Editing Hunger (section)

== The fight against hunger ==

===Pre World War II===
[[File:Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 02-1931 - NARA - 541927.jpg|thumb|210px|Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen in Chicago, 1931|upright=1.15]]
Throughout history, the need to aid those suffering from hunger has been commonly, though not universally,<ref>As an example of historical opposition to food aid, during the [[Hungry Forties]], English [[Laissez-faire]] advocates were largely successful in preventing it being deployed by Great Britain to relief the Irish famine; see for example the section on "Ideology and relief"' in Chpt. 2 of ''The Great Irish Famine'' by [[Cormac Ó Gráda]].

For a detailed description of how [[Hunger in the United Kingdom#Attitudes towards hunger relief|views opposed to hunger relief]] became dominant within Great Britain's policy making circles during the 19th century, and also their subsequent displacement, see ''Hunger: A Modern History'' (2007) by James Vernon, esp. Chpts. 1–3. In 2012, advocates of small government spoke out against the US food stamp programme, saying it discourages people from fending for themselves, in the same way as it is not always a good idea to feed hungry wild animals. ( See [http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/14/4099922/food-stamp-debate-brings-out-the.html Food stamp debate brings out the haters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123061653/http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/14/4099922/food-stamp-debate-brings-out-the.html |date=23 January 2013 }} published by the ''Star Telegram''. )</ref> recognized. The philosopher [[Simone Weil]] wrote that feeding the hungry when you have resources to do so is the most obvious of all human [[Moral obligation|obligations]]. She says that as far back as [[Ancient Egypt]], many believed that people had to show they had helped the hungry in order to justify themselves in the afterlife. Weil writes that [[Social progress]] is commonly held to be first of all, "...a transition to a state of human society in which people will not suffer from hunger."<ref>{{cite book
|author=Simone Weil
|title=The Need for Roots
|page = 6
|year=2002
|orig-date= 1942
|isbn=0-415-27102-9
|publisher = [[Routledge]]|author-link=Simone Weil
|title-link=The Need for Roots
}}</ref>
Social historian [[Karl Polanyi]] wrote that before markets became the world's dominant form of economic organization in the 19th century, most human societies would either starve all together or not at all, because communities would invariably share their food.<ref>{{Cite book
 | author = Karl Polanyi
 | title = The Great Transformation
 | year = 2002 |orig-date=1942
 | chapter = chpt. 4
 | isbn = 978-0-8070-5643-1
 | publisher=Beacon Press | author-link = Karl Polanyi
 | title-link = The Great Transformation (book)
 }}</ref>

While some of the principles for avoiding famines had been laid out in the first book of the [[Bible]],<ref>See the story of [[Joseph (son of Jacob)|Jacob]] and the seven years of plenty, seven years of famine:
[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2041&version=NIV Genesis 41] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120012324/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2041&version=NIV |date=20 November 2022 }}</ref> they were not always understood. Historical hunger relief efforts were often largely left to religious organizations and individual kindness. Even up to early modern times, political leaders often reacted to famine with bewilderment and confusion. From the first age of globalization, which began in the 19th century, it became more common for the elite to consider problems like hunger in global terms. However, as early globalization largely coincided with the high peak of influence for [[classical liberalism]], there was relatively little call for politicians to address world hunger.<ref>For further info see [[Hunger in the United Kingdom#Attitudes towards hunger relief]].</ref><ref>
There were many exceptions. For example, in ''Hunger: A Modern History'' (2007), James Vernon describes dozens of 18th and 19th century campaigners who spoke in favor of hunger relief.</ref>
[[File:Hunger - For three years America has fought starvation in Belgium - Will you eat less wheat, meat, fats and sugar that we may still send food in ship loads? - DPLA - 99ce44df6c024ced4d69ce75d6ebe7d1.jpg|alt=A pencil sketch image depicts a mother with her head downcast, holding an infant in her arms. Near her are two other children, looking thin and sickly. There is no father depicted. Everyone is drawn slumped over and appears melancholy.|thumb|A poster made by the United States Food Administration around the years 1914-1917 urging Americans to ration]]
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the view that politicians ought not to intervene against hunger was increasingly challenged by campaigning journalists. There were also more frequent calls for large scale intervention against world hunger from academics and politicians, such as U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]]. Funded both by the government and private donations, the U.S. was able to dispatch millions of tons of food aid to European countries during and in the years immediately after WWI, organized by agencies such as the [[American Relief Administration]]. Hunger as an academic and social topic came to further prominence in the U.S. thanks to mass media coverage of the issue as a domestic problem during the [[Great Depression]].<ref>As many individuals struggled for food, the same agricultural industries were suddenly producing large surpluses as means of increased production to counter the drop in demand from the European markets. This increased output was meant to ease the growing debt levels, however domestic demand could not keep up with prices. Instead, what is often called "the paradox of want amid plenty," agricultural surpluses and large demand simply did not fit together, causing the Hoover administration to buy large amounts of product, such as grain, to stabilize prices. Initially refusing to further compromise the distressed price levels, political pressure from starving families across the country forced Congress to reconsider. With large deposits of grain already wasting away in government possession, the only political move left was to begin a process of donations to the hungry from the Farm Board, a federal oversight created in 1929 to promote the sale and stabilization of agricultural products. Instead of hunger being a reason for the allocation of large grain surpluses, waste became the eventual driving force.</ref><ref name = "HungerModHist">
{{cite book
|author = James Vernon
|title = Hunger: A Modern History
|chapter = Chpts. 1-3
|year = 2007
|isbn = 978-0-674-02678-0
|publisher = [[Harvard University Press]]
|chapter-url-access = registration
|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/hungermodernhist00vern_0
|url-access = registration
|url = https://archive.org/details/hungermodernhist00vern_0
}}</ref><ref name="Grigg">
{{cite journal
|author = David Grigg
|title=The historiography of hunger: changing views on the world food problem 1945–1980
|journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
|year= 1981
|volume= 6| issue = 3
|series= NS
|pages=279–292
|quote= Before 1945 very little academic or political notice was taken of the problem of world hunger, since 1945 there has been a vast literature on the subject.
|doi=10.2307/622288
|jstor=622288
|pmid=12265450
|bibcode=1981TrIBG...6..279G
}}</ref><ref name = "HistoryEpidemics">
{{cite book
|author = Charles Creighton
|title=History of Epidemics in Britain
|chapter = Chapt. 1
|orig-date= 1891
|year= 2010
|isbn=978-1-144-94760-4
|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]
|author-link=Charles Creighton (physician)
}}</ref><ref name = "foodAndFamine">{{cite book
|editor= William A Dando
|title=Food and Famine in the 21st Century: Vol 1, Topics and Issues
|chapter = ''passim'', see esp Introduction; Historiography of Food, Hunger and famine; Hunger and Starvation
|year=2012
|isbn=978-1-59884-730-7
|publisher = [[ABC-CLIO]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
 | author = Janet Poppendieck
 | title = Eating Agendas
 | year = 1995
 | isbn = 978-0-202-30508-0
 | publisher = Aldine Transaction
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/eatingagendasfoo0000unse
 }}</ref>

===Efforts after World War II===
While there had been increasing attention to hunger relief from the late 19th century, Dr David Grigg has summarised that prior to the end of [[World War II]], world hunger still received relatively little academic or political attention; whereas after 1945 there was an explosion of interest in the topic.<ref name="Grigg"/>

After [[World War II]], a new international politico-economic order came into being, which was later described as [[Embedded liberalism]]. For at least the first decade after the war, the United States, then by far the period's most dominant national actor, was strongly supportive of efforts to tackle world hunger and to promote international development. It heavily funded the United Nation's development programmes, and later the efforts of other multilateral organizations like the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) and the [[World Bank]] (WB).<ref name="Grigg"/><ref name = "foodAndFamine"/><ref name = "Politics of hunger">
{{cite book
|author = John R. Butterly and Jack Shepherd
|title=Hunger: The Biology and Politics of Starvation
|year= 2006
|isbn=978-1-58465-926-6
|publisher= Dartmouth College
}}</ref>

The newly established United Nations became a leading player in co-ordinating the global fight against hunger. The [[United Nations|UN]] has three agencies that work to promote food security and agricultural development: the [[Food and Agriculture Organization]] (FAO), the [[World Food Programme]] (WFP) and the [[International Fund for Agricultural Development]] (IFAD). FAO is the world's agricultural knowledge agency, providing policy and technical assistance to developing countries to promote food security, [[nutrition]] and sustainable agricultural production, particularly in rural areas. [[World Food Programme|WFP]]'s key mission is to deliver food into the hands of the hungry poor. The agency steps in during [[emergencies]] and uses food to aid recovery after emergencies. Its longer term approaches to hunger helps the transition from recovery to development. [[International Fund for Agricultural Development|IFAD]], with its knowledge of rural poverty and exclusive focus on poor rural people, designs and implements programmes to help those people access the assets, services and opportunities they need to overcome poverty.<ref name="Grigg"/><ref name = "foodAndFamine"/><ref name = "Politics of hunger"/>

Following successful post [[World War II|WWII]] reconstruction of Germany and Japan, the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] and [[World Bank|WB]] began to turn their attention to the developing world. A great many [[NGO|civil society actors]] were also active in trying to combat hunger, especially after the late 1970s when global media began to bring the plight of starving people in places like [[Ethiopia]] to wider attention. Most significant of all, especially in the late 1960s and 70s, the [[Green revolution]] helped improved agricultural technology propagate throughout the world.<ref name="Grigg"/><ref name = "foodAndFamine"/><ref name = "Politics of hunger"/>

The United States began to change its approach to the problem of world hunger from about the mid 1950s. Influential members of the administration became less enthusiastic about methods they saw as promoting an over reliance on the state, as they feared that might assist the spread of [[communism]]. By the 1980s, the previous consensus in favour of moderate government intervention had been [[Post-war displacement of Keynesianism|displaced across the western world.]] The IMF and World Bank in particular began to promote market-based solutions. In cases where countries became dependent on the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]], they sometimes forced national governments to prioritize debt repayments and sharply cut public services. This sometimes had a negative effect on efforts to combat hunger.<ref name="Ecologist-2014-04-03"/><ref name="MR-2013-11-Magdoff"/><ref name="MRzine-2012-12-Goswami"/>
[[File:Irrigation1.jpg|thumb|left|Increased use of irrigation played a major role in the [[Green Revolution]].]]
Organizations such as [[Food First]] raised the issue of [[food sovereignty]] and claimed that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the "[[free trade]]" economic order, which from the late 1970s to about 2008 had been associated with such institutions as the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] and [[World Bank]], had prevented this from happening. The World Bank itself claimed it was part of the solution to hunger, asserting that the best way for countries to break the cycle of poverty and hunger was to build export-led economies that provide the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market. However, in the early 21st century the World Bank and IMF became less dogmatic about promoting [[free market]] reforms. They increasingly returned to the view that government intervention does have a role to play, and that it can be advisable for governments to support food security with policies favourable to domestic agriculture, even for countries that do not have a [[comparative advantage]] in that area. As of 2012, the World Bank remains active in helping governments to intervene against hunger.<ref name="WB30Jul12">{{Cite web
|url=http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/07/30/food-price-volatility-growing-concern-world-bank-stands-ready-respond
|title=Food Price Volatility a Growing Concern, World Bank Stands Ready to Respond
|publisher=[[World Bank]]
|date=30 March 2012
|access-date=31 July 2012
|archive-date=1 August 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801172733/http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/07/30/food-price-volatility-growing-concern-world-bank-stands-ready-respond
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name="Grigg"/><ref name = "foodAndFamine"/><ref name = "Politics of hunger"/><ref>{{cite web
|url= http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115712428956842.html
|title= The IMF's change of heart
|publisher= [[Al Jazeera English|Aljazeera]]
|author= Joseph Stiglitz
|date= 7 May 2011
|access-date= 16 May 2011
|author-link= Joseph Stiglitz
|archive-date= 16 May 2011
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110516104538/http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115712428956842.html
|url-status= live
}}</ref>

Until at least the 1980s—and, to an extent, the 1990s—the dominant academic view concerning world hunger was that it was a problem of demand exceeding supply. Proposed solutions often focused on boosting food production, and sometimes on birth control. There were exceptions to this, even as early as the 1940s, [[John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr|Lord Boyd-Orr]], the first head of the [[United Nations|UN]]'s [[Food and Agriculture Organization|FAO]], had perceived hunger as largely a problem of distribution, and drew up comprehensive plans to correct this. Few agreed with him at the time, however, and he resigned after failing to secure support for his plans from the [[United States|US]] and [[Great Britain]]. In 1998, [[Amartya Sen]] won a [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Prize]] in part for demonstrating that hunger in modern times is not typically the product of a lack of food. Rather, hunger usually arises from food distribution problems, or from governmental policies in the developed and developing world. It has since been broadly accepted that world hunger results from issues with the distribution as well as the production of food.<ref name="Ecologist-2014-04-03"/><ref name="MR-2013-11-Magdoff">[[Harry Magdoff#Death|Fred Magdoff]], [https://monthlyreview.org/2013/11/01/twenty-first-century-land-grabs Twenty-First-Century Land Grabs - Accumulation by Agricultural Dispossession] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911173657/https://monthlyreview.org/2013/11/01/twenty-first-century-land-grabs/ |date=11 September 2022 }}, ''[[Monthly Review]]'', 2013, Volume 65, Issue 06 (November)</ref><ref name="MRzine-2012-12-Goswami">Rahul Goswami, [http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/goswami041212.html For Whom Do the FAO and Its Director-General Work?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052724/http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/goswami041212.html |date=4 March 2016 }}, ''[[Monthly Review|Monthly Review Magazine]]'', 2012.12.04</ref> Sen's 1981 essay ''Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation'' played a prominent part in forging the new consensus.<ref name="foodAndFamine" /><ref>{{cite book
|editor= John Baylis, Steve Smith and Patricia Owens
|author = Caroline Thomas and Tony Evans
|title=The Globalization of World Politics
|chapter = "Poverty, development and hunger"
|year= 2010
|isbn=978-0-19-956909-0
|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]
}}</ref>

In 2007 and 2008, rapidly increasing [[food prices]] caused a [[2007–08 world food price crisis|global food crisis]]. [[Food riot]]s erupted in several dozen countries; in at least two cases, [[Haiti]] and [[Madagascar]], this led to the toppling of governments. A second ''global food crisis'' unfolded due to the spike in food prices of late 2010 and early 2011. Fewer food riots occurred, due in part to greater availability of food stock piles for relief. However, several analysts argue the food crisis was one of the causes of the [[Arab Spring]].<ref name="Politics of hunger" /><ref name="G202012" /><ref name="Brics">{{cite news
|url= http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/07/27/food-crisis-how-do-the-brics-fare/
|title= Food crisis: how do the Brics fare?
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Andrew Bowman
|date= 27 July 2012
|access-date= 31 July 2012
|url-access= registration
|archive-date= 31 July 2012
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120731020155/http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/07/27/food-crisis-how-do-the-brics-fare/
|url-status= live
}}</ref>

===Efforts since the global 2008 crisis===
[[File:Food Assistance Convention.svg|thumb|right|Ratifiers and (potential) signatories to the [[Food Assistance Convention]]:<br />
{{legend|#cc88f9|Signed and ratified}}
{{legend|#115511|Signed and ratified, part of the European Union (which has ratified the treaty)}}
{{legend|#cccc44|Signed}}
{{legend|#44aa88|Signed, part of the European Union (which has ratified the treaty)}}
{{legend|#88f9cc|Potential signatory, part of the European Union (which has ratified the treaty)}}
{{legend|#f9cc88|Potential signatory}}]]
In the early 21st century, the attention paid to the problem of hunger by the leaders of advanced nations such as those that form the [[G8]] had somewhat subsided.<ref name="G202012"/> Prior to 2009, large scale efforts to fight hunger were mainly undertaken by governments of the worst affected countries, by civil society actors, and by multilateral and regional organizations. In 2009, Pope Benedict published his third encyclical, [[Caritas in Veritate]], which emphasised the importance of fighting against hunger. The encyclical was intentionally published immediately before the [[35th G8 summit|July 2009 G8 Summit]] to maximise its influence on that event. At the Summit, which took place at [[L'Aquila]] in central Italy, the ''L'Aquila Food Security Initiative'' was launched, with a total of US$22 billion committed to combat hunger.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b71a9052-6d2b-11de-9032-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b71a9052-6d2b-11de-9032-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live
|title= G8 to commit $20bn for food security
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Guy Dinmore in L'Aquila
|date = 10 July 2009
|access-date=15 November 2009
|url-access=registration }}
</ref><ref name = "G8 and Pope">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc9150d0-6af4-11de-861d-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc9150d0-6af4-11de-861d-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live
|title= Pope condemns capitalism's 'failures'
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Guy Dinmore in Rome
|date = 7 July 2009
|access-date=7 July 2009
|url-access=registration }}
</ref>

Food prices fell sharply in 2009 and early 2010, though analysts credit this much more to farmers increasing production in response to the 2008 spike in prices, than to the fruits of enhanced government action. However, since the 2009 G8 summit, the fight against hunger became a high-profile issue among the leaders of the worlds major nations and was a prominent part of the agenda for the [[2012 G-20 Mexico summit|2012 G-20 summit]].<ref name="G202012">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6137e70-b15e-11e1-9800-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6137e70-b15e-11e1-9800-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022
|title= Food prices: Leaders seek a long-term solution to hunger pains
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Javier Blas
|date = 18 June 2012
|access-date=31 July 2012
|url-access=registration }}
</ref><ref name = "2012G8">{{cite news
 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/25/2012-g8-summit-private-sector
 |title= 2012 G8 summit – private sector to the rescue of the world's poorest?
 |work= [[The Guardian]]
 |author= Joanna Rea
 |date= 25 May 2012
|access-date= 3 August 2012
|archive-date= 17 February 2015
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150217035849/http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/25/2012-g8-summit-private-sector
 |url-status= live
 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/ FAO Food Price Index] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130830060321/http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/ |date=30 August 2013 }} FAO, Retrieved 4 December 2012</ref>

[[File:Prime Minister's Olympic hunger summit (7772208606).jpg|thumb|left|British prime minister [[David Cameron]] (waving to camera) hosting a hunger summit in 2012, with [[Pelé]] (second left) and [[Mo Farah]] (right) outside [[10 Downing Street]] in London]]

In April 2012, the [[Food Assistance Convention]] was signed, the world's first legally binding international agreement on food aid. The May 2012 [[Copenhagen Consensus]] recommended that efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition should be the first priority for politicians and private sector [[philanthropists]] looking to maximize the effectiveness of aid spending. They put this ahead of other priorities, like the fight against [[malaria]] and [[AIDS]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Projects/CC12/Outcome.aspx|title=Outcome - Copenhagen Consensus Center|website=www.copenhagenconsensus.com|access-date=3 August 2012|archive-date=16 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116065159/http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Projects/CC12/Outcome.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> Also in May 2012, U.S. President [[Barack Obama]] launched a "new alliance for food security and nutrition"—a broad partnership between private sector, governmental and civil society actors—that aimed to "...achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years."<ref name="Ecologist-2014-04-03">[http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2343978/uk_aid_is_financing_a_corporate_scramble_for_africa.html UK 'aid' is financing a corporate scramble for Africa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212180204/http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2343978/uk_aid_is_financing_a_corporate_scramble_for_africa.html |date=12 December 2022 }}, Miriam Ross, ''[[The Ecologist]]'', 2014.04.03</ref><ref name = "2012G8"/><ref>[https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/globalfoodsecurity/190282.htm G8 Action on Food Security and Nutrition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018112424/https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/globalfoodsecurity/190282.htm |date=18 October 2021 }} 2012 statement hosted by the US Department of State</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/18/remarks-president-symposium-global-agriculture-and-food-security |title=Remarks by President concerning the launch of the ''new alliance for food security and nutrition'' |date=18 May 2012 |access-date=28 February 2021 |archive-date=26 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726031048/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/18/remarks-president-symposium-global-agriculture-and-food-security |url-status=live }}</ref> The UK's prime minister [[David Cameron]] held a [[2012 Olympic hunger summit|hunger summit]] on 12 August, the last day of the [[2012 Summer Olympics]].<ref name="2012G8"/>

The fight against hunger has also been joined by an increased number of regular people. While folk throughout the world had long contributed to efforts to alleviate hunger in the developing world, there has recently been a rapid increase in the numbers involved in tackling domestic hunger even within the economically advanced nations of the [[Global North]]. This had happened much earlier in North America than it did in Europe. In the US, the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration scaled back welfare the early 1980s, leading to a vast increase of charity sector efforts to help Americans unable to buy enough to eat. According to a 1992 survey of 1000 randomly selected US voters, 77% of Americans had contributed to efforts to feed the hungry, either by volunteering for various hunger relief agencies such as [[food banks]] and [[soup kitchen]]s, or by donating cash or food.<ref>
{{cite book
|author = Janet Poppendieck
|title= Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement
|chapter = Introduction, Chpt 1
|year= 1999
|isbn= 0-14-024556-1
|publisher= Penguine
}}</ref>
Europe, with its more generous welfare systems, had little awareness of domestic hunger until the food price inflation that began in late 2006, and especially as austerity-imposed welfare cuts began to take effect in 2010. Various surveys reported that upwards of 10% of Europe's population had begun to suffer from [[food insecurity]]. Especially since 2011, there has been a substantial increase in grass roots efforts to help the hungry by means of [[food bank]]s, both in the UK and in continental Europe.<ref name = "modell">{{cite news
 |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nqcbm
 |title= Britain's hidden hunger
 |publisher= [[BBC]]
 |author= David Model
 |date= 30 October 2012
|access-date= 4 November 2012
|author-link= David Model (journalist)
 |archive-date= 2 November 2012
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121102012401/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nqcbm
 |url-status= live
 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web
 |url         = http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/million-hungry-children-uk-114022753.html
 |title       = A million hungry children in the UK
 |publisher   = [[Yahoo!]]
 |date        = 12 July 2012
|access-date  = 31 July 2012
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120720002016/http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/million-hungry-children-uk-114022753.html
 |archive-date = 20 July 2012
}}
</ref><ref name = "epidemic">{{Cite news
|url= https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/look-back-in-hunger-britains-silent-scandalous-epidemic-7622363.html
|title= Look back in hunger: Britain's silent, scandalous epidemic
|work= [[The Guardian]]
|author= Charlie Cooper
|date= 6 April 2012
|access-date= 16 April 2012
|archive-date= 14 August 2015
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150814114646/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/look-back-in-hunger-britains-silent-scandalous-epidemic-7622363.html
|url-status= live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine
|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/society/2012/05/rise-and-rise-food-bank
|title=The rise and rise of the food bank
|magazine=[[New Statesman]]
|author=Rowenna Davis
|date=12 May 2012
|access-date=31 July 2012
|author-link=Rowenna Davis
|archive-date=18 June 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618010038/http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/society/2012/05/rise-and-rise-food-bank
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name="WarwickConf">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/gpp/foodsecurity/publicevents/householdfoodsecurity/food_security_summary.pdf
 |title       = HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN THE GLOBAL NORTH: CHALLENGES AND RESPONSIBILITIES REPORT OF WARWICK CONFERENCE
 |publisher   = [[Warwick University]]
 |date        = 6 July 2012
|access-date  = 28 August 2012
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130112230035/http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/gpp/foodsecurity/publicevents/householdfoodsecurity/food_security_summary.pdf
 |archive-date = 12 January 2013
}}</ref>
[[File:Sahel Map-Africa rough.png|thumb|left|Affected areas in the western [[Sahel]] belt during the [[2012 Sahel drought|2012 drought]]]]
By July 2012, the [[2012 US drought]] had already caused a rapid increase in the price of grain and soy, with a knock on effect on the price of meat. As well as affecting hungry people in the US, this caused prices to rise on the global markets; the US is the world's biggest exporter of food. This led to much talk of a possible third 21st century global food crisis. The ''Financial Times'' reported that the [[BRICS]] may not be as badly affected as they were in the earlier crises of 2008 and 2011. However, smaller developing countries that must import a substantial portion of their food could be hard hit. The UN and [[G20]] has begun contingency planning so as to be ready to intervene if a third global crisis breaks out.<ref name="WB30Jul12"/><ref name="Brics"/><ref name="US drought">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2866ba4a-da40-11e1-b03b-00144feab49a.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2866ba4a-da40-11e1-b03b-00144feab49a.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live
|title= US drought: Stuck on dry land: Heatwave threatens new global food crisis
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Gregory Meyer
|date = 30 July 2012
|access-date=31 July 2012
|url-access=registration }}
</ref><ref name = "2012Response">
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17cca4aa-e47d-11e1-affe-00144feab49a.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17cca4aa-e47d-11e1-affe-00144feab49a.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live
|title= G20 plans response to rising food prices
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Javier Bains
|date = 12 August 2012
|access-date=15 August 2012
|url-access=registration }}
</ref>
By August 2013 however, concerns had been allayed, with above average grain harvests expected from major exporters, including Japan, Brazil, Ukraine and the US.<ref>
{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/30333ab6-0431-11e3-8aab-00144feab7de.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/30333ab6-0431-11e3-8aab-00144feab7de.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live
|title= Bumper grain crop to weigh on prices
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Gregory Meyer in New York and Samantha Pearson in São Paulo
|date = 13 August 2013
|access-date=24 August 2013
|url-access=registration }}
</ref> 2014 also saw a good worldwide harvest, leading to speculation that grain prices could soon begin to fall.<ref>{{cite news
|url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/42403074-3fe0-11e4-a381-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/42403074-3fe0-11e4-a381-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022
|title= Commodities: Cereal excess
|work= [[Financial Times]]
|author= Gregory Meyer
|date = 23 September 2014
|access-date= 14 October 2014
|url-access=registration }}
</ref>

In an April 2013 summit held in [[Dublin]] concerning Hunger, Nutrition, [[Climate Justice]], and the post 2015 MDG framework for global justice, Ireland's [[Michael D. Higgins|President Higgins]] said that only 10% of deaths from hunger are due to armed conflict and natural disasters, with ongoing hunger being both the "greatest ethical failure of the current global system" and the "greatest ethical challenge facing the global community."<ref>{{Cite video
|url= http://www.eu2013.ie/events/event-items/hncj/
|title= 20130415 Hunger • Nutrition • Climate Justice - Michael D Higgins Speech
|publisher= [[European Union|EU]]
|author= [[Michael D. Higgins]]
|date= 15 April 2013
|access-date= 15 April 2013
|archive-date= 19 April 2013
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130419070937/http://www.eu2013.ie/events/event-items/hncj/
}}</ref>
$4.15 billion of new commitments were made to tackle hunger at a June 2013 Hunger Summit held in London, hosted by the governments of Britain and Brazil, together with [[The Children's Investment Fund Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web
|url= http://allafrica.com/stories/201306080366.html
|title= Africa: Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) Leads Transformation of Global Nutrition Agenda with $787 million Investment
|publisher= [[AllAfrica.com|AllAfrica]]
|date= 8 June 2013
|access-date= 9 June 2013
|archive-date= 15 June 2013
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130615052035/http://allafrica.com/stories/201306080366.html
|url-status= live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|url= http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/08/david-cameron-tells-hunger-summit-we-must-do-things-differently-3833224/
|title= Hunger Summit secures £2.7bn as thousands rally at Hyde Park
|newspaper= [[Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]]
|author= Luke Cross
|date= 8 June 2013
|access-date= 9 June 2013
|archive-date= 11 June 2013
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130611054202/http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/08/david-cameron-tells-hunger-summit-we-must-do-things-differently-3833224/
|url-status= live
}}</ref>

Despite the hardship caused by the [[2008 financial crisis]] and global increases in food prices that occurred around the same time, the UN's global statistics show it was followed by close to year on year reductions in the numbers suffering from hunger around the world. By 2019 however, evidence had mounted that this progress seemed to have gone into reverse over the last four years. The numbers suffering from hunger had risen both in absolute terms and very slightly even as a percentage of the world's population.<ref name="GuardS2018">{{cite news |author=Harvey |first1=Fiona |author-link1=Fiona Harvey |last2=McVeigh |first2=Karen |date=11 September 2018 |title=Global hunger levels rising due to extreme weather, UN warns |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/11/global-hunger-levels-rising-due-to-extreme-weather-un-warns |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229090259/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/11/global-hunger-levels-rising-due-to-extreme-weather-un-warns |archive-date=29 December 2018 |access-date=27 December 2018 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref name = "BBCS2018">{{cite news
 |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45477930
 |title= Global hunger increasing, UN warns
 |work= [[BBC]]
 |author= Smitha Mundasad
 |date= 11 September 2018
|access-date= 27 December 2018
|archive-date= 31 December 2018
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181231001716/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45477930
 |url-status= live
 }}</ref><ref name="FAO2019"/>

In 2019, FAO its annual edition of ''The State of Food and Agriculture'' which asserted that food loss and waste has potential effects on food security and nutrition through changes in the four dimensions of food security: food availability, access, utilization and stability. However, the links between food loss and waste reduction and food security are complex, and positive outcomes are not always certain. Reaching acceptable levels of food security and nutrition inevitably implies certain levels of food loss and waste. Maintaining buffers to ensure food stability requires a certain amount of food to be lost or wasted. At the same time, ensuring food safety involves discarding unsafe food, which then is counted as lost or wasted, while higher-quality diets tend to include more highly perishable foods. How the impacts on the different dimensions of food security play out and affect the food security of different population groups depends on where in the food supply chain the reduction in losses or waste takes place as well as on where nutritionally vulnerable and food-insecure people are located geographically.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca6122en|title=The State of Food and Agriculture 2019. Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction, In brief|publisher=FAO|year=2019|location=Rome|pages=15–16|access-date=4 May 2021|archive-date=29 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429155350/http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca6122en|url-status=live}}</ref>

In April and May 2020, concerns were expressed that the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] could result in a doubling in global hunger unless world leaders acted to prevent this. Agencies such as the WFP warned that this could include the number of people facing acute hunger rising from 135 million to about 265 million by the end of 2020. Indications of extreme hunger were seen in various cities, such as fatal stampedes when word spread that emergency food aid was being handed out. Letters calling for co-ordinated action to offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were written to the [[G20]] and [[G7]], by various actors including NGOs, UN staff, corporations, academics and former national leaders.<ref name="double2020">{{cite web |author=Harvey |first=Fiona |author-link=Fiona Harvey |date=9 April 2020 |title=Coronavirus could double number of people going hungry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/coronavirus-could-double-number-of-people-going-hungry |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716173157/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/coronavirus-could-double-number-of-people-going-hungry |archive-date=16 July 2020 |access-date=17 April 2020 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/world/africa/coronavirus-hunger-crisis.html
|title= 'Instead of Coronavirus, the Hunger Will Kill Us.' A Global Food Crisis Looms.
|work= [[The New York Times]]
|author= Abdi Latif Dahir
|date= 22 April 2020
|access-date= 5 May 2020
|archive-date= 20 May 2020
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200520223700/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/world/africa/coronavirus-hunger-crisis.html
|url-status= live
}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web
|url= https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunger-crisis-coronavirus-pandemic/
|title= "I'm starving now": World faces unprecdented hunger crisis amid coronavirus pandemic
|publisher= [[CBS News]]
|date= 2 May 2020
|author=Debora Patta |author2=Haley Ott
|access-date= 5 May 2020
|archive-date= 5 May 2020
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200505095150/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunger-crisis-coronavirus-pandemic/
|url-status= live
}}</ref>
<ref name = "FSIN2020April">{{cite web
|url= https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf
|title= 2020GLOBAL REPORT ON FOOD CRISES
|publisher= Food Security Information Network
|date= April 2020
|access-date= 5 May 2020
|archive-date= 5 May 2020
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200505112107/https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf
|url-status= live
}}</ref>
The FAO found that 122 million more people experienced hunger in 2022 compared to 2019.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc8166en |title=World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023 |date=29 November 2023 |publisher=FAO |isbn=978-92-5-138262-2 |language=en |doi=10.4060/cc8166en}}</ref> Following the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 invasion of Ukraine]], concerns have been raised over hunger resulting from rising food prices. This is forecast to risk civil unrest even in many middle income countries, where government capability to protect their populations was largely exhausted by the Covid pandemic, and has not yet recovered.<ref>{{cite news
 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/21/apocalypse-now-the-alarming-effects-of-the-global-food-crisis
 |title= Apocalypse now? The alarming effects of the global food crisis
 |work= [[The Guardian]]
 |author= Simon Tisdall
 |date= 21 May 2022
|access-date= 21 May 2022
|archive-date= 21 May 2022
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220521132751/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/21/apocalypse-now-the-alarming-effects-of-the-global-food-crisis
 |url-status= live
 }}</ref>

Between 713 and 757 million people may have faced hunger in 2023 – one out of 11 people in the world, and one out of every five in [[Africa]]. The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has remained unchanged at the global level from 2020 to 2023 with hunger is still on the rise in Africa, but it has remained relatively unchanged in [[Asia]], while progress has been made in the [[Latin Americans|Latin American]] and [[Caribbean]] region. Africa is the region with the largest percentage of the population facing hunger – 20.4 %, compared with 8.1% in Asia, 6.2& in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7.3% in Oceania. However, Asia is still home to the largest number: 384.5 million, or more than half of all those facing hunger in the world. In Africa, 298.4 million people may have faced hunger in 2023, compared with 41.0 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 3.3 million in Oceania.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=FAO |url=https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cd1254en |title=The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 |last2=IFAD |last3=UNICEF |last4=WFP |last5=WHO |date=2024 |publisher=FAO ; IFAD ; UNICEF ; WFP ; WHO |isbn=978-92-5-138882-2 |language=English |doi=10.4060/cd1254en}}</ref>