“The Question of Food Security Is One of National Security”

According to the latest statistics, as reflected by the Global Hunger Index, little progress has been made to reduce hunger worldwide since 2016, with prospects for reaching the 2030 target of zero hunger very low. At least 42 countries on the GH Index are still experiencing “alarming” or “serious” hunger status.

Investments in hunger, however, are known to have a $23 return for every $1 dollar invested in nutrition-sensitive interventions, highlighting the long-term benefits of strategic investing to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. Still :

• 800 million people go hungry every day,
• 2 billion eat barely enough for a healthy life,
• 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet,
• women and children suffer disproportionately,
• 150 million children under 5 are stunted,
• 45 million are wasted,
• while 37 million are overweight.

The U.S. Government was not present at N4G, attended neither by officials from Washington nor by Embassy staff, signaling further retrenchment from its global responsibilities not only as the architect of the post-WWII international system, but as a responsible global citizen. The US was expected to be the 3rd member of the "Troika" of states whose hosting of the Olympic Games links them to the N4G-hosting process. It is unclear if the City of Los Angeles will host the next N4G Summit in four years.

During the Summit, on 25 March, 140 UN member states in New York voted to extend the current "Decade on Nutrition" out to 2030, to continue driving progress on this critical goal in line with the 2030 Agenda. Only one country, the U.S., voted "no" on the resolution. US funding cuts are directly harming the poor and hungry who depend on the programmes and contributions that have been cut without thought or care about the impacts of doing so.

Rising temperatures and increasingly severe weather patterns caused by man-made pollutants and the burning of fossil fuels are making it even more difficult for small-holder farmers to produce food for themselves and their communities, especially where changing rainfall patterns are leading to both droughts and floods, where pest vectors are shifting, where biodiversity (e.g., pollinators) is being lost at an alarming rate, and where soils are dying and becoming deserts

The climate crisis is further impacting the migration of farmers who can no longer depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, pushing millions more into cities and poverty. With fewer resources, these communities are often among the most malnourished and underfed.

Sciences Po students first need to educate themselves about the core issues linked to hunger, poverty, and the climate crisis. This also requires a recognition from both individuals and political leaders that the question of "food security" is, in fact, one of national security, and is connected broadly to other sectors, issues, and concerns.

This awareness needs to start at home, with an effort to become nutritionally literate – in other words, to fully comprehend:

• where food comes from,
• who benefits (or, doesn't) from its production and sale, it's packaging, its waste and loss,
• who controls the trade of food commodities and the inputs required for its production.

With that knowledge, must come action – both at home, and in the institutions of government. Only major changes to our collective food systems will deliver the internationally recognised human right to adequate food as well as sustainable systems that end hunger and malnutrition worldwide.