Scroll to the top

Hunger Pains

A collage depicting food price increases.

Annie Gugliotta/GZERO Media

A perfect storm of pandemic shortages, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and extreme weather events have driven up food prices and threatened food security globally. Now, a strong El Niño event stretching into 2024 could exacerbate this food crisis, but not for everyone.

A 2023 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization found that as many as 783 million people worldwide faced food insecurity in 2022 – 122 million more than in 2019. The pandemic brought supply chain challenges that have been slow to abate. Extreme weather and global conflict further drove up hunger by limiting access to food. The problem is acute in the developing world, but it’s hitting people hard in North America, too.

Read moreShow less

In Planting for Tomorrow: Weaving sustainability into the path toward food security, a new special edition newsletter from Citi Global Wealth and Eurasia Group/GZERO Media, we take a deep dive into the challenges and the innovations in sustainable agriculture. This newsletter gives you an essential look into the future of food.

Check it out here

Want to go even deeper in the food security challenge? Check out the Living Beyond Borders podcast from Citi Global Wealth Investments and GZERO and listen to our episode compelling called Global Food (In)security.


Read moreShow less
Who's to blame for sky-high food prices?
Who's to blame for sky-high food prices? | Ertharin Cousin | US-Canada Summit | GZERO Media

More than a year after Russia's war in Ukraine, have we turned from not enough food to more expensive food for all? How is this having different impacts in the developed and developing world?

Read moreShow less

A vendor arranges onions for sale at a market in Lagos, Nigeria.

REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

Thanks to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic before it, food inflation remains sky-high throughout much of the world. With the Black Sea grain deal set to expire on March 18, we take a look at global food security in 2023 with Eurasia Group expert Peter Ceretti.

Read moreShow less
Why philanthropic foundations need to spend money (and quickly)
Why Philanthropic Foundations Need To Spend Money (& Quickly) | GZERO World

In today's world, where global development needs are high and seismic geopolitical events have turned back the clock on so much progress, UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens says its the perfect time for philanthropy to step up.

Indeed, there's a lot more that can be done, Cousens tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

And philanthropy, she explains, doesn't have to be about greenwashing or PR but rather a way of making things better in many places that have been through more than their fair share in recent years.

Read moreShow less
Food emergency: what to do when people are hungry now
Global Hunger Is About to Get a Lot Worse — We Need to Get on Top of It | GZERO World

On global issues, the international community must walk and chew gum at the same time. It needs to learn to deal with simultaneous crises that play off each other, says UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens.

That's why we dropped the ball on hunger.

Now the needs are huge and growing. We haven't seen a lot of images of starvation yet, but they are coming, Cousens tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

Read moreShow less

Transcript

Listen: Global inequality has reached a level we haven’t seen in our lifetimes and recent geopolitical convulsions have only made things worse. The rich have gotten richer while extreme poverty has exploded. UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens thinks it's the perfect time for institutions backed by the 1% to step up. She speaks with Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast about the key role that innovative philanthropy could play to address problems exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, economic fallout from the COVID pandemic, and a warming planet.

Why now? The stakes are so high and the crises so urgent that Cousens sees a window of opportunity for philanthropy to take swift action instead of their traditional long-term approach. When it comes to immediate and deadly problems like famine and flooding, an influx of money could start making a huge difference very quickly.

Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Listen now | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer - the podcast
Watch Puppet Regime - award-winning comedy series

Most Popular Videos

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO's daily newsletter