What Is a Healthy Diet — and How Can It Help End World Hunger?

Trials of drought-tolerant beans in Malawi are helping the local food system adapt to a changing climate.

Local food systems can ensure healthy diets everywhere by growing nutritious and diverse crops.

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GLOBAL CITIZEN ASKSDEFEAT POVERTY

What Is a Healthy Diet — and How Can It Help End World Hunger?

Local food systems can ensure healthy diets everywhere by growing nutritious and diverse crops.

Trials of drought-tolerant beans in Malawi are helping the local food system adapt to a changing climate. | Flickr/CGIAR Research Program/Neil Palmer

By Jaxx Artz

August 19, 2021

Millions of people experience food insecurity, with estimates that over 800 million go to bed hungry each night. And yet, we constantly hear that we produce enough food to feed every person in the world. How is this possible?

“When people say we have enough food for everyone, I think the important question is: What food is being talked about? Where is it grown?” Namukolo Covic, senior research coordinator at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), told Global Citizen. “And also the type of food that they are generally referring to — who, and how many people, can actually access it?”

A registered nutritionist, Namukolo works with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). She is also on the leadership team for Action Track 2 of the UN Food Systems Summit, which is working on how to transform food systems to become more sustainable and improve food security and the quality of diets

The reality is, there are a lot of factors that influence world hunger. Climate change is causing sea levels to rise and droughts and other extreme weather events to hit different regions of the world, which can upend agricultural systems and cause whole populations to lose access to a food source.

Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic impact local economies, making it difficult for people to afford the food they need to survive. And those living in regions ravaged by conflict — such as in Yemen and Syria — report famine-like conditions, as destabilized and inconsistent food sources become depleted.

Making sure that food is accessible and affordable to people everywhere is important. But it cannot be the only focus, as world hunger will continue to plague areas of the world that produce enough food but do not focus on nutrition.

Hillabox