An increase of 20 million undernourished people since 2000

Even as the world’s population has grown to its current level of 7 billion, global food production has kept pace: today enough food is produced to feed all of us comfortably. However, access to food is another story: hunger has risen in recent years and food prices have increased. Small import-dependent countries, especially in Africa, have been deeply affected by the food and economic crises. The number of undernourished people in developing countries increased by about 20 million between 2000 and 2008. Recent years have also seen the productivity increases of the agricultural “Green Revolution” start to run out of steam, with concerns over prices of inputs such as fertilizers, water availability and competition for land also casting a shadow over the supply outlook — even as demand for food is projected to rise by 70 per cent by 2050.