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Food Prices and Malnutrition

By Scopritore - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4287061

It seems that there is no obvious link between food prices and malnutrition.In the past 15 years many experts were concerned about the impact of rising food prices on global hunger. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO-UN) we are now in a period of food prices decline. This does not, however, mean that we will be able to solve the problem of world hunger. In fact, 795 million people in the world were still chronically malnourished. The FAO's price index dropped for the fourth year in a row in 2015. This index is tracking international market prices for 5 key food commodity groups: major cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar. Abundant supplies and a slow economic growth are two plausible explanations for the weakness of food prices. Not surprisingly most undernourished people live in developing countries. Yet, in some of those countries underproduction is not the main issue. In fact, two problems have quite rightly been identified: the poor conservation of agricultural products and a poor access to food. And the evidence is overwhelming: one third of the food produced around the world is never consumed -which means approx.1.3 billion tonnes-! The reasons are well known. A lack of infrastructure like roads and storage facilities, natural disasters and wars in developing countries. But also a high level of food waste -40% of losses happen at retail and consumer levels- in industrialized countries. We must admit that a drop in the price of basic foodstuffs should clearly have a positive impact on people with the lowest income. But we believe that in order to eradicate hunger from the world, 2 measures are crucial: the learning throughout the world of advanced agricultural techniques and of course massive investments in infrastructures. This is the price of food safety.

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