 10.5 percent from last year. Sub-Saharan Africa registers 265 million undernourished, an 11.8 percent increase. Even in the developed world, undernourishment is a growing concern, with 15 million in all and a 15.4 percent increase, the sharpest rise around the world, FAO said" (AP/Google.com, 6/20).

and

a "dangerous mix" of the global economic slowdown and very high food prices pushed another 100 million people into the hungry category over the past year.

"Neither drought, nor floods or disastrous harvests can be held to blame this time. Worsening hunger in the last three years largely stems from economic shocks," he said.

“The silent hunger crisis, affecting one-sixth of all of humanity, poses a serious risk for world peace and security,” Diouf said. “Today, increasing hunger is a global phenomenon. All world regions have been affected.”

The warning came after the FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said earlier last week that agricultural commodities prices would rise 10-30 per cent over the next 10 years compared with their average of 1997-2006, less than previously feared because of lower economic growth and oil prices

my comment: It is our job to fix this, without just spending money. A small level of food supports, a way to monetize the labors of a billion people to pay for the food, and a suitable transit and storage system. May be algae all around?