面板听到的“完美风暴”是为食物崩溃而创造的

Hikes in oil prices, conflicts, emerging diseases, poor governance, and disruption in supply chains due to transportation blockages during the pandemic have come together to create a potentially devastating scenario for the global food system, a panel on food security heard.

“这se have created a perfect storm for global food collapse”, Fan Shenggen, chair of the academy of global food economics and policy at China Agricultural University, told an online panel hosted byscidev.net及其parent organisationCABIon Thursday (25 November).

根据联合国粮食和农业组织的每月食品价格指数，自去年同期以来，粮食价格自去年同期上涨了近33％。beplay下载官网西西软件

这世界粮食计划署据估计，在其运营的国家，由于COVID-19危机的影响，已经有约2.72亿人口或有可能成为肉类不安全的风险。

“我们发现，严重依赖粮食进口的经济体非常脆弱。这适用于大多数非洲国家。”

非洲联盟委员会Afeikhena Jerome

“房间里的大象是我们需要随着需求增加而改变饮食，” AfeikhenaJerome, special adviserto the专员为了农村经济andbeplay下载官网西西软件在非洲联盟委员会在亚的斯亚贝巴，，，，Ethiopia, said during the discussion.

“我们发现，严重依赖粮食进口的经济体非常脆弱。这适用于大多数非洲国家。”

非洲的网food importbill is expected to grow from US$35 billion in 2015 to over US$110 billion by 2025. “We must promote more sustainable, productive and regenerative agriculture and use the one health approach — plant health, environmental health and human health,” Jerome added.

“这pandemic has provided a really stark indicator of the need for more resilient food systems with fundamental change needed if we’re going to build sustainable systems that can help to address the linked challenges of feeding a growing population, supporting growth and jobs, and protecting our planet from climate change and environmental degradation,” CABI’s chief executive Daniel Elger told the meeting.

Panellists looked at how sound policies and institutional linkages, agricultural innovations and research, investment in infrastructure and technology, and facilitation of information could help mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic on food security.

Tariq Khan, adviser and director general of Pakistan’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research, said more opportunities have been created with online transactions, digital trade and online delivery systems established.

Moses Mwale, director of agriculture in Zambia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, emphasised that monitoring and tracking of food security and nutrition indicators is a vital component of enabling a robust food system.

“这nutrition scenario for Zambia indicates a need for healthier food systems that are critical in the fight against hunger and obesity through a multi-sectoral approach,” he said.

Food waste

Enough food is produced globally to feed everyone, but up to 811 million people went hungry in 2020, according to the UN’s粮食安全与营养报告。大约三分之一的食物对人类产生consumption every year — about 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted, according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)report。

In developing countries, 40 per cent of losses occur at the post-harvest and processing stages while in industrialised countries more than 40 per cent of losses happen at the retail and consumer level, according toUNEP。

CABI全球价值连锁和贸易总监Neil Willsher谴责了“价值链中发生的犯罪数量的废物”，并呼吁仔细研究缩短供应链并在国内生产更多的主食食品，种子和肥料。

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.