The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted major reflection and attention on the global food system. While the science is currently uncertain, the pandemic may have arisen from an animal source in wet markets. Regardless of the source, its impact on people’s food and nutrition security is acute: before the current crisis, an estimated 820 million people were going to bed hungry each night. Now an estimated additional 130 million may experience crisis levels of hunger due to the pandemic, on top of the 135 million already on the brink of starvation.

Even in high income countries like the United States, the nightly news shows scenes of crops rotting in fields, while thousands of people queue for food handouts due to lost incomes and market failures. Much more serious are the problems in developing countries where many farmers cannot sell their crops, and food is going to waste because marketing channels have been disrupted — threatening the the world’s 500 million smallholder farms and and the billions of livelihoods that rely on them and squandering precious food. A human tragedy is unfolding before our eyes.

Three Ways to Grow Back Better
The Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), which includes WRI and GAIN, issued a three-part call to action intended to address the crisis and to enable such a recovery to take place.

First, governments need to maintain open trade and keep the supply of food flowing across the world. Major food exporting nations should make it clear that they will continue to fully supply international markets and customers. Importing countries must keep ports and borders open, while continuing to ensure proper food safety provisions are in place. An extraordinary meeting of G20 Agricultural Ministers and international institutions on April 21 called for all countries to keep agricultural trade markets open, so far with relative success. Vietnam, the third largest rice exporter, lifted its temporary export ban and helped stabilize prices. We must avoid the behaviour of the 2007-8 food crisis at all costs, when one third of countries restricted trade and 150 million people fell into poverty. There is enough food in the world, but we must make sure that it is fairly distributed and accessible to all. China has given one powerful example of ensuring market access through its green channels policy, enabling food to be fast-tracked both within provinces and at ports.

Second, governments (with the help of the private and philanthropic sectors) need to adopt urgent measures to strengthen and expand their targeted food and nutrition programs and income safety nets for social protection. India’s Anganwadi centers are one example of this, as is Colombia’s network ‘Colombia cuida a Colombia’, which ensures food provision to vulnerable households. The international community — both multilateral and bilateral agencies — must mobilize significant additional fast-track resources to support low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to ensure that they are able to produce and import the food they need to feed their populations.

Third, governments across the world should ensure that the food and land use sector is properly funded with the long-term capital and incentives needed to reward the supply of nutritious, affordable food. The food and land use sector should be a central pillar of any fiscal stimulus package. Investments should focus on increasing the resilience and diversity of food supply chains, reducing food loss and waste, developing regional food systems, providing vital social protection to farmers and to rural communities, accelerating greater digitization and transparency across the value chain and rebuilding natural capital. This last point must not be overlooked: there is no viable long-term response to COVID-19 without the protection and restoration of the world’s critical remaining ecosystems, and a concerted effort to curb the wildlife trade. Read the whole article following the link above