According to the United Nations, increasing food prices and inflation is causing an affordability crisis that is pushing millions of people into hunger. Food banks are seeing a growing need as rising prices create financial strain on families.
Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Maryland, and Washington D.C. have the highest rate of food scarcity in the United States. Though it is important to note that food insecurity has become a global issue since the outbreak of COVID-19, which disrupted the food supply chain according to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. They noted “supply chain disruption due to COVID-19 and increased consumer demand for food drastically raised good prices across the globe, increasing the severity of food insecurity for the 811 million people around the world who go to bed hungry every night.”
Adding to the issue is the war in Ukraine, which made worse the food crisis by disrupting a third of the world’s wheat market. Russia and Ukraine did sign the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul so supplies to the global market are exported out of Ukraine. This deal also helped Ukrainian farmers sell their products and giving them resources to plant in the future.
The climate has also caused uncertainties, so there is a need for countries to jointly combat food insecurity in the economic recovery phase of the pandemic, global geopolitics, and climate change.
