World hunger rose for the first time this century in 2016.
A UN agencies report found that the number of undernourished people in the world increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. Nearly one in nine people in the world do not get enough food to be healthy.
Almost one-in-four children under five are affected by stunting, or low height for their age. 7.7% of children in the world suffer from wasting, or low weight for their height.
Stunting leads to largely irreversible effects such as delayed motor development and impaired cognitive functioning. Wasting is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five.
The September 2017 US World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates listed a grain surplus of 609.02 million tons for 2015-16. In the same period the US consumed 348 million tons of grain. Other essential food commodities are also overproduced.
Why was famine declared in South Sudan in February? Why are Yemen, north-east Nigeria and Somalia considered to be at severe risk of famine? The world produces enough food for everyone, why are nearly one in nine people hungry?
60% of those who are chronically undernourished, around 489 million people, live in countries affected by conflict.
Extreme weather patterns have seriously harmed food security in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, western and south-East Asia. War and climate change are at the root of world hunger.
Only a system of social and democratic control over economic life, socialism, can guarantee that key industries like food production and distribution will be run to meet the needs of human life and not profit.
