Food insecurity affects 61 million in Brazil, says UN

In Brazil, 61.3 million (about 3 in every 10 inhabitants) live with some type of food insecurity, with 15.4 million experiencing severe food insecurity, going hungry, between 2019 and 2021, according to a report from the United Nations.

Among the countries with comparable data listed by the UN, Brazil has the most people in some degree of food insecurity (moderate or severe) in the Americas and the fifth in the world, in the period up to 2021.

There was a significant increase in comparison with the period from 2014 to 2016, when 37.5 million were experiencing some level of food insecurity and 3.9 were facing a severe level.

The data are from the report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World in 2022”, released on Wednesday (6) by five UN agencies.

According to the organization, the state of moderate food insecurity occurs when people face uncertainty about their ability to obtain food and are forced to reduce, sometimes during the year, the quality or quantity of food they consume.

Severe food insecurity occurs when, at some point during the year, people run out of food and go hungry for a day or more.

Worldwide, the number of people who are affected by hunger rose to 828 million last year — a rise of 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the start of the pandemic.

Data relating to the period of the Covid-19 pandemic are worrying: after remaining unchanged since 2015, the percentage of people in the world affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in the following year, reaching 9.8% of the world population, compared to 8 % in 2019 and 9.3% in 2020.

Some 3.1 billion people were unable to afford healthy eating in 2020, an increase of 112 million from 2019, reflecting the effects of consumer food price inflation stemming from the economic impacts of the pandemic and measures taken to address it. contain it.

Looking ahead, projections are that around 670 million people (8% of the world’s population) will still face hunger in 2030 – even if a global economic recovery is taken into account.

“As this report is being published, the ongoing war in Ukraine, involving two of the world’s largest producers of staple cereals, oilseeds and fertilizers, is disrupting international supply chains and driving up prices for grains, fertilizers, energy, as well as ready-to-use therapeutic foods for children with severe malnutrition”, says the UN.

With rising prices and falling incomes, the lack of food has increasingly worried Brazilians and has been a recurring theme in family conversations and in recently released surveys.

Last month, it was reported that 33 million people are hungry in the country, according to the second edition of the National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, by Rede Penssan – a level similar to what had been recorded. three decades ago.

In addition, a Datafolha survey carried out on June 22 and 23 pointed out that for 26% of respondents, the food available in recent months was less than enough, while 62% thought it was enough and only 12% said they believed it was more than enough. enough.

Although the researches deal with the same topic, the methodologies are different, which prevents the comparison between them. FAO estimates are based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale and consider two categories: moderate or severe (combined) food insecurity and severe food insecurity only.

The Pensann Network survey is a sample of households using four categories of food insecurity severity: food security, mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity, and severe food insecurity.

Datafolha’s is a sample with the adult Brazilian population (16 years and over). Another point is that, in Datafolha, the answer is given by what the interviewee understands by “lack of food”, in a single question.

The UN document is a joint production of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), WFP (Programme of Food) and the WHO (World Health Organization).

The report also includes guidance on how governments can reform public policies in support of agriculture to reduce the cost of healthy eating for their populations, given the increasingly limited resources in different parts of the world.

“This report repeatedly highlights the intensification of these key drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate shocks and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities,” the five UN agencies wrote.