Advancing agrifood systems transformation and an affordable diets agenda: U.S. launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023 report
Washington, DC – “You can’t solve a problem unless you can see it and measure it. And we fortunately have the SOFI 2023 report in front of us, glaring in front of us, that we can look at and say ‘what are we going to do’,” said John J. Hamre, President and CEO of Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) in his key note address at the official U.S. launch of the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report, which was co-organized by the North America liaison office for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the CSIS.
The webinar highlighted key findings of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023: Urbanization, Agrifood Systems Transformation and Healthy Diets across the Rural-Urban Continuum.
“When the world needs reliable information about hunger and malnutrition, they turn to the Food Security and Nutrition Report,” observed U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in his opening remarks. “The United States has an important role to play in fighting the global food crisis. I’m pleased that the Biden administration has made this a priority, funding projects across the globe and convening the Global Food Security Summit. This is important to me as well, and I will keep pushing for more funding from Congress,” he added.
“The report this year took urbanization, which is one of the major drivers behind changes in food consumption patterns, and the major driver of changing food demand and shifts in patterns of food supply,” said Maximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist. According to the report, a staggering 735 million people worldwide are facing hunger today, that's 122 million more than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate food and 3.1 billion cannot afford healthy diets.
Torero also focused on findings from the recently released 2023 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report. The ground-breaking analysis covering 154 countries shows that our current agrifood systems impose huge hidden costs on our health, the environment and society. These costs are worth at least $10 trillion a year, which is equivalent to about 10 percent of the global GDP.
This report should inform decision makers and thought leaders when making agrifood policies. Torero highlighted that “We need to understand that this does not mean that these hidden costs will be valued in the market and will increase prices. That would be the wrong perception of this report. The idea here is to open this black box that we had in terms of hidden costs so that we can use mechanisms and policies to create the proper incentives to minimize those, so that we can have food for – good food for today and for tomorrow. That’s the whole concept.”
Following the presentation, a panel discussion was held to discuss the U.S.’s continued leadership to bend the curve of global hunger and malnutrition. Expert panelists included U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, Cary Fowler; USAID Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau of Resilience, Environment, and Food Security, Dina Esposito; and Capital Area Food Bank President and CEO, Radha Muthiah. The discussion was moderated by Caitlin Welsh, Director of the CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program.
Radha Muthiah described the challenges Washington, D.C is facing as a growing city, underscoring the need to make the “global to local connection” to safeguard food and nutrition security within the U.S. capital.
Cary Fowler and Dina Esposito both addressed the strategies that have enabled U.S. leadership in leading the global response to food insecurity, and highlighted which strategies are adapted to fight emerging threats.
Tackling food and nutrition security challenges will require collective action on a global scale. FAO and the United States are working together to support world agrifood systems transformation, to make them MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable through various initiatives. In 2022, the United States was the leading resource partner to FAO.
Additional information:
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023
The State of Food and Agriculture 2023
In Focus - FAO response to global food security challenges