UN: time to act is now - on the threshold of a food crisis

UN Secretary-General, antónio Guterres, made a statement about the impending food disaster.

the Pandemic, the closure of borders and restriction of production in all countries led to revenue loss of people and disruption of food supplies. So, in the U.S., one of the largest food countries, farmers were forced to pour the milk on the ground and to destroy the products due to a sharp drop in demand and quarantine restrictions.

“to avoid the worst implications of efforts to combat the pandemic, we must act now,” said antónio Guterres.

According to UN estimates, now more than enough food to feed 7.8 billion people worldwide, but approximately 820 million people are hungry today. Food systems of the world are working intermittently, and pandemic COVID-19 only exacerbates the situation. Unless urgent measures are taken, the global food crisis will hurt millions of children and adults.

“this year because of the crisis COVID-19 in extreme poverty can get about 49 million people,” said UN Secretary-General. While the number of hungry people will soar. According to the UN estimates, the decline in world gross domestic product for each percentage point represents an increase of 0.7 million the number of children with stunted growth.

Guterres urged countries to strengthen support for the affected people, to ensure the protection of workers in the food sector, to improve the reliability and safety of production, food supply, local food markets, to keep open trade corridors, to invest in technologies that will help to avoid a repetition of the crisis.

the head of the program of the world health organization for emergency situations Mike Ryan warned of a second wave of the pandemic. He believes that coronavirus pneumonia may demonstrate sudden new peak incidence, as it was 100 years ago during a pandemic, the so-called Spanish flu. Ryan believes that the second wave COVID-19 may be the same as with seasonal flu in the fall of 2020.