The Right to food
At the 2002 World Food Summit in Rome, the right to food was defined as “the right to have a regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs and which ensure a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.”
Simply put, the right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. The right to food protects the right of all human beings to be free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.
Climate Change contributes to hunger
The UN World Food Programme states that “climate change is a hunger risk multiplier that threatens to undermine hard-won gains in eradicating hunger and poverty”. Current projections indicate that unless considerable efforts are made to improve vulnerable group’s adaptability to changes, 20 percent more people will be at risk of hunger by 2050 due to changing climate.
Undernutrition is a determinant of poor health and it is women and children who suffer the most. A 2012 report from the World Health Organization – The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health stated that climate change will also affect food prices. Also that hunger may be the largest impact of climate change on earth.
The consequences of hunger
People who suffer from hunger for longer periods are undernourished. Hunger for a long period of time can lead to:
• High Infant Mortality Rates - Malnourished women are more likely to be sick, give birth to smaller babies or with low birthweight who are at-risk of dying early, resulting in high levels of infant mortality where chronic hunger is a problem.
• Poor health status – Chronically hungry children and adults become weak and unable to fight common diseases due to weakened immune system. Undernutrition among the elderly speeds up the onset of degenerative diseases.
• Impaired physical and mental development – Chronic hunger deprives children of the essential proteins, micronutrients and fatty acids they need to grow adequately. Hungry children are also less sociable and less likely to explore and learn from their surroundings which affect their ability to learn at an early age.
• Acute vulnerability in times of disaster – poor families are already living on the edge of survival. Disasters such as floods, earthquakes, drought and typhoons can easily affect the families and in extreme cases, death to some of the family members.
• Hindrance to economic growth – Children who are experiencing chronic hunger could suffer permanent physical and cognitive damage. This will affect their future health, welfare and economic well-being. For developing countries, the impact on their ability to raise a productive workforce can last for generations, while in the shorter term, rising food prices can worsen inequality and may lead to conflict and political instability.
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