OTTAWA (Staff) – Fifty years after the war-weary world created the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to fight hunger, the number of hungry people in the world continues to grow.
The FAO estimates there are more than 800 million who are “chronically undernourished,” including almost 200 million children.
In 1979, a world survey concluded the army of the hungry totalled 455 million.
“The vast majority of the chronically undernourished live in countries that do not grow enough food for their populations and cannot readily afford to fill the gap with imports,” says a background paper prepared by the FAO.
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According to FAO spokesperson Hilmi Toros, the number has increased sharply because of the increase in population.
In part, it is because the definition has changed.
In the 1970s, the standard was “adequate” nourishment for an immobile person. Now, a moderately active person is the standard and the calorie need for a “adequate” nourishment has been increased, raising the numbers who fall short.
Economic growth
Toros said the number of undernourished in the world is expected to drop sharply during the next 15 years, from more than 800 million to an estimated 600 million by the year 2010.
He said UN officials believe the main reason will be growth in Asian economies.
It will mean that Africa will become the major centre of hunger, accounting for half of the world’s total by 2010.
