This special report by IPES-Food takes stock of the first 100 days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report (in English, French and Spanish) looks at the symptoms and causes of the food crisis, and the structural changes now needed to protect people and planet.

COVID-19 and the crisis in food systems: Symptoms, causes, and potential solutions. Communiqué by IPES-Food, April 2020

The COVID-19 health crisis has brought on an economic crisis, andis rapidly exacerbating an ongoing food security and nutrition crisis. In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 has laid bare the underlying risks, fragilities, and inequities in global food systems, and pushed them close to breaking point. Our food systems have been sitting on a knife-edge for decades: children have been one school meal away from hunger; countries –one export ban away from food shortages; farms –one travel ban away from critical labourshortages; and families in the world’s poorest regions havebeen one missed day-wage away from food insecurity, untenable living costs, and forced migration.

Before COVID-19 hit, 820 million peoplewere already under-nourished, with 2 billionpeople experiencing food insecurity. Many millions more are living perilously close to the poverty line: theylack the economic and physical means to procure food in light of enforced social isolation, movement restrictions, supply interruptions, lost income, and even relatively minor food price spikes