Oxfam reaction to new global hunger figures

The publication of the Food and Agriculture Organizations’ Hunger Report today revealed that almost 870 million were hungry in 2010/12 and showed a dramatic slowdown in the number of people lifted out of hunger in the last five years.

Luca Chinotti, Oxfam’s GROW campaign advisor, said:

“The fact that almost 870 million people - more than the population of the US, Europe and Canada - are hungry in a world which produces enough for everyone to eat is the biggest scandal of our time.

“The flat-lining in the number of people being lifted out of hunger in the last five years should sound alarm bells around the globe.

“Political inaction means high and volatile food prices, lack of investment in agriculture, gender inequality, land grabs and climate change are in danger of reversing past gains in the fight  against hunger.  We need a new approach to the way we grow, share and manage food and other natural resources.

“The question is not whether our political leaders can deliver on their Millennium Development Goal promise to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 - it is whether they want to.

“Governments must kick start the transformation to a fairer more sustainable and resilient food system at the Committee on World Food Security Summit in Rome this month by helping poor countries build up food reserves as a buffer against high and volatile food prices, scaling up programmes that protect people at risk of hunger, and putting the right to food at the center of all climate change policies and actions.”

Related links

Oxfam's analysis of 2012 food price hikes (pdf 237kb)

The cost of food is rising around the world: read the case studies

Blog: We need to break Africa's hunger cycle

Notes to Editors

The FAO Hunger Report can be downloaded at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2845e/i2845e00.pdf