importance of zero hunger essay

Essay on Zero Hunger

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100 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Understanding zero hunger.

Zero Hunger is a global aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition. It’s one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.

Why is Zero Hunger Important?

Hunger leads to malnutrition, which can cause health problems. Achieving Zero Hunger means ensuring everyone has enough nutritious food, promoting better health.

How Can We Achieve Zero Hunger?

We can contribute by reducing food waste, supporting local farmers, and promoting sustainable farming. Everyone’s effort counts towards achieving Zero Hunger.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on Zero Hunger

250 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Introduction to zero hunger.

Zero Hunger, a critical initiative of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aims to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. It emphasizes the necessity of a comprehensive approach, focusing on sustainable food production, improved nutrition, and increased agricultural productivity.

The Imperative of Zero Hunger

The urgency of Zero Hunger is underscored by the stark reality that nearly 690 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night. The situation is exacerbated by factors such as climate change, economic disparities, and global pandemics. Achieving Zero Hunger is not merely about addressing hunger, but also about ensuring health, stimulating economic growth, and preserving our planet.

Strategies for Achieving Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger requires a multifaceted strategy. Sustainable agriculture, for instance, is a key pillar, promoting efficient use of resources and reducing the impact on the environment. Additionally, fostering resilient agricultural practices can help communities withstand climate-related shocks and natural disasters.

Challenges and the Way Forward

Despite the clear roadmap, the journey to Zero Hunger is riddled with obstacles. These include political instability, resource constraints, and the complexity of coordinating global efforts. Overcoming these challenges necessitates robust global cooperation, innovative solutions, and unwavering commitment.

In conclusion, Zero Hunger is an ambitious yet achievable goal. It demands collective action, sustained commitment, and innovative strategies. As we move towards a world free of hunger, we also pave the way for a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable future.

500 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Introduction.

Zero Hunger is a global initiative aimed at eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030. It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. The objective of Zero Hunger goes beyond addressing hunger, to include the commitment to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round for everyone.

Understanding the Zero Hunger Challenge

The Zero Hunger challenge is an ambitious goal that requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex issues surrounding food security. It is not simply about increasing food production, but rather creating a sustainable food system that can feed every person on the planet. It involves improving food quality, reducing food waste, promoting sustainable agriculture, and tackling the root causes of hunger such as poverty, inequality, and conflict.

The Importance of Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger is crucial for the health and wellbeing of individuals and societies. Malnutrition and hunger are linked to poor physical and mental health, lower educational attainment, and reduced economic productivity. Moreover, hunger perpetuates a cycle of poverty and inequality, as those who are malnourished often struggle to work and learn, further limiting their opportunities. Therefore, eradicating hunger is not just a moral imperative, but also a necessary step towards achieving sustainable development and social justice.

Challenges in Achieving Zero Hunger

Despite the global commitment to Zero Hunger, progress has been slow and uneven. Conflict, climate change, and economic downturns are among the major barriers to achieving this goal. For instance, climate change threatens food production through increased droughts, floods, and storms, while conflict disrupts food distribution and access. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity, pushing millions more into hunger.

Strategies to Achieve Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger requires a multifaceted approach. This includes promoting sustainable agricultural practices, reducing food waste, improving food distribution systems, and implementing social protection schemes for the vulnerable. Education and public awareness are also crucial to change consumption patterns and reduce waste. Furthermore, international cooperation and peacebuilding are needed to address the global challenges that threaten food security.

Zero Hunger is a vital goal that demands urgent and collective action. It requires not only addressing immediate food needs, but also tackling the root causes of hunger and building a sustainable food system. While the challenges are immense, the potential benefits of achieving Zero Hunger – healthier populations, stronger economies, and more equitable societies – make it a goal worth striving for. As global citizens, we all have a role to play in achieving Zero Hunger and creating a world where everyone has access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food.

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Sustainable development goal: zero hunger.

More than 800 million people around the world are hungry. The United Nations’s second Sustainable Development Goal, Zero Hunger, aims to end world hunger by 2030.

Conservation, Social Studies, Civics, Economics

Migrants in Italy

People displaced from their homes because of war and conflict—as some of the migrants shown here in Rome, Italy, likely are—often are vulnerable to hunger.

Photograph by Stefano Montesi/Corbis

In 2012, at the United Nations (UN) Conferences on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, world representatives created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of creating SDGs was “to produce a set of universal goals that meet the urgent environmental, political and economic challenges facing our world,” according to the UN Development Programme. There are 17 SDGs that the UN hopes to meet by 2030, the second of which is Zero Hunger . Hunger is not caused by food shortage alone, but by a combination of natural, social, and political forces. Currently, natural resources that are necessary for human survival—like freshwater, the ocean, forests, soils, and more—are dwindling. Climate change is contributing to the degradation of precious resources, as severe weather events, like droughts, become more common and affect harvests, leading to less food for human consumption. Poverty and inequality are also two drivers of hunger, affecting who can buy food, as well as what kind of food, and how much, is available. Hunger is also a product of war and conflict. During periods of unrest, a country's economy and infrastructure can become severely damaged. This negatively affects civilian access to food by either driving up food prices, interfering with food production, or forcing people from their homes. Some governments and military groups have even used starvation as a war tactic, cutting off civilians from their food supply. In 2018, the UN declared this tactic a war crime . With these problems in mind, the world needs sustainable solutions to adequately feed each person on the planet. Right now, there are around 815 million people who are hungry. This number is only expected to increase as the years go on; the UN estimates that two billion more people will be undernourished by 2050. The Zero Hunger SDG focuses on finding sustainable solutions to stop world hunger. The goals of the Zero Hunger initiative are to end hunger and make sure that enough nutritious foods are available to people by 2030. Other aspects of the goal include ending all forms of malnutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture . One environmental scientist that is working to alleviate world hunger is Jennifer Anne Burney. She is a National Geographic Explorer and associate professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California at San Diego. Concentrating on ensuring food security for the world as well as limiting climate change, Burney designs and uses technologies to improve food and nutrition security.

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One Health, Zero Hunger

Note: The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Welthungerhilfe or Concern Worldwide.

FIGURE 2.1 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 2 (ZERO HUNGER) AND THE EIGHT TARGETS FOR ASSESSING PROGRESS

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It’s been a year that none of us could have predicted. Yet in many ways it is a culmination of the predictions we have heard for decades.

Warnings about the emergence of new viral pathogens are nothing new, but the failure to heed or act on those warnings has contributed to the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.

At the same time, as predicted, humans’ impacts on the environment are leading to more frequent and severe extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and soil degradation. These impacts, when coupled with failure to invest in sound biosecurity practices, contribute to an increasing threat from emerging, boundary-crossing infectious diseases in humans, animals, and plants ( Yadav, Singh, and Malik 2020 ; Royal Society and NAS 2020 ; Gray and Merzdorf 2019 ; Edwards 2017 ; Sundström et al. 2014 ; Seneviratne et al. 2012; Waage and Mumford 2008).

Cyclones have caused widespread damage in many South Pacific island countries and in South Asia in 2020, and heavy rains in usually dry regions have given rise to massive swarms of locusts that threaten crops in East Africa, South Asia, and the Gulf countries. The fall armyworm is decimating staple crops across Africa South of the Sahara and Southeast Asia, and control efforts are complicated by COVID-19 restrictions in many countries ( Bourke and Sar 2020 ; FAO 2020f ).

Unsurprisingly, the overlapping disasters of 2020 have led to economic and health-related hardships across the globe, hampering food security for millions by disrupting agricultural production, the availability of food, and people’s ability to obtain and utilize food, disproportionately harming those living in poverty.

The world was off track to reach Zero Hunger by 2030 even before each of the 2020 disasters exacerbated hunger and undernutrition.

Five years ago, the UN member states committed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2: “ End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture ” ( see Figure 2.1 ). After a long, slow, progressive decline, the number of undernourished people started rising in 2015 and continues its upward trajectory. In 2019, even before the recent crises, nearly 690 million people suffered from chronic hunger, and 135 million people experienced acute food crisis . Child stunting and wasting are falling but not fast enough to meet SDG 2 (FAO et al. 2020; FSIN 2020; UN 2019b). Now the health and economic crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in income losses, food and labor shortages, and health service disruptions that affect the most vulnerable, threatening to set back progress even further. The World Food Programme warns that an additional 130 million people could be pushed into acute food crisis by the end of 2020, bringing the total to 265 million people ( UN 2020f ).

In the decade leading up to 2030, how can we overcome these shocks and setbacks to achieve Zero Hunger for all? The events of 2020 are laying bare many of the vulnerabilities of the world’s food system; they reveal that it is woefully inadequate for coping with the kinds of overlapping global and regional crises that we are currently experiencing and that we may expect more of by 2030 (FAO et al. 2020; Nguyen 2018). We have seen how the crises disrupt the food and agriculture sector, jeopardize the stability of human, animal, and environmental health, and have lasting implications on the global economy, livelihoods, and food security ( FAO et al. 2020 ; OECD 2020 ). We argue in this essay that by taking an integrated approach to health and food and nutrition security, it is possible to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. To do so, we must design responses to the current crises and their underlying causes and move forward in ways that support the transformation of the current food system to one that is more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient.

An important element of this endeavor will be to employ a holistic One Health approach. Sectoral responses alone rarely deliver sustained positive outcomes for complex problems such as climate change, chronic hunger, and unsustainable agricultural practices. One Health therefore works to achieve optimal health outcomes based on a recognition of the interconnections between humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment, as well as an understanding of the role of fair trade relations ( CDC 2020 ; FAO 2020j ). While the framing and use of the term “One Health” is relatively new, the concept is not: as far back as the 1800s scientists recognized the similarity in disease processes between animals and humans and coined the term “zoonoses” for diseases that can pass between animals and humans.

More recently, it has become clear that human impacts on planetary health, including land use change, soil depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss, are inextricably linked to animal and human health . To prevent, respond to, and recover from such challenges, cooperation among multidisciplinary teams is needed to safeguard agricultural production and public health from natural disasters and boundary-crossing diseases and to ensure that people have access to safe, nutritious, and healthy food. Currently, One Health tends to be implemented through consultation between sectors; it will become fully functional only when circular food, health, and economic systems - based on continual reuse of materials and products and elimination of waste - are implemented at local, national, and global levels ( CHF 2020 ).

The One Health approach - with its focus on increasing sustainable practices in agriculture and improving the overall health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment - has the potential to be transformative ( Cleaveland et al. 2017 ; Garcia, Osburn, and Jay-Russell 2020 ; Alders et al. 2017 ; Lysaght et al. 2017 ). By highlighting the ways our current challenges are interconnected, One Health points to the need to tackle human, animal, and environmental health holistically in order to avert future health crises, restore a healthy planet, and sustainably end hunger.

Where the Cracks Are Showing: Weak Points in the World Food System

Pressures on planetary and social boundaries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of globalized food systems, their inherent inequities, and their inadequacy to provide for healthy people and a healthy planet.

Our globalized food systems pose a threat to human, animal, and environmental health

We are hitting planetary and social boundaries—that is, the ecological ceiling and the social foundation beyond which humans cannot safely and equitably thrive—and our food systems are part of the problem ( Figure 2.2 ; Raworth 2017b). Globally, we are seeking to achieve Zero Hunger at the same time that all societies are grappling with the need to manage the impacts of climate change, emerging diseases, extinctions and loss of bio- and agrodiversity, overconsumption of freshwater, rising rates of malnutrition, soil depletion and degradation, land use change, and biological and chemical pollution, while also meeting their immediate needs within national budgets (Alders et al. 2018; Rampa et al. 2019 ; also see Box 2.1 on the overlapping crises in the Horn of Africa).

One manifestation of the overshooting of planetary boundaries is the increasing frequency of the emergence of new infectious diseases and their rapid spread. As humans have encroached upon and destroyed natural habitats to establish, among other things, pastures for livestock, the result has been that wild animals live closer to areas where humans rear livestock and poultry, exposing domestic animals to a completely new range of pathogens and vectors to which they are highly susceptible. These diseases can spread rapidly, resulting in heavy morbidity and mortality among livestock, trade restrictions, and economic losses ( Garcia, Osburn, and Jay-Russell 2020 ). Domesticated livestock and companion animals have been associated with increased risk of emerging infectious diseases (Johnson et al. 2020, Kock 2014), antimicrobial resistance (Graham et al. 2019), and introduction of disease into susceptible wildlife populations (Yadav, Singh, and Malik 2020). And the spread of COVID-19 shows the simultaneous vulnerability of public health, the economy, and food and nutrition security to emerging diseases.

Our food systems pose health hazards to humans and the environment and have a big part in the rise of emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Through land use change, intensive agriculture, large-scale livestock production, and other practices, food systems have led to agroecological degradation, destroyed habitats, and contributed to climate change (IPES-Food 2017). Indeed, the food system contributes 21–37 percent of total net human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases and accounts for 70 percent of freshwater use. Agriculture—cropping and pasturage—occupies nearly 40 percent of global land (Willett et al. 2019; IPCC 2020).

Overall, the huge increase in intensive livestock production has been the most significant cause of the huge loss of biodiversity in recent decades; the extinction rate is now estimated at between 100 and 1,000 times that of preindustrial levels (Ceballos, Ehrlich, and Raven 2020; Ceballos et al. 2015; Pimm et al. 2014; Barnosky et al. 2011). Changing lifestyles and diets in recent decades have led to increased demand for animal-source foods such as eggs, meat, milk, and fish, resulting in higher rates of diet-related noncommunicable disease as well as in the intensification of production systems, overcrowding of animals, and increased risk of animal disease outbreaks and spillovers of disease from animals to humans (Yadav, Singh, and Malik 2020; FAO et al. 2020).

Half of the emerging zoonotic diseases between 1940 and 2005 have been attributed to changes in land use, agricultural practices, and food production (IPES-Food 2017). As land in low- and middle-income countries is converted to grow feed crops for cattle feedlots and intensively raised pigs and poultry in other parts of the world - sometimes as a result of land grabs by rich countries and corporations - the change in land use destroys forests and contributes to loss of carbon sinks (Blanco 2018).

Similarly, a significant part of the animal-source foods imported into low- and middle- income countries come from intensive livestock production in the exporting countries, with adverse impacts on global ecosystems, pastoralists’ livelihoods, and human health (Coordination SUD 2019). At the same time, domestic supply chains show weaknesses that threaten people’s food and nutrition security, including inadequate food preservation facilities for perishable foods such as fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods (FAO 2017). Since the emergence of COVID-19, there has been an increasing focus on the human-animal-environment disease interface as encompassed in the One Health concept ( Kock et al. 2020 ), with wet markets and their role in pathogen transmission from wildlife to people frequently cited (Restif 2020). However, wet markets have long played a key role in distributing fresh food in many societies and will continue to do so ( Ribeiro et al. 2020 ). In a number of countries, consumers are concerned about a lack of access to affordable animal-source foods (owing to high animal mortality and market failure) and have little confidence in the safety of intensively produced food (Duggan 2015; World Bank 2016a); they worry, for example, about contamination of food with hormones, antibiotics, or pesticide residues. These concerns frequently underlie their preference for non-domesticated animals sold through informal markets ( Alders 2020 ).

Our food systems are inherently unequal and further exacerbate inequities

Global food governance is tilted against low-income countries and smallholder farmers. The world’s increasingly globalized food systems have been accompanied by increasing dependence on food imports by low- and middle-income countries as well as underinvestment in local farmers, farmer associations, and smallholder-oriented value chains (FAO 2014, 2017; Poole and de Frece 2010; McMichael 2013). In 2017 the trade gaps between low- and middle-income countries on the one hand and high-income countries on the other were reported to be widening, with low- and middle-income countries projected to be net importers of meat and dairy products by 2030 (FAO 2017).

Most high-income countries provide international agricultural development assistance designed to help increase smallholder farmers’ production and income in low- and middle-income countries, while at the same time retaining trade advantages through non-tariff barriers to trade (Gourdon and Nicita 2012). Domestic production in low- and middle-income countries cannot compete with cheap imported goods (such as ultra-processed foods or powdered milk) that benefit from subsidized production in the country of origin (Blanco 2018).

Furthermore, some food assistance from high-income countries to low-income countries still requires the recipient country to procure food from a restricted number of countries or award contracts to companies in donor countries, thus weakening local food systems in recipient countries. A considerable share of global food assistance therefore remains an export subsidy masquerading as charity (OECD 2018). While the United Nations food agencies work in pursuit of food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, trade regulations discount the health impacts of trade in food commodities and can constrain low-income countries’ nutrition policies (Thow et al. 2017). At the same time, the globalization of food systems, along with persistent 19th-century approaches to food prices (that is, pricing based on weight or volume rather than nutrient composition and density) and the siloing of the agricultural, health, and environment sectors, places huge stresses on smallholder livestock keepers, small-scale aquaculture, and family farmers worldwide ( Alders et al. 2016 ).

Given that family farms represent more than 90 percent of all farms globally and produce 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms, supporting these mostly smallholder farmers will be key to achieving SDG 2 ( FAO and IFAD 2019 ).

Lack of secure land tenure and resulting food insecurity are a persistent issue for rural communities, indigenous people, women, and marginalized groups. Land grabs have a long history, from the colonial era to the present, and they continue to increase hunger and distort land management ( Anderson et al. 2019 ). Displacement of smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and indigenous people is ongoing as international investors and corporations seize existing farmland and clear new land for agricultural endeavors across a range of countries (Twomey 2014). These land grabs are frequently driven by global capital and corporate agribusinesses that are responsible not to local land or people but to faraway shareholders (Deininger et al. 2011). A lack of enduring links to this land and its associated ecosystems contributes not only to a reluctance to employ sustainable practices requiring long-term investments in landscapes, including soil and water, but also to ecosystem damage resulting from the expansion of agricultural land into previously uncultivated landscapes, thereby increasing the risk of emergence of new pathogens ( Anderson et al. 2019 ).

Insecure land tenure is a major contributor to degraded land and inadequate diets, the impacts of which are frequently felt more by women and marginalized groups ( Alders et al. 2016 ). Women and other marginalized groups are disproportionately harmed by cultural and legal proscriptions and norms, including unequal access to credit and information, that prevent them from participating fully and equally in agricultural and other livelihood activities and from reaping the benefits of these activities ( Alders et al. 2016 ; Quisumbing et al. 2014).

In Africa South of the Sahara, for example, women play a dominant role in the production, processing, and postharvest storage of food, yet they make up only 15 percent of landholders ( Alders et al. 2016 ). When women have a lower income share within a household, that household spends less of its budget on food (Hopkins, Levin, and Haddad 1994). Widespread and ongoing iron deficiency in women of reproductive age, as well as a higher global malnutrition rate compared with men, reflects systemic discrimination, including within health and nutrition services ( FAO et al. 2020 ; Alders 2018 ). The poor nutritional status of women interferes with their daily activities and livelihoods and crosses generations because poorly nourished women are more likely to give birth to children with a low birth weight (FAO et al. 2020). The 2020 GHI also shows that rural and indigenous regions often present higher rates of child stunting (see 2020 Results ).

Formal and informal education on agriculture and nutrition is insufficiently tailored to local conditions. Individuals’ choices about their diets and farmers’ decisions about their agricultural practices are influenced by factors besides education, but without appropriate educational opportunities it is almost impossible to achieve optimal results, especially in resource-limited circumstances. A series of avoidable barriers mean that too many children lack access to the education necessary to learn life skills and help them thrive (UNICEF 2020b). Vulnerable households often cannot afford the costs associated with schooling or need children to supply farm or household labor (ILO 2020). School curricula are often poorly adapted to local circumstances, including local agroecological zones and marketing systems (Epstein and Yuthas 2012), and insufficient attention is given to understanding sustainable agriculture, human nutrition, and how to meet nutrient requirements with locally available, nutritious food ( Garcia, Osburn, and Jay-Russell 2020 ; CHF 2020 ).

Social protection remains insufficient or misdirected. Support for the most vulnerable - that is, programs to boost the well-being of poor people, children, the elderly, and others through cash transfers, food transfers, subsidies, and social insurance - is crucial for people’s food security during crises, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the degree to which social protection is lacking. In many low- and middle-income countries, rural households increasingly rely on informal off-farm sources of income and are becoming net food consumers vulnerable to shocks ( Rapsomanikis 2015 ).

Even before COVID-19, 55 percent of the world’s population was not covered by any social protection programs ( Ortiz 2018 ). Carrying out such programs requires significant investment in avenues for connecting with individuals and households, especially those dependent on the informal sector ( Razavi 2020 ). The lack of accurate data on the number of people involved in the informal sector and insufficient government and civil society links with informal networks increase the difficulty of organizing distribution programs. Furthermore, overseas remittances play a critical role in maintaining many households’ incomes and food consumption. Now, as a consequence of COVID-19 control measures, countless migrant workers worldwide are losing their jobs, and remittances to low- and middle-income countries are projected to fall by 19.7 percent to US$445 billion (World Bank 2020d). As unemployed migrant workers return to their home villages, they will place further strain on limited food stocks and social protection programs (Pancawati 2020). Finally, the agricultural and supply chain workers who feed the world receive low wages, have little to no job security (Martin 2016), and are frequently at high risk of contracting COVID-19.

Inadequate emergency responses are disrupting local food systems and fail to support local producers. COVID-19 containment measures, enforced without a clear declaration that agricultural and food services are essential, have endangered food security in many locations ( Swinnen and McDermott 2020 ). Restricted labor mobility in areas dependent on seasonal or migrant laborers and the difficulties associated with accessing markets and transporting food both within and between countries are disrupting food supply chains and hampering people’s access to essential goods and services (FAO et al. 2020).

These restrictions not only cause short-term shocks to food supplies but also weaken local producers’ ability to prepare for the next sowing or production cycle, further diminishing the likelihood of achieving Zero Hunger in the coming decade (UN 2020d). This situation highlights the costly result of failure to coordinate preparedness and response activities between different sectors, such as health, agriculture, and trade.

Building Food Systems for One Health and Zero Hunger

We need to build back better by achieving inclusive, sustainable, and resilient food systems and preserving biodiversity for the future we want (UN 2020b, c). Working to achieve SDG2—Zero Hunger— and its associated targets by 2030 will be a crucial part of this rebuild, but what steps are required? Many immediate needs must be addressed now, and many others must be tackled over the coming decade. If we are to build back better, we will also need to undertake some transformations so monumental they will extend across the next several decades, as food systems and economies are reimagined as part of a net-zero-carbon world. As we pursue the goal of Zero Hunger, a One Health approach points the way toward a future that maximizes the health of humans, animals, and the environment. The following actions constitute a road map for ending hunger and building sustainable food systems now, over the next 10 years, and in the decades to come.

Actions for multilaterals, governments, communities, and individuals to take now

Sustain current food production and distribution. To guarantee ongoing food availability, the production and supply of food must be classified as essential services, and safe working environments must be guaranteed (FAO 2020i). Governments and citizens must also prepare now to ensure all required inputs are available for the next and subsequent planting seasons. As they bolster food supply chains and correct value chain disruptions associated with COVID-19 control measures, governments must work toward reduced food loss and waste in postharvest management and throughout the value chain. Aligning support for agricultural production by smallholder farmers, reducing food dumping, using cash and voucher assistance whenever feasible, and promoting the effective use of perishable food will require intersectoral coordination among governments, nongovernmental organizations, and community-based entities working collaboratively under a One Health banner (World Bank 2020b). Food and nutrition security projects linked with human, animal, and environmental health, such as those implemented by Vétérinaires Sans Frontières International, exemplify the multiple benefits of One Health programs that achieve greater integration of management, farming, food, and disease control aligned with local ecosystems (VSF Europa 2014). Equitable access to new technologies and emergency countermeasures, including diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics for both human and animal disease crises, as well as essential agricultural inputs such as appropriate seeds, must be guaranteed. In addition, governments should fully integrate their national security, health security, and food security strategies to develop sufficient preparedness and response capacity to address a wider array of potential hazards and threats to society.

Ensure governments, donors, and NGOs work closely with community organizations so that social protection measures reach the most vulnerable. Given that so many people affected by COVID-19 are informal workers, the unemployed, and the elderly, community-based and civil society organizations must help reach those unable to gain access to the official social protections on offer. Organizations trusted by communities and authorities are vital to ensuring that cash transfers, essential health care, food transfers, small business grants, and public employment schemes function optimally and fairly. In some areas hit hard by the economic consequences of the pandemic, households’ efforts to meet their food needs are threatening local ecosystems, biodiversity, and endangered species, so it is important to identify options for sustaining their food security in culturally acceptable ways that support human, animal, and planetary health (Poole 2020). In one past example in Chad, joint One Health efforts to combine childhood vaccination programs with cattle vaccination in pastoralist communities demonstrated both increased vaccination coverage and savings of 15 percent compared with the routine practice of separate campaigns for animal and human vaccination (Schelling et al. 2007). These types of innovative and practical One Health solutions, tailored to local needs and circumstances, will be required in a future constrained by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improve the coordination and efficiency of regional and international efforts. Regional institutions—especially regional economic communities such as the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—must negotiate strongly with donors and groups such as the World Trade Organization on behalf of low- and middle-income countries to shore up their own regional food supply chains and ensure access to the technologies, countermeasures, and expertise needed to respond to acute shocks like COVID-19 and the locust crisis. Key international agricultural programs should address the immediate crises and be replenished in accordance with evaluation findings, such as IFAD’s Scaling Up Evaluation Synthesis (IFAD 2017). Food assistance should also be designed to support local food systems in the recipient country. As part of this effort, all food assistance should be untied from the requirement to acquire donor-country commodities and from the continuing obligation to primarily use donor countries’ logistics, storage, and distribution companies, as recommended by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2019). This would give recipient countries the flexibility to adopt best-value-for-money options for feeding their populations and implementing their food security strategies (Cardwell and Ghazalian 2020; Jaspars and Leather 2005). During the current crisis, governments and multilateral bodies must document and analyze the impacts of disruptions to international and national supply lines through a One Health and equity-sensitive lens to ensure efficient, equitable food production. The distribution of agricultural inputs, including credit and extension services, must not be subject to gender-based or other forms of discrimination. Finally, a number of key international summits are planned for 2021, including the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the UN Food Systems Summit. The participants in these summits, as well as the global community, should ensure that the recommendations are well coordinated, coherent, and complementary; that they are actually implemented; and that they center on promoting the health of humans, animals, plants, and the planet. One example of what is possible when sectors, disciplines, and countries work together for the common good is the launch of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity in 2005, which has advanced the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, guided by fair and equitable sharing of benefits.

Actions for multilaterals, governments, communities, and individuals to take by 2030

Use lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises to build safe, resilient food systems that can prevent complex emergencies and better respond to them. Global agreements and action on sustainable food systems must bring all stakeholders to the table (FAO et al. 2020). To improve transparency and accountability, it is important to remove the friction between multilateral agencies, government ministries, and NGOs generated by overlapping mandates and competition for increasingly scarce resources. Huge trade and investment disparities between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries perpetuate food system inequity and inefficiency, and these must be addressed. In response to shocks to food systems, high-income countries and the international community must address short-term symptoms (such as by providing food and cash or vouchers to vulnerable individuals and households and improving wet market facilities and hygiene standards) without harming the livelihoods of local food producers. Stakeholders must commit to dealing with the issues underlying chronic food and nutrition insecurity, loss of faith in food safety, and inadequate remuneration of farmers, producers, and other key participants within a resilient food system. They must significantly increase investments in agricultural research and development, food quality and safety, and human health, and they must ensure that domestic and international policy making, implementation, monitoring, and impact assessments are inclusive.

Carry out a global, multisectoral review of food, health, and economic systems through a One Health lens to chart a sustainable and resilient pathway for governments and donors that paves the way for environmental recovery. This review should be convened and implemented by a neutral entity with representatives from the public, private, and civil society sectors across all geographical regions. Among other things, it must address the need to strengthen data collection in order to better monitor the management of agricultural and natural resources on which smallholder food systems rely and to support the surveillance of animal, zoonotic, and foodborne diseases. Biosecurity legislation will need to take into account findings on crises such as COVID-19, the locust plague, fall army worm infestations, and African swine fever to enable the transparent trade of safe, high-quality food commodities and agricultural inputs that adhere to agreed-upon standards. Evidence on the impact of crises on low- and middle-income countries and on vulnerabilities in high-income countries, including evidence on how malnutrition increases health risks from pandemics, provides lessons that should be used to accelerate ongoing reforms, such as universal health coverage, global health security, and disaster risk reduction commitments. A new global coordination mechanism is required to enable food and other allied international thematic institutions to align policies in support of resilience and sustainable food systems (United Nations General Assembly 2019; UN 1992; WHO 2005; UNDRR 2015). These efforts must be accompanied by enhanced investments in sustainable food systems at the territorial level—including, where feasible, through properly regulated mechanisms blending public and private finance, such as public guarantees and responsible and just governance of tenure of land, fisheries, and forests (FAO 2012)—to reduce the investment risk associated with the food and agriculture sector.

Take a One Health approach to invest in sustainable food production, distribution, and nutrient recycling. Smallholders and input supply services must be provided with the knowledge and inputs to make their production systems more resilient and sufficiently profitable so they can meet their nutrient requirements either directly through their own production or indirectly through fair farm-gate prices that allow them to purchase safe and nutritious food ( CHF 2020 ). Given the importance of diversifying both food production and consumption to achieve more sustainable and resilient food systems and better nutritional outcomes through sustainable healthy diets ( Alders et al. 2016 ; FAO and WHO 2019), nutritious but neglected food species amenable to sustainable harvesting should be integrated into smallholder household livelihood strategies. A One Health approach that engages various sectors and disciplines will help identify options that enable households to use the food resources available to them across the seasons of the year and work with them to identify optimal practices (Wong et al. 2018). The reintroduction of river prawns upstream from the Diama Dam along the Senegal River is an example of this type of One Health approach in action. The project provides a regionally tailored, sustainable approach to the control of schistosomiasis—a disease that affects some 240 million people across the world—while enabling the restoration of a previously established source of food and income for local fisheries (Sokolow et al. 2015; Shaikh, Rahman- Shepherd, and Dar 2018). Governments and donors need to promote effective smallholder production and marketing organizations; cost-efficient food preservation, marketing, and food safety systems, including improved postharvest management; better linkages between rural and urban areas to shorten supply chains (increasing the resilience of local food systems to international shocks); agroecological approaches that match plant varieties, animal breeds, and farming systems with local conditions and tailored educational and vocational training (FAO 2020a); and efficient recycling of nutrient-rich organic waste (Alders et al. 2016). These activities must run in parallel with strengthened coordination across agriculture, education, finance, human health, and water, sanitation, and hygiene to generate synergistic outcomes, both horizontally and vertically. Evidence-based approaches to managing wet markets (including improved measures for preventing and controlling infection and disease surveillance systems) and options for effectively preserving animal-source foods, fruits, and vegetables are essential to support people’s access to and use of safe, nutritious, diverse foods. Finally, significantly reducing industrial livestock production while ensuring access for those who need animal-source food the most—undernourished pregnant and lactating mothers and infants in the first 1,000 days of life in resource-poor settings (Grace et al. 2018)—would offer clear gains: more competitive pricing of local products in low- and middle-income countries, recovery of the environment and biodiversity, mitigation of climate change drivers (Jackson et al. 2020; Young 2018), reduced global risk of emerging and persistent zoonotic diseases (Alders et al. 2013), and reduction of malnutrition (Grace et al. 2018).

Implement formal and informal education programs that match people’s circumstances. School curricula should be tailored to local conditions, including local agroecological zones and marketing systems. Students should be introduced to the One Health concept early on (Thomson 2020) and instructed in human nutrition and how to meet the nutrient requirements of girls, boys, women, and men with locally available, nutritious food to ensure good outcomes for human well-being, food and nutrition security, and natural resources ( Garcia, Osburn, and Jay-Russell 2020 ; CHF 2020 ). In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, farmer field schools and care group programs for women and children have been shown to be particularly effective.

Support regional trade initiatives that include social and environmental metrics. Trade agreements should do more than merely pursue short-term economic gains at the macro level. The 193 countries that signed the SDGs have committed to SDG 17.10: “a universal, rulesbased, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization” (WTO 2020). These countries must push global agricultural, environmental, and trade institutions to deliver a harmonized policy framework that is good for food producers, consumers, the environment, and the economy.

Actions for multilaterals, governments, communities, and individuals to take beyond 2030

Globally and nationally affirm food and nutrition security as a key component of human health, as outlined in the 2019 United Nations Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage . Acknowledging the key role of food and nutrition security will require balancing multilateral and national budget allocations across food-related sectors and harmonizing policies related to emergency response, agriculture, education, and health.

Develop and implement circular economic systems that promote sustainable local agricultural production along with climate-friendly and fair global trade of agricultural products and food. A circular economy recycles resources and materials to keep them continually in use, regenerates natural systems, and eliminates waste and pollution ( CHF 2020 ). In a food system, a circular economy requires producers, consumers, companies, and governments to reduce the amount of waste generated in the food system, safely reuse leftover food, make use of by-products and food waste, recycle nutrients, and implement systems to manage food waste and surpluses so they are not lost to the system (Jurgilevich et al. 2016; Figure 2.3 ). The provision of affordable, fresh, healthy food is vital to ending malnutrition and improving well-being, making it essential for food producers and consumers to have more information about the larger systems in which they operate. Internationally based, locally adapted frameworks—developed collaboratively by governments, the private sector, and specialist civil society organizations—can inform these producers and consumers whether the landscapes that produce food are healthy and whether the food itself is becoming more or less nutritious. The key is to balance healthy and equitable food environments with just and sustainable remuneration of family farmers, fishers, and producers, enabling them to care for both their households and their land and aquatic environments ( Alders et al. 2016 ). To achieve sustainable and equitable food systems, food must be valued not only by its weight or volume, but also by its nutrient density and freedom from biological and chemical contamination.

Conclusion: International Solidarity and Sustainable Values

We are likely to face more shocks and challenges on our way to 2030, even as we work to build a food system that can sustainably support a healthy, food-secure, well-nourished human population with Zero Hunger. The 2020 GHI findings highlight the food insecurity challenges facing low-income countries as they battle multiple crises. Right now, low- and middle-income countries can make progress by including marginalized groups in policy making, working together more effectively at the regional level to increase their negotiating power on the global stage, and ensuring shorter food supply chains within their regions. Both now and moving forward, they can carry out policies and programs that promote the well-being of female and male smallholder farmers and engage communities with agricultural production and food systems that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

We must not forget, however, that low- and middle-income countries cannot achieve the SDG 2 targets by 2030 without the full engagement of high-income countries. If Zero Hunger and the associated SDG 2 targets are to be met, high-income countries must also be active, positive contributors to dialogue and change. Among other things, they will need to use trade policy tools to create market incentives for sustainable food economies, untie aid and design food assistance to strengthen local and regional food systems, and change how agricultural products and services are valued so that nutrient content and ecosystem services are appropriately integrated into pricing mechanisms. A global transformation to a set of circular economies that feed all people through more sustainable food systems will not be completed by 2030, but by acting together we can achieve Zero Hunger while laying a solid foundation for a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world.

OVERLAPPING CRISES IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

Alliance2015.

Many countries face overlapping health, hunger, and eco-nomic crises, but the challenges confronting the Greater Horn of Africa loom especially large. In a region already home to large numbers of people affected by chronic and acute hunger, the COVID-19 pandemic comes on top of a severe locust infestation, ongoing conflict and instability, a series of extreme weather events induced by climate change, and a history of massive forced displacement (see figures below). Measures to contain the pandemic have created negative social and eco-nomic effects, complicated treatment of the locust infestation, and pose an unprecedented challenge to food security and nutrition. If the responses to the diverse challenges are not carefully coordinated, a food crisis will loom large in the region.

Source: Authors, based on IPC (2020), UNHCR (2020b), World Bank (2020e), and Johns Hopkins University and Medicine (2020).

Note: Colors of countries correspond to the GHI Severity Scale .

a People categorized as being in food crisis, emergency, or famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). Ethiopia: Feb–June 2020 projection; Kenya: April–July 2020 projection, arid and semi-arid lands; Somalia: as of April–June 2020; South Sudan: May–July 2020 projection; Sudan: as of June–August 2019. b Total number of refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and internally displaced persons as of June 2020. c For comparison, in 2017 the number of physicians per 100,000 averaged 80 in South Asia and 156.6 for the world as a whole. d As of September 2, 2020.

Hunger is already widespread. For the past two decades, countries in the region have experienced serious , alarming , or extremely alarming GHI levels. In May 2020, more than 25.3 million people in the region faced acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse. More than 11 million of these people live in areas infested by desert locusts, and their number is expected to grow as the locust swarm expands (IPC 2020).

The Horn of Africa commonly experiences severe droughts and floods, and extreme weather has contributed to the region’s worst infestation of desert locusts in decades. For the past nine rainy seasons, farmers and pastoralists in East Africa have experienced either severe flooding or scarce or failed rains, from which they are still recovering. All countries in the region are highly vulnerable to climate change but are ill prepared to deal with its effects (ND GAIN 2020; von Grebmer et al. 2019). As a result of two cyclones in 2018, heavy rains in the Arabian Peninsula generated a massive upsurge of desert locusts, exacerbated by another cyclone in late 2019. The swarms are destroying up to 100 percent of crops and fodder—a massive threat in a region where most of the population relies on agriculture. A swarm measuring one square kilometer can contain up to 80 million adult locusts, with the capacity to consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people (FAO 2020k). As of April 2020, 200,000 hectares of cropland had been damaged and 356,000 metric tons of cereals had been lost in Ethiopia alone (FAO 2020l). Given that swarms can travel up to 150 kilometers a day, the risk is high that the locusts will spread not only across neighboring countries, but across the Indian Ocean to join the swarms already spreading in India and Pakistan (FAO 2020k, n).

Armed conflict, turbulent political transformation, widespread forced displacement, and poor governance have left many countries ill equipped to respond to crises. In Ethiopia and Somalia, a fragile political context and mistrust in the state prevail, and acceptance of COVID-19 containment measures is dwindling. The health and social protection systems in the region are largely unable to treat widespread diseases, such as tuberculosis, let alone respond to COVID-19 (Weber 2020). The region is home to more than 11 million refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and internally displaced people (UNHCR 2020b). The Dadaab refugee complex, one of the largest such complexes in the world, lies in Eastern Kenya, near neighboring Somalia. In densely populated refugee camps and marginalized urban settlements, inadequate housing conditions and poor water and sanitation make it challenging for people to take preventive measures like hand-washing and physical distancing (Rudloff and Weber 2020).

The COVID-19 pandemic and measures designed to contain it are having severe social and economic effects that are worsening hunger and undernutrition. Like economies in other world regions, the already weak economies in the Greater Horn of Africa are likely to slip into recession. With limited medical capacity, countries in the region have relied heavily on border closures, travel restrictions, and strict lockdowns to flatten the infection curve. These measures, however, have hindered supply chains in the region, disrupting the availability of food in the markets as well as people’s ability to gain access to it. Restrictions have also hampered farmers’ access to agricultural inputs and their ability to cultivate their land (FAO and WFP 2020; IPC 2020). Urban residents who rely on the informal economy have been particularly hard hit, with market closures and restrictions on transport and mobility leaving them unable to generate income, to build up food reserves, or to provide for their families. Even rural populations that rely largely on subsistence farming are affected because they often buy some foods from markets (Rudloff and Weber 2020). Food prices were already high in some countries in the region, and poor harvests due to droughts and floods and COVID-19 countermeasures are aggravating the situation (FAO 2020m). A survey conducted in Addis Ababa in April 2020 showed that many households were already consuming more staple foods and fewer fruits and vegetables because more nutritious and balanced diets were unavailable and unaffordable (Hirvonen, Abate, and de Brauw 2020). Projections already warn that in the region more people could die from the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself (WFP 2020c).

This complex situation—an already fragile context combined with a severe locust infestation and COVID-19—could lead to a massive humanitarian crisis, and measures to cope with it must be planned holistically. An approach that focuses only on one crisis at a time may inadvertently exacerbate the other crises, which are all interlinked. Cross-border events require multilateral cooperation (such as between governments and with the Regional Desert Locust Alliance, FAO, and OCHA). Because the overlapping crises have different dynamics in urban and rural areas, they require distinct responses, but realities in urban and rural areas also influence each other and must be considered together.

TIMELINE OF NATURAL HAZARDS IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA, 2018–2020

• “Food crisis” here refers to the crisis phase (phase 3), or worse, of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC/CH) (FSIN 2020; IPC Global Partners 2019).  
• See, for example, FAO et al. (2008); One Health Joint European Program (2020); and FAO (2020o).  
• This affirmation should be in alignment with the all-hazards approach promoted by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the global health security–focused International Health Regulations.  

Guest Authors

Robyn Alders (Senior Consulting Fellow, Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House), Osman Dar (Project Director, One Health Project, Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House), Richard Kock (Wildlife Health and Emerging Diseases, Royal Veterinary College, and Associate Fellow, Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House), Francesco Rampa (Head, Sustainable Food Systems, European Centre for Development Policy Management)

By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.

By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.

Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.

Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

• Open access
• Published: 01 April 2024

Zero hunger: future challenges and the way forward towards the achievement of sustainable development goal 2

• Fabio Sporchia 1 , 2 ,
• Marta Antonelli 3 , 4 ,
• Alicia Aguilar-Martínez 5 ,
• Anna Bach-Faig 5 ,
• Dario Caro 1 ,
• Kyle F. Davis 6 ,
• Roberta Sonnino 7 &
• Alessandro Galli 4  

Sustainable Earth Reviews volume  7 , Article number:  10 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Since 2020, the progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2– Zero Hunger has faced a sudden stall due to an ongoing “polycrisis”. While some countries are on track, a great effort is still globally necessary to achieve the SDG2 targets. Here we provide a brief background about SDG2, including its synergies and trade-offs with other SDGs. We then identify and discuss the main challenges that the pathway towards zero hunger will have to tackle. The lack of a systemic approach, together with the complex, global, and nested dimensions of food systems are identified as key elements to be carefully considered when designing sustainability strategies. This means that a variety of stakeholders are called to simultaneously and cooperatively act on multiple fronts to ensure a safe, equal, and just progress of all countries and populations towards the achievement of SDG2.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2– Zero Hunger– consists of eight targets aiming to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” [ 1 ]. The first five targets (2.1–2.5) focus on food security, nutrition, and agricultural practices, while the last three focus on financial and market aspects to support the achievement of those targets (2.A-2.C).

As a result of major global events (e.g., the COVID-19 outbreak and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict), most of the global progress in achieving SDG2 has receded back to levels dating around 2015. Although improvements have been made in a few cases, most countries are off-track to meet the targets by 2030 [ 2 ]. For instance, the global trend in the prevalence of undernourishment (target 2.1.1) reverted to levels of 2009–2010 during 2020 [ 3 ], as a result of the various food systems shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The levels of childhood stunting (target 2.2.1) stagnated after 2020, interrupting the previous positive trend. Similarly, the decreasing trend in wasting prevalence turned into stagnation, and the prevalence in overweight even slightly increased (target 2.2.2) [ 4 ]. Moreover, despite progress in public spending on agriculture, the recent polycrisis has resulted in high food and fertilizer prices, limiting the expected income gains for populations living off agriculture [ 2 ]. From a market perspective, substantial progress on meeting target 2.B.1, which aims to eradicate agricultural export subsidies, has been achieved [ 3 ]. Nevertheless, food price anomalies (indicator 2.C.1) are still quite diffused across countries.

The 17 SDGs and their relative targets are designed to be strongly interconnected which means that there may be trade-offs or synergies between them [ 5 , 6 ]. The presence of these interlinkages, together with the global dimension of food systems, explains the repercussions that global events had, have, and will continue to have on the achievement of SDG2 targets. For instance, although agricultural activities were exempted from the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions in the functioning and effectiveness of global food supply chains inevitably occurred during those years, with consequences on food security and nutrition [ 7 ]. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has exposed the sensitivity of global food systems, and food and nutrition security objectives, to geopolitical events, which impact countries regardless of their physical proximity to them [ 8 ]. Finally, climate change is also projected to hamper the achievement of SDG2 [ 9 ], and might have already done so. Some attribute to climate dynamics the increase in the percentage of undernourished people that occurred (after a period of positive trends between 2018 and 2019), when the absolute number of undernourished people in the world (since 2014) also increased [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Looking ahead, this situation will possibly continue to worsen, since the three recent drivers of disruption (major global health threats, geopolitical conflicts, and climate-induced environmental degradation) are themselves interconnected [ 13 ]. The cumulative effects of conflict, climate unpredictability and extreme weather events, have already produced resource degradation, economic hardship, and social and political instability, which have in turned exacerbated situations of chronic hunger, acute food insecurity, and malnutrition [ 14 ].

In sum, the challenges currently faced by the global food system are characterized by synergies, trade-offs, and feedback mechanisms [ 15 ]. Future challenges that will affect the achievement of SDG2 in the 7 years left to 2030 are likely to be complex. To engage with this complexity, in this debate paper we have adopted a systemic lens to the analysis of data collected through a review of recent literature and informal interviews with professionals with diverse food-related areas of expertise. Our analysis has identified four main challenges that– in our opinion– the pathway towards Zero Hunger will have to tackle.

Global causes, effects, and governance

Food systems will be severely affected by the consequences of the multiple global environmental impacts they continue to produce [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Climate crisis and shocks, in particular, will have direct negative consequences on food prices, food insecurity, and malnutrition through various direct and indirect pathways and feedback mechanisms. Indeed, the increasing climate unpredictability is altering planting patterns, amplifying the prevalence of pest and disease outbreaks, exacerbating the pressure on already scarce natural resources, and fostering local conflicts and migration patterns that detrimentally affect food security and nutrition [ 12 ]. The existence of Most Affected People and Areas (MAPAs) raises the need for a global recognition of the underlying past and present responsibilities and for a shared and active engagement with the drivers of both current and expected negative impacts. A global, target-oriented and evidence-based governance framework is urgently needed to avoid the persistence and worsening of the environmental, social, and economic injustice that continue to affect food security of populations across the globe [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. In this sense, it is remarkable that inter-governmental action is lagging behind the sub-national actions undertaken by local governments, stressing the unacceptable lack of willingness of national bodies to acknowledge the urgency of global action [ 22 , 23 ]. To address this gap, it is vital to reinforce the science-policy-society interface, ensuring that policies are backed by sustainability assessments that are multidisciplinary (encompassing environmental, social and economic domains), comprehensive (covering cradle-to-grave systems), integrated (focused on the whole diet instead of single foods) and with a special attention for nutritional and health aspects [ 23 ]. While there is a clear attention for the evaluation of policy readiness towards SDG2, existing assessments are fragmented across specific areas [ 24 , 25 ] and are oriented towards domestic policies. The lack of a global integrated assessment of the policy readiness towards SDG2 is a key gap, that will have to be filled out in the next few years. The urgency to acknowledge the relevance of food systems at the intergovernmental level, and the need to elevate its governance at the global scale were clearly stated in a letter addressed to the COP 28 (Conference of the Parties) and signed by 80 organizations and individuals Footnote 1 , which luckily resulted in the inclusion– for the first-time– of food-related actions in the final stocktaking decision text Footnote 2 . Only by thoroughly engaging with the global dimension of food systems it will be possible to design effective policies to sustainably accelerate the progress towards the achievement of SDG2.

Supply chains: inequality, power imbalances, and conflict

The global dimensions of food systems’ challenges raises the need for the adoption of a broad systemic approach that accounts for all components that connect food production with food security, nutrition, and human health. Developing frameworks that can reliably model and predict the place-based connections between food production and nutrition– and that account for such deep diversity and complexity– can be a monumental step towards achieving SDG2 [ 17 ].

Food consumption is generally linked to food production via supply chains, which can be short (e.g., subsistence-oriented), or, more often, long (e.g., global food trade) [ 26 ]. This imposes the urgent need to consider the whole supply chain when evaluating the sustainability of food systems [ 27 ], which should be transparent and explicitly highlight the role of international trade as a driver of negative environmental, social, or economic impact [ 28 ]. Through international trade, globalization ensures the availability of food items that would otherwise be only seasonally available. While this might meet consumer desires, the supply of off-season foods often comes with higher environmental and economic costs, which are mostly beared on regions that produce food for export [ 29 ]. The bridge between production and consumption (the missing middle) has already been identified as a critical entry point for policies oriented towards SDG2 [ 30 ].

However, the structure of global supply chains is often shaped by large (multinational) companies, which impose a monopoly dictated by the objective of maximizing their profit by taking advantage of the critical socio-economic situation of countries that have availability of natural resources, cheap labor, and relaxed regulation. This power imbalance, fueled by capitalism and globalization, risks to perpetuate existing inequalities, especially within supply chains of cash crops extensively demanded (though not supplied) by the Global North [ 29 ]. Pursuing profit means pursuing cheap primary inputs, such as labor and natural resources, which are often in the hands of a few powerful food system actors. The concentration of resources across the globe is often the cause of conflicts, which disrupt the environmental and socio-economic context of the regions involved, displacing small-scale family farms that, in many areas of the world, play a key role in terms of food security [ 31 , 32 ]. A key feature of the global capitalist food economy is the widespread tendency to disregard the real costs of food (i.e., the negative externalities associated with its production) in the market price. Such tendency has supported the diffusion of cheap, unhealthy, and ultra-processed foods, with negative socio-economic consequences even in wealthy countries [ 33 ]. Climatic and environmental policies are striving to incentivize the production of nutrient-dense crops that support a healthy diet. However, trade-offs are common and have the potential to seriously undermine the cost of healthy eating. The relative costs of nutrient-dense foods and foods with high energy density and low nutritional value could be significantly changed by internalizing those costs through pricing (such as carbon taxes or cap and trade systems); practically, however, financial measures are difficult to implement and may require global agreements [ 34 ].

Food production: farming practices, assessment methods, and data

Current farming practices and orientation are not sustainable. The use of more sustainable practices (such as organic farming) should be prioritized, and intensive farming (along with feed-food competition) should be restricted [ 35 ]. In terms of scope, SDG2 is mostly focused on cultivation, while livestock farming, pastoralism, fisheries and aquaculture are given marginal attention– also by other SDGs [ 36 ]. These food production activities urgently need attention given their multi-dimensional role as generators of resources (e.g., feed-food competition) but also as sources of income and nutrition (i.e., of food security). This implies, amongst other things, the implementation of a much larger effort in terms of data collection as well as the use of more robust methodologies. The latter should adopt a multi-scalar approach to complement on field-level surveys (the most common practice) with higher-level assessments that move beyond the mere consideration of the environmental burden [ 37 , 38 ].

Farming (including fishing and aquaculture) is the first step in the food supply chain. It is the activity most exposed to environmental disruptions, and the one that generates the greatest environmental impact– especially on climate dynamics. Farming practices matter not just in terms of how crops and livestock are produced and where. Detailed, item-specific and spatially disaggregated data on food production are often insufficient, outdated, and fragmented [ 39 ]. This severely constrains the ability of countries to quantify the current state of food production and prevents the implementation of evidence-based and targeted agricultural interventions that could improve food systems sustainability across multiple dimensions [ 40 , 41 ].

Place-based datasets would be a much-needed complement for the large variety of data collected on global food systems; their integration would indeed support the prioritization of actions on impactful leverage points associated with the use of agricultural inputs (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorous), as well as outputs (e.g., pollutant emissions). Finally, actions to measure, monitor and prevent food loss and waste are extremely valuable and need to deal with each stage of the supply chain: from product design (e.g., size and shelf life), processing (e.g., favoring less processed foods), and packaging (e.g., preferring materials that are easily up-cyclable), up to the provision to consumers of crystal clear instructions on the best food preservation practices.

Consumption: dietary patterns, shifts, and novel food

As the global population continues to increase, the need for sustainable production practices will become even more imperative. In quantitative terms, population growth translates into increased demand, which will not be met without changes in lifestyles and related dietary habits. These two key drivers are bound to clash with the shrinking resources of an overexploited, warming planet, where land and water availability continue to shrink– primarily due to unsustainable farming practices and climate change– and where rural out-migration is drastically decreasing the labor-force available in the fields [ 42 ]. A systemic approach to sustainable food systems must encompass strategies that address both demographic shifts and the multiple challenges posed by a changing climate and embracing the interconnected nature of the two phenomena. Dietary patterns are placing a substantial strain on natural resources and causing environmental burden that goes beyond the local boundaries [ 26 ]. More sustainable (and widely available) food alternatives (e.g., novel food such as edible insects, cultured meat, and algae, which have not yet been subjected to an adequate number of sustainability assessments) [ 43 , 44 ] are under-utilised, given the widespread tendency in the Global North to refrain from designing consumption-side solutions in favor of actions that rarely go beyond simple guidelines or recommendations. An interesting exemplary exception is the case of Denmark, which introduced the shift to a plant-based diet as an action not only to achieve climate goals, but also to generate socio-economic benefits [ 45 ]. This kind of effort confirms Kearney [ 46 ]’s hypothesis that in high-income countries– which have in the past transitioned towards heavy meat consumption– wealthier and highly educated residents (primarily located in urban areas) are shifting to diets reduced in fat and rich in fruits and vegetables. Conversely, low- and middle-income countries are abandoning a starchy low-fat diet with limited variety moving towards energy dense diets that are rich in sugar and fat and are based on the consumption of a higher variety of food items [ 46 , 47 ]– including animal-based (e.g., meat, fish and seafood) and sugar-rich products which place additional strain on land and water use and cause increased GHG emissions [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. Policy makers should begin to engage with current food consumption issues, for instance by pushing towards the adoption of dietary patterns proven to be more sustainable, as proposed by the One Health approach [ 49 ]. At a bare minimum, action in this sense should be directed towards the promotion of local, seasonal, and more nutrient-rich foods (quality vs. quantity). This kind of actions are unlikely to have long-term effects unless they are coupled with a radical reform of the amount and quality of information provided to consumers (e.g., food marketing). A re-orientation of consumption patterns towards sustainability entails the designing of a standardized and comprehensive labeling system, providing nutritional information (i.e., about the quality of nutrients) alongside information on the environmental [ 50 ] and socio-economic costs of the whole supply chain. School meals could play a vital role in the dissemination of information about sustainable diets to young generations, while at the same time representing an important market for more sustainable food products (e.g., plant-based options).

Conclusions

Returning to the challenges identified above, we draw the following recommendations for the achievement of SDG2:

Global causes, effects and governance

Drawing on the conclusions reached at COP28, creating a global multi-scale governance framework is required to ensure collective surveillance, coordination and cooperation, with particular attention for the actors and areas that are, and will be, most vulnerable to climate shocks and related price shocks. This could be achieved– for instance– by strengthening the resources and scaling-up the remit and ambitions of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

Confining of strategic intervention at either the supply or the demand side of food chains is clearly not working. A comprehensive mapping of food supply chains is necessary and can be achieved through multidimensional life-cycle sustainability evaluations covering all dimensions of the food system, from production to consumption. The standardized mapping of environmental, social, and economic information, especially with regard to international supply chains, is also necessary to progress towards a more systemic approach to food issues.

National governments should push towards more sustainable farming practices (such as organic farming) while strengthening assessment and data collection methods that would support place-based interventions. This can prevent the proliferation of profit-driven (especially when export-oriented) practices that disregard food security and the conservation of natural resources in local communities. Waste and loss prevention should be prioritized, especially for long supply chains and packaged foods.

National governments must intervene on food consumption and move beyond the sole (ineffective) redaction of guidelines. An immediate strategy to contribute to shaping new and healthier dietary patterns could involve public procurement (e.g., targeted intervention on school meals). Even though it is difficult to set limits on the consumption of high impact (social and environmental) food items, a standardized, clear, and transparent labeling scheme should be implemented to stimulate more sustainable consumption patterns.

Overall, transversal remarks

The imposition of radical changes within food systems must ensure that the effort and consequent burdening is fairly shared among all actors involved. The required measures must be implemented gradually and all stakeholders within the most affected sectors (e.g., farmers, and especially livestock farmers) must be safeguarded by targeted social safety nets, such as temporary subsidies, while ensuring (or maintaining) fair wages and decent working conditions Footnote 3 . These important but still neglected issues should be placed on the agenda of global processes and organizations such as the CFS as well as incorporated in national roundtable discussions. More generally, it is time to turn emerging systemic initiatives, visions, and strategies into concrete and tangible policies. For instance, this is the case for the EU Farm-To-Fork Strategy Footnote 4 which still lacks a legislative framework (originally due by 2023). Similarly, there is an urgent need to put into practice the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 Footnote 5 through the designing of dedicated policies, which should be supported by an enabling legislative context– e.g., the not yet approved Nature Restoration Law Footnote 6 .

Effectively implementing the Zero Hunger ambition of SDG2 by 2030 urgently requires a combination of long-term, concerted efforts by multiple actors (e.g., producers, consumers and policy makers), which can trigger systemic behavioral changes at both individual and societal, collective level. The 2030 time horizon is not just a politically set deadline, but also the time-frame beyond which the destabilization of multiple Earth System processes might become irreversible [ 51 ].

Data availability

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Adrian Mueller (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL), Sara Moreno Pires (University of Aveiro), and Shauna Downs (The State University of New Jersey) for their remarkable suggestions that greatly improved the quality of this work. This paper and related research have been conducted during and with the support of the Italian national inter-university PhD course in Sustainable Development and Climate change.

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• Published: 19 October 2021

UNDERNOURISHMENT

The cost of zero hunger

• Anne Mullen 1  

Nature Food volume  2 ,  page 753 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, global hunger and child undernutrition are on the rise and the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 are off track. Pre-pandemic models put the cost of reducing undernourishment at up to US$265 billion per year, although estimates of cost and the number of people lifted out of hunger varied widely between models designed with a variety of definitions, objectives and strategies in mind. Now, Bezawit Beyene Chichaibelua and colleagues from the University of Bonn have developed a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) to identify interventions with the highest potential for hunger reduction by 2030 with least-cost investment, with projections that incorporate the impact of COVID-19 as a reference scenario.

The MACC allows investment options to be ranked by effectiveness. The expert-based MACC employed here, and the pros and cons of this approach, are well detailed in the manuscript, which has a strong academic narrative. The potential to reduce hunger and cost of each of 22 interventions (12 related to crop yield at farm level; 5 related to infrastructure for food distribution; 3 related to food access; 2 related to maternal and child care) were elicited from a literature review with additional calculations, and interventions were ranked from least to most expensive based on the average cost of lifting an individual out of hunger.

The MACC shows that the G7 target of lifting 500 million people out of hunger by 2030 would require investment of US$11–14 billion per year, and could be achieved with least cost through agricultural research and development efficiency enhancement, agricultural extension services, information and communications technology, agricultural information services, small-scale irrigation expansion in Africa, female literacy improvements and scaling up existing social protection. To end hunger by 2030, investment of US$39–50 billion per year could lift 840–909 million people out of hunger.

Chichaibelua and colleagues offer a very richly detailed paper that has academic value beyond presentation of the MACC. They detail and build a narrative around previous models from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Food Policy Research Institute, The World Bank and others including the Achieving Zero Hunger framework, Towards Zero-Hunger by 2030, Ending Hunger: What Would It Cost, and Investment Framework for Nutrition. The overview of the MACC as an aid for policymakers is an informative and insightful read. As a take-home message, the authors highlight the need to frontload investment in more expensive strategies that will come to fruition in the long term, while ensuring immediate measures are taken to feed the hungry. Ultimately, at the cost modelled in this study, the authors conclude that ending hunger is not prohibitively expensive.

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What do we mean by Zero Hunger?

Jan 21, 2022

One of the main Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is to reach Zero Hunger. But what does that actually mean? Here’s what we mean by a phrase that’s both fairly straightforward and a tall order.

Zero Hunger: Definition and targets

The UN’s definition of Zero Hunger goes beyond a single number. A more complete rundown of the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.”

To measure the success of achieving this, the UN outlines five targets to indicate our progress towards Zero Hunger (more on each of these below):

Access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food year-round

End malnutrition in all its forms.

• Increase agricultural productivity
• Sustainable food systems and agricultural resilience
• Diversified crops and seeds

The Sustainable Development Goals & Decade of Action — explained

We’re less than 10 years away from the deadline to meet the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Here’s what that means.

Why Zero Hunger matters

Simply put, we can’t achieve truly sustainable development around the world if we don’t end hunger and malnutrition . As much as poverty causes hunger , hunger is also a key cause — and maintainer — of poverty .

If a person doesn’t get enough food, they’ll lack the strength and energy needed to work. Or their immune system will weaken from malnutrition and leave them more susceptible to illness that prevents them from getting to work. This can lead to a vicious cycle, especially for children. If a mother is malnourished during pregnancy, that can be passed on to her children. The costs of malnutrition may be felt over a lifetime: Adults who were stunted as children earn, on average, 22% less than those who weren’t stunted. In Ethiopia , stunting contributes to GDP losses as high as 16%.

Beyond that, however, we all want our families, friends, and loved ones to live long, creative, happy lives. Having enough food that provides the nutrients we need is a key ingredient.

Here’s how Concern is working to reach this goal across each of the five UN SDG targets.

Stand With Concern in Ending Global Hunger

By 2030, the goal is to end hunger and ensure that everyone (particularly those most vulnerable) has access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food year-round. What’s key here is the issue of vulnerability. Many groups who are traditionally more susceptible to hazard and risk in an emergency — including women, infants, people living in extreme poverty, or in areas especially susceptible to the climate crisis — are those who struggle to meet their dietary requirements year-round.

Regardless of the roadblocks, however, the world still produces enough food to feed its entire population. Kenya’s Tana River County, for example, has borne the brunt of the country’s climate-related impacts over the last few decades, leading to rising hunger levels. In 2020, Concern worked with communities in this county on an integrated agriculture and livelihoods program called the LEAF Project , which took two approaches to a common challenge: Provide lifesaving treatment for acutely-malnourished children and pregnant/lactating women, and prevent future cases of malnutrition through sustainable livelihoods that allow people living in poverty and marginalization to generate long-term incomes.

In the end, food security levels among those communities participating in LEAF rose dramatically. So much so that, for the first time in three decades, there was no need for food aid distribution in the communities where LEAF was active.

There are a few different types of malnutrition , which in and of itself is a side effect of extreme hunger. Regardless of the specific diagnosis, each can have a lifetime of ramifications — especially for young children. Malnutrition in all its forms costs the global economy as much as $3.5 trillion USD, owing to human capital lost, premature mortality, increased healthcare costs, compromised school performance, and adult productivity.

In 2000, Concern was part of a revolution in the treatment of malnutrition in extreme low-income communities, particularly those where other factors like conflict and remote locations posed barriers to getting medical treatment. A combination of community-based health workers and treatment through portable, shelf-stable therapeutic food has helped to save millions of lives in the last two decades.

Increase agricultural productivity and resilience, and diversified crops and seeds

These last three targets go hand-in-hand in many of the countries where Concern works. The effects of climate change on agriculture have been devastating in many parts of the world, and many of the methods and crops that farmers have relied on for generations are no longer able to yield the same quality and quantity of food. Countries in the Horn of Africa and south of the Sahara have contended with decades of droughts which lead to lost harvests and livestock. Communities along the coastline of India and Bangladesh have had to contend with rising sea levels, which either wipe away plants or destroy crops due to increased salinity. Small farms, women, and indigenous peoples are especially at risk in this context.

Climate Smart Agriculture is one solution that helps farmers use the resources available to them in order to see more fruitful harvests, using techniques like soil preservation and crop rotation to improve the conditions for growth. Farmers like Esime Jenaia in Mangochi, Malawi , have been able to find more efficient methods of producing, processing, and even marketing their harvests, based on their land and climate. Our gender equality trainings in Malawi also help female farmers achieve the same results with their work as their male counterparts do, both in the field and at market. “With the same field, I used to harvest one bag of maize, but now I harvest eight bags,” Esime told us in 2019.

Sometimes, trying a new crop is also the key. As far as anyone can remember, barley was the norm in South Wollo, Ethiopia. However, the country’s highlands were not ideally suited to the plant, which isn’t drought-resistant. Potatoes were better suited to the land, and held a higher payoff — as Ali Assen discovered. Barley in South Wollo fetches 6,400 Ethiopian Birr ($220) for every 2.5 acres. The same area’s equivalent of potatoes can sell for up to 62,000 Ethiopian Birr ($2,150).

Fighting hunger in Ethiopia — the Irish way

Are we on track to achieve zero hunger by 2030 .

The sad answer is: No. Conflict and climate change were both major barriers to ending hunger before 2019, and while there was steady progress still being made, much of it has been reversed since the rapid spread of COVID-19 . In east Africa, a locust invasion that decimated crops coincided with pandemic-related shutdowns, creating a crisis as multifaceted as it is damaging. In low-income countries, small-scale food producers have been hit especially hard — and these farmers can make up as much as 85% of food producers in their region.

Beyond food production, stunting and wasting among children are also likely to worsen due to the events of the last two years. We still don’t know the full effects of the pandemic on child hunger, but one estimate suggests that the number of children suffering from malnutrition could increase by over 10 million between 2020 and 2022.

Zero Hunger: What can I do to help?

The US is a leader in moving the humanitarian system to be more anticipatory, responding early before a crisis takes hold. Addressing the current hunger crisis as well as the data-informed indicators we have around future hunger crises will be a clear test of that legacy. Here are some ways that you can take action and contribute to a solution:

• Eliminate food waste in your home. Food waste is one of the leading causes of hunger in the world, and one of the easiest steps you can take. Use that you purchase while it’s fresh, or freeze items to extend their shelf-lives.
• Shop local and sustainably. Supporting your local farmers and food systems helps to make your consumption more sustainable — and often the quality of food is much better.
• Let your representatives know that Zero Hunger is a priority. As a constituent, your voice matters to elected officials. Ask that your representatives continue to honor foreign aid commitments that the United States makes towards countries — many of which are earmarked for food aid and agricultural interventions that could help eliminate hunger levels in certain areas.
• Join the conversation. A number of culinary creators from around the world stand united with Concern Worldwide in the fight against global hunger with Chefs United, calling on individuals, corporations, and governments to guarantee humanitarian assistance for the 41 million people who stand at risk of famine.
• Vote with your wallet. Supporting organizations like Concern allows us to continue our proven, value-for-money work in ending malnutrition. A one-time, tax-deductible gift of $50 can provide a full course of therapeutic food to save a child’s life. A recurring, tax-deductible monthly gift of $120 can feed an entire family for the year.

Support Concern in Ending Hunger

RUTF and CMAM: The Story of a Humanitarian Revolution

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SDG-2 Zero Hunger

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• Sinan Küfeoğlu 2  

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People’s lives, communities and civilisations have all been defined by constant danger. Hunger is the menace, a plague that causes weakness, despair and death in the worst-case scenarios. One of the primary common threads has been hunger throughout history, which has resulted in large-scale migration, wars, conflicts and great sacrifices. This chapter presents the business models of 40 companies and use cases that employ emerging technologies and create value in SDG-2, Zero Hunger. We should highlight that one use case can be related to more than one SDG and it can make use of multiple emerging technologies.

The author would like to acknowledge the help and contributions of Sedef Güraydın, Esra Çalık, Gülen Mine Demiralp, Hasan Serhat Bayar, İbrahim Alperen Karataylı, İbrahim Yusuf Yıldırım and Tuana Özten in completing this chapter. They also contributed to Chapter 2 ’s Bioplastics, Recycling, Robotic Process Automation, Robotics and Soilless Farming sections.

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• Sustainable development goals
• Business models
• Zero Hunger
• Sustainability

Today, people’s lives, communities and civilisations have all been defined by constant danger. Hunger is the menace, a plague that causes weakness, despair and death in the worst-case scenarios. One of the primary common threads has been hunger throughout history, which has resulted in large-scale migration, wars, conflicts and great sacrifices (FAO 2019 ). Since the early colonial era, keeping populations fed has been a key administrative concern (Nally 2011 ). It helped communities strengthen their bonds of friendship and solidarity. For this important issue, the first UN conference on food and agriculture was called by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943. The conference specifically stated that countries must develop a food and nutrition policy to set their own intermediate goals gradually. Afterwards, the escalating Cold War and Malthusian worries that food shortages would fuel communism became the reason for the 1960s to be dubbed as the “fighting hunger decade” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its Freedom from Hunger Campaign (Byerlee and Fanzo 2019 ). Two significant advances on the way to SDG-2 occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. First, the conversation switched from food supply to food availability. The FAO modified its definition of food security in 1982 to guarantee that all people have physical and economic access to the food they need at all times (Sen 1982 ; Shaw 2007 ). After these new developments, global goals have become important for a new millennium. The WHO member nations approved six global targets for promoting maternal, baby and early child nutrition in 2012 and committed to tracking progress towards those goals (WHO 2014 ). Zero Hunger, developed by economist and agronomist José Graziano da Silva, has been considered as one of the most significant achievements in the fight against hunger and poverty on a global scale (FAO 2019 ).

Many people worldwide think that hunger can be eradicated in the coming decades, and they are working together to achieve this objective (UN 2021 ). In many countries, undernutrition has decreased nearly half due to the increasing agricultural productivity and rapid growth of the economy. Yet, some people have encountered starvation and malnutrition (Paramashanti 2020 ). World leaders affirmed the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food at the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which is compatible with the right to enough food and the basic right of everyone to be invulnerable to hunger. “End hunger, achieve food security and enhanced nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” are the objectives of SDG-2. Because it is inextricably tied to society, the economy and the environment, SDG-2 is critical to the entire SDG agenda’s success. Even though undeveloped countries rely more heavily on agricultural operations, food production and consumption are important to every economy and permeate all cultures (Gil et al. 2019 ).

More coordinated decision-making mechanisms at the national and local levels are necessary to collaborate and effectively address trade-offs between climate change, water, agriculture, land and energy. To avoid large-scale future shortages and to ensure food security and excellent nutrition for everybody, local food systems must be strengthened (UN 2021 ). The United Nations Committee on World Food Security defines food security as all people having social, physical and financial access to adequate, clean and nutritional food that meets their dietary requirements at all times to live a healthy life (UNDESA 2021 ). The goal of SDG-2, which is to ensure global food security and agricultural sustainability, necessitates prompt and coordinated action from both developing and developed countries. This, in turn, is contingent on clear, broadly applicable objectives and indicators, which are now in short supply. The SDGs’ new and sophisticated character complicates its implementation on the ground, especially in light of interlinkages across SDG targets and scales (Gil et al. 2019 ).

The Zero Hunger objective, in particular, highlights a long-overdue realisation that industrial agriculture threatens fundamental ecological processes on which food supply depends by including sustainable agriculture targets into the larger endeavour to end hunger (Blesh et al. 2019 ). As shown in Fig. 4.1 , there are eight targets within the context of SDG-2.

SDG-2 targets. (Goal 2 2021 , p. 2)

While the increasing population growth was 7.339 billion in 2015, this number increased to 7.753 billion in 2020. This rise carries dozens of new issues, such as decreasing per capita income and increasing consumption of natural resources (“Population, total | Data” 2021 ). According to UN estimates, there are over 690 million hungry people globally, accounting for 8.9% of the global population, an increase of ten million in a year and over 60 million in 5 years (Goal 2 2021 ). When it comes to calculating needed calorie-based consumption, the rise in food demand has overtaken population growth. To consume food, one must also produce it, which necessitates agricultural and animal resources (Fukase and Martin 2020 ). The world’s arable land rose from 1523 million hectares to 1562 million hectares between 1992 and 2012. As a result, arable land per capita has decreased, as has the effect of population expansion and rising food consumption. In other words, the food will be produced with more difficulty, and this will also cause the reduction of forests (Fukase and Martin 2020 ). Agriculture for food production and the food consumed have harmed the environment, for example, GHG emissions and land conversion. These challenges can help solve many problems through agricultural research, resource management and infrastructure improvement, but they are insufficient. Focusing on the agriculture sector and doing complementary research outside of it can help solve both the environmental and hunger problems. This is a global issue as well as one that affects regional economies. Reduced hunger in Africa, for example, might be shown as a goal. Accepting some conditions is important to go confidently towards this objective. These situations can be handled as follows: climate change has hindered and may continue to prevent hunger reduction, investment in agriculture in poor countries and the rest of the world can increase productivity for important crops and livestock, and investments in agricultural R&D and other incremental investments, not just in agriculture, are needed to end hunger (Mason-D’Croz et al. 2019). In addition, to deal with the global issues, there is the concept of food safety, which is a national and regional security concept (Tansey 2013 ). Transforming the global food system into an inclusive private sector-based system that is environmentally sustainable and more beneficial in terms of climate is an important move towards achieving the goals. While these moves are being implemented, changes or situations may complement each other. As a result, the goal is to establish priorities and optimise the success of these definitions (Rickards and Shortis 2019 ). Research areas are also effective in providing these optimisations.

WEF nexus explains the relationship of the three main components of water, energy and food to improve intersectoral coordination while supporting sustainable development. It is also a good approach to managing natural resources (Hamidov and Helming 2020 ). Although this triangle previously varied, water, energy and food have been considered the most basic triad due to unbalanced access (Sharifi Moghadam et al. 2019 ). Food production, which requires water and energy, is an example of the water-energy-food relationship (Nie et al. 2019 ). Considering this concept, new food production techniques are being developed to reduce resource use and increase product yield.

Increasing food demands have resulted in an over-expansion of agricultural lands required to meet food production goals. Agricultural production accounts for about 80% of global deforestation, and livestock and animal feed production is a major factor in agricultural deforestation (Agribusiness & Deforestation 2021 ). People settlement and agriculture have changed the majority of the natural ecosystems (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008 ). Studies should be carried out to prevent these adverse effects for the most effective use of agricultural lands. Food production is sensitive to climate change. With climate change, temperatures have increased, ecosystem boundaries have changed, and invasive species have emerged. As a result, both livestock productivity and the nutritional quality of grains and crop yield decrease (Climate-Smart Agriculture 2021 ). Food production accounts for between 1/5 and 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions from humans (Agriculture and Food Production Contribute Up to 29 Percent of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions According to Comprehensive Research Papers 2012 ). CSA focuses on the effects of climate change and food security on parts of the food supply such as agriculture, livestock and fisheries. Food supply aims to increase productivity, increase resilience to harsh conditions and minimise emissions per calorie obtained (Climate-Smart Agriculture 2021 ).

Dietary patterns that support all aspects of an individual’s health and well-being while being environmentally friendly are known as sustainable healthy diets. The goal of sustainable healthy diets is to ensure optimal growth and development of all people; to support functionality and physical, mental and social well-being at all stages of life; to prevent all forms of malnutrition; to reduce the risk of diet-related diseases; and to maintain biodiversity and planetary health while providing nutrients (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization 2019 ).

The aim to reach SDG-2, Zero Hunger by 2030, will not be accomplished (Grebmer and Bernstein 2020 ). Still, hopeful future predictions could be made regarding the positive processes that have been made already. Even in the most dangerously vulnerable countries to hunger, the conditions have gotten significantly better over the years. Our problematic global food arrangement has a share in the current position, which is the limits of the planet’s ecology and social connections in the sense of being no longer suitable for the population to be safe and develop equally (Grebmer and Bernstein 2020 ). Decreasing hunger is a crucial means to extend the growth further globally, but ending hunger holds an underlying position of bringing everyone the right to fair living conditions, including nutritional needs they deserve, as stated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Cohen 2019 ). Producing food creates an imminent compromise in protecting nature. However, diminishing hunger can be considered the core element of sustainable development. By definition, sustainable development is creating growth that will satisfy the demands of the present generations while preserving its potential to satisfy the needs of the later generations. Therefore supplying enough food is a primary demand towards sustainable development. Attentively planned distribution of cropland in prospective would affect compromises to function better between producing the food and protecting the biological diversity (Zhang et al. 2021 ). A comprehensive solution for agriculture and food arrangement internationally is demanded to feed the current 690 million food-deprived people with the predicted addition to the global population of two billion people by 2050. The dangers of hunger could be relieved by more productive agriculture systems and more sustainable management of food supplies (Goal 2 2021 ). Closing the yield gap would both create a great saving of soil and decrease the species that are going extinct (Zhang et al. 2021 ). Being careless about food security comes at a cost; hunger creates great expenses in respect of patients’ well-being, diminishes the capacity of human force and decreases sustainable growth (Cohen 2019 ). An important outcome that could be seen through the projects aiming to eradicate hunger that did not get funded properly and fulfil its purpose throughout the last 20 years is that the electorate’s support is crucial for powerful policies (Cohen 2019 ). It is crucial to create proper policies for the smaller-scale farmers and women in underprivileged regions of the world, which are experiencing the worst of global hunger, for them to present themselves politically and become actors in the actions that they get affected by (Cohen 2019 ). FAO predicts the need for food internationally will grow by 70% until 2050. This higher need for food will be caused by Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, which are growing areas in terms of the predicted increase in the residents’ incomes (Linehan et al. 2012 ).

According to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, business is a critical partner in accomplishing sustainable development goals. People want organisations to assess their impact, set ambitious targets and communicate honestly about the results through companies’ key activities. The SDGs attempt to reroute global public and private investment flows towards the challenges they represent. As a result, they define expanding markets for businesses that provide creative solutions and dramatic change (SDG Compass 2021 ).

The most crucial two aspects of the “Zero Hunger” goal is agricultural production and food supply, and they mostly depend on the activities of the private sector. That means, to achieve SDG-2, major involvement in the private sector is needed. There are many different types and sizes of businesses in the agriculture and food sector. Some businesses use the most conventional methods, while others prefer the most modern methods. The sizes of these businesses may range from smallholder farmers to global multi-billion-dollar companies. Considering these factors, investors, customers and end consumers have a wide range of needs and expectations. If nations, continents, sectors and professions join forces and act on evidence, the world can attain Zero Hunger. Agricultural, fishing and forestry employ 80% of the world’s poor. As a result, achieving “Zero Hunger” requires a rural economic revolution. Governments must provide possibilities for more private sector investment in agriculture, as well as strengthen social protection programs for the poor and connect food farmers with metropolitan areas (A #ZeroHunger world by 2030 is possible 2021 ). Since 2015, the worldwide food and beverage industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7%, reaching almost $5943.6 billion in 2019. From 2019 to 2023, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.1%, reaching $7525.7 billion. In 2025, the market is expected to reach $8638.2 billion, and in 2030, $11,979.9 billion (Food and Beverages Global Market Opportunities and Strategies to 2030: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery 2020 ). There are many opportunities in the food market for businesses that attach importance to the targets of SDG-2, agile to adapt and use the emerging technologies, social responsibility values and sustainability, thanks to its massive size.

4.1 Companies and Use Cases

Table 4.1 presents the business models of 40 companies and use cases that employ emerging technologies and create value in SDG-2. We should highlight that one use case can be related to more than one SDG and it can make use of multiple emerging technologies. In the left column, we present the company name, the origin country, related SDGs and emerging technologies that are included. The companies and use cases are listed alphabetically. Footnote 1

For reference, you may click on the hyperlinks on the company names or follow the websites here (Accessed Online – 2.1.2022):

http://betahatch.com/ ; http://notco.com/ ; http://www.scadafarm.com/ ; https://agrograph.com/ ; https://asirobots.com/ ; https://bensonhill.com/ ; https://biomemakers.com/ ; https://brouav.com ; https://future-meat.com/ ; https://get-nourished.com/ ; https://gussag.com/ ; https://impossiblefoods.com/ ; https://indigodrones.com/ ; https://orbisk.com/en/ ; https://orbital.farm/ ; https://plantix.net/en/ ; https://sunbirds.aero/ ; https://www.agbotic.com/ ; https://www.apeel.com/ ; https://www.beehex.com/ ; https://www.biomilq.com/ ; https://www.gamaya.com/ ; https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/food-trust ; https://www.nokia.com/networks/services/wing/ ; https://www.ifarm360.com/ ; https://www.infyulabs.com/ ; https://www.intelligentgrowthsolutions.com/ ; https://www.novolyze.com/ ; https://www.nrgene.com/ ; https://www.odd.bot/ ; https://www.phytech.com/ ; https://www.plantiblefoods.com/ ; https://www.rapidpricer.com/ ; https://www.refucoat.eu/about/ ; https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/ ; https://xfarm.ag/?lang=en ; https://algamafoods.com/ ; https://www.indigoag.com/ ; http://skymaps.cz/main.php?content=agrimatics

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Küfeoğlu, S. (2022). SDG-2 Zero Hunger. In: Emerging Technologies . Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07127-0_4

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Goal 2 Zero hunger

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End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Rapid economic growth and increased agricultural productivity over the past two decades has seen the proportion of undernourished people drop by almost half.

Many developing countries that used to suffer from famine and hunger can now meet the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable. Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have all made huge progress in eradicating extreme hunger.

These are all significant achievements in reaching the targets set out by the first Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, extreme hunger and malnutrition remain a huge barrier to development in many countries. 795 million people are estimated to be chronically undernourished as of 2014, often as a direct consequence of environmental degradation, drought and loss of biodiversity. Over 90 million children under the age of five are dangerously underweight. And one person in every four still goes hungry in Africa.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children and the more vulnerable – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices: improving the livelihoods and capacities of small scale famers, allowing equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.

Together with the other goals set out here, we can end hunger by 2030.

Zero Hunger is one of 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . An integrated approach is crucial for progress across the multiple goals.

Learn more about the targets for Goal 2 .

• Current estimates are that nearly 690 million people are hungry, or 8.9 percent of the world population – up by 10 million people in one year and by nearly 60 million in five years.
• The majority of the world’s undernourished – 381 million – are still found in Asia. More than 250 million live in Africa, where the number of undernourished is growing faster than anywhere in the world.
• In 2019, close to 750 million – or nearly one in ten people in the world – were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity.
• An estimated 2 billion people in the world did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food in 2019.
• If recent trends continue , the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030, or 9.8 percent of the global population.
• 144 million children under age 5 were affected by stunting in 2019, with three quarters living in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
• In 2019, 6.9 per cent (or 47 million) children under 5 were affected by wasting, or acute undernutrition, a condition caused by limited nutrient intake and infection.
• By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
• By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
• By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
• By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
• By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
• Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
• Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
• Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
• International Fund for Agricultural Development
• Food and Agriculture Organization
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• UNICEF – Nutrition
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• Think.Eat.Save.   Reduce your foodprint.
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The long wait to ‘Zero Hunger’

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

MANILA, Philippines – Hunger is said to be the world’s ‘greatest solvable’ problem . This global problem, however, still persists until today.

According to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute in 2017, the Philippines had a global hunger index of 20.0 percent, ranking 68 out of 119 countries. While this indicates a decrease in hunger incidence by 0.2 percent since 2008, the country’s hunger threat still falls under serious levels.

Numerous efforts have been done to address hunger and malnutrition in the country within both public and private sectors. However, initiatives remain scattered, thus slowing the entire process of solving the problem.

House Bill No. 3795, later adapted as House Bill No. 7193 or the Right to Adequate Food Framework Bill, was filed under the vision of having a comprehensive law specifically for addressing hunger and food insecurity. The bill’s provisions require cooperation among all government units, working towards a more unified approach. (READ: PH Zero hunger bill takes center stage )

One of the critical aims of the bill was to end hunger within 10 years , gaining the title ‘Zero Hunger Bill’. This is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals of ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

The Zero Hunger Bill was first proposed in 2014. Four years later, its passing is yet to come to a fruition. The question remains: Why the long wait?

Obstacles in legislation, recognition

If hunger has been a long-standing problem, why are administrations – past and present – not keen on the immediate passing of the bill?

Ibarra “Barry” Gutierrez III, principal author of the Zero Hunger Bill, attributes the slow progress to many obstacles, both political and economic. One of the main reasons is funding, especially in terms of the creation of a new commission dedicated to the food problem – the Commission on the Right to Adequate Food.

Much like any other proposal for a creation of a new office, there is hesitance because of the additional expenses it might cause. However, authors of the bill argue that the new commission is essential, should we want to ensure more accountability and action. (READ: $267B more needed each year to end hunger by 2030 – UN report )

The Zero Hunger Bill is patterned after Brazil’s Fome Zero program that adapted a ‘whole-of-government approach’ from the president down to the grassroots. Moreover, the program allowed for the creation of a National Food Commission. They were able to eradicate hunger. (READ: Lessons from Brazil’s Zero Hunger Program )

While the the House Committee on Appropriations has already approved the funding provisions for the bill on October 18, 2017, the source and specifications of financing remain unclear.

“ Na-approve ‘yong (The) funding provision (was approved) but it’s approved in the sense that’s to be provided for in the [General Appropriations Act],” Gutierrez noted.

Currently, the bill has made its way to the Senate. The problem now, however, is the inter-agency referral system of legislation. The bill was referred to the committees on human rights, finance, and justice, and discussions for these take time. (READ: Pimentel hits Alvarez: Senate not slow, it’s Congress’ ‘critical chamber’ )

“It’s harder every time a bill is referred to more than one committee. Kasi the 3 committee chairs have to agree (on hearings), which is a more bureaucratic and, therefore, slow process,” Gutierrez said.

Is food a right?

Going beyond the legislation, the biggest hurdle may be the recognition that there is, indeed, a right to adequate food.

“I think the hesitation is, ‘okay, if there’s a right to food, does that mean that government should be providing it?’” Gutierrez said. While the Right to Adequate Food Act promotes inter-agency cooperation on implementing certain provisions, this does not necessarily mean that the government must be the primary producer of food for the people. According to Gutierrez, what the bill wants to promote is for the government to begin and to aid the process. (READ: Zero Hunger: Holding gov’t responsible )

“It is the government’s duty as the obligation-bearer to the right to food to create an environment or, at least, to have a program to ensure na ‘yong access na ‘yon (that access) is present,” he added.

For FoodFirst Information & Action Network (FIAN) – Philippines president and National Food Coalition convener Aurea Teves, this misrecognition is one of the main reasons for poor progress as “development goals of the government have considered food more of a need, rather than a right.”

This has subjected food to more “technocratic” processes, which has led to slower and inadequate delivery of resources. (READ: Group urges gov’t to act on food insecurity amid economic ‘growth’ )

Access to food, land, and overall nutrition is another issue. Despite the 6.8% gross domestic product growth of the Philippine economy during the first quarter of 2018, the decrease in hunger and poverty incidence remains at a snail’s pace. (READ: Hunger up in Metro Manila, Mindanao in Q2 2018 – SWS )

For instance, underweight prevalence may have gone down in majority of the regions in the previous year, but the rates are still high within Bicol region, Eastern Visayas, and MIMAROPA.  There is also an increase in the number of underweight Filipinos in Western Visayas. 

“Due to low rural incomes, lack of access to productive resources and vulnerability of the countryside to various shocks related to climate and diseases, hunger is more prevalent in rural areas. Women and children suffer most from hunger and malnutrition,” Teves said.

More waiting but hope remains

The bill’s authors as well as food advocacy groups remain hopeful that the 10-year target of zero hunger is still possible. However, it all depends on the leadership and commitment of the government – especially of the future leaders of the Commission on the Right to Adequate Food. Strict implementation of the provisions contained in the bill is necessary to achieve its goals.

Currently, the bill is under the Senate, and discussions are still underway.

“The Right to Adequate Food Framework bill, which is commonly known as the Zero Hunger bill, has been in Congress for quite a while precisely because it was not in the priority agenda of the Aquino administration before nor is it under the Duterte administration now,” Teves said.

Without prioritization in the midst of legislation, the passing of the bill continues to be far from reality. 

In the meantime, food advocacy groups and the administration alike continue to provide feeding programs and other initiatives to prevent stunting and malnutrition.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization acknowledges the role of legislation as “crucial” in improving the Filipinos’ quality of life. 

“For countries to succeed, they must turn political commitment into concrete action. When food systems are more efficient, sustainable and nutrition-sensitive countries will have delivered on their promise to eradicate hunger in our lifetime.” – Rappler.com

Read more on this year’s Nutrition Month stories:

• How Philippines’ first food bank works
• What has the government done to address malnutrition?
• How home gardens can help fight malnutrition

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

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Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.