BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
September 25, 2009
Learn more about Global Food Security: U.S. Commitment to Action
Every 5 seconds, a child dies of hunger. Each year, we're losing 6 million children. That's more than the population of Manhattan and Paris combined. Today, some of wake up to a full meal, while others wake up to nothing. We may live in different worlds, but we share the planet. And what affects some of us now, may affect all of us tomorrow.
Without action, climate change will cause widespread decreases in crop yields. For every one degree rise in temperature, we get a 10% decline in agriculture production. As oil becomes more expensive, the cost of food will soar.
Water shortages threaten to reduce the global food supply by more than 10% in the next 25 years. In poverty-stricken areas, the growth of agriculture productivity isn't keeping up with population spurts.
If we don't work to counteract these effects, we will lose our ability to grow enough affordable food on our planet.
By 2030, there will be an estimated 1.8 billion more people to feed.
Instability and political unrest rise as food becomes more scarce.
If we don't act now, it may be too late.
The global food supply must increase by 50 percent to meet the world's demand by 2030.
To change the future, we need to work from the ground up.
By working together with small scale farmers around the world, we can succeed.
We need to invest in agriculture development like we do in emergency food aid, to build a foundation for a better tomorrow.
In the last several decades, wheat and rice yields doubled and tripled in Asia - helping move hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
In Africa, doubling productivity will lift 70 million people out of poverty.
If we enable communities to grow more crops, and ensure they can deliver their food to strong markets; if we invest in women and protect our natural resources, we can catalyze the growth of viable and stable economies, and sow hope for a better, safer world.
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