Thirteen World Food Prize laureates, including 2024 honoree Geoffrey Hawtin, issued a statement Wednesday calling global hunger the “big issue being overlooked” in U.S. elections.
A depressed global economy from the COVID-19 pandemic caused global inflation and high interest rates that pushed many low income countries into high debt. In some cases, low income countries are currently spending more on debt service than on health and education, said the statement issued in conjunction with the Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa.
“We are struck that the U.S. elections, just one week away, have included almost no discussion of world hunger,” the statement said. “But perhaps the most important thing to know about world hunger is that we know how to get progress going again.”
The world’s people in chronic hunger increased from 581 million in 2019 to 733 million in 2023, growing from 7.5% to 9.1% of the global population.
"U.S. agriculture has played a big role in reducing hunger around the world,” said David Beckmann, 2010 World Food Prize laureate and president emeritus of Bread for the World and the Alliance to End Hunger. “The dramatic progress of recent decades has stalled, and hunger is getting worse.”
“There are big decisions that are going to be made in the next few months, but the momentum behind those decisions, including the U.S. farm bill, will be dictated by the results of the election on Tuesday,” Beckmann told Agri-Pulse.
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The statement cited the need to replenish the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries and called on Americans to give thought to how individuals running for office will affect families struggling with hunger.
The laureates also encouraged the U.S. to provide support for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty led by leaders of the 20 most powerful economies in the world at their meeting in Brazil next month.
Heidi Kuhn, Roots of Peace CEO and 2023 World Food Prize laureate honored for her work removing landmines across the globe, focused her remarks on the opportunity of cultivating peace through agriculture.
"This is a moment in history that we as laureates are gathered here on the advent of the most historical election in our country, with 80 countries represented and laureates from around the world at this table... We call the United States and those who are running for office to please include world hunger because this is important not only to our country, but to our world."
“There are so many ways to make progress,” Kuhn said, “but it all starts with the political will to take action."
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