Euronews reports that, according to Dr Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and 23 other World Food Prize Laureates, Covid-19 provides an opportunity to think and act differently. Together they have written an open letter calling on the US Government to take the lead on transforming the way we produce food and putting an end to world hunger.
“The opportunity for renewed US leadership to transform food systems has never been greater,” the laureates write.
“The appetite of partners around the world to work with the United States in both the public and private sectors is strong. We urge the Biden-Harris administration to seize this moment and invest in development and cooperation to achieve zero hunger by 2030.”
Ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit in September, the group has set out three steps for the US to help with achieving this goal. On the list is a recommendation to look at the benefits of improving our food systems for the health of both people and the planet.
“For an extra $33 billion (€28bn) a year, we can get hunger numbers down to below 200 million by 2030,” he says. “It’s not a small number but it’s not large compared to some of the numbers we’ve been seeing in COVID relief packages.”
This isn’t exactly solving world hunger, and that may seem like an implausible goal but, as Dr Haddad says, “the last 12 months have shown us that the unthinkable can become thinkable.”
“Ending hunger is a choice, we have to make that choice. And that choice will also be good for climate change and a whole range of other outcomes too.”
