Coronavirus pandemic upends America’s food security system: More families to experience food insecurity by the end of 2020 09/24/2020 / Ethan Huff In some areas, COVID-19 lockdowns are triggering huge spikes in food prices 553 million live in … Armed fighters, pitched battles, and other signs of conflict are hallmarks of fragile states. Climate change exacerbates water shortages—and already, according to the World Bank, 1.6 billion people live in countries with water scarcity. If they own anything, it is often livestock, which are very vulnerable in conditions where even plants cannot thrive. “In 2017… about 81 million people had incomes below the poverty line,” explains Danilo Trisi of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. They are vulnerable when natural disasters strike, such as floods, and life-sustaining harvests fail. In 2017, drought in Ethiopia caused the price of maize to suddenly increase by 30 percent,  while Pakistan's unprecedented flooding in 2010 devastated the national wheat crop and drove prices up by 50 percent. There are significant costs in dollars when the incomes and income-earning potential of large numbers of men and, increasingly, women are taken from a community. This is one reason that in most countries, there is a noticeable gap between rural and urban areas when it comes to childhood stunting; stunting rates are usually 10 percent to 20 percent higher in rural areas. They can contribute by explaining this to their customers, suppliers, and colleagues, and through leading by example. Climate change may prove to be the most enduring of all challenges to ending hunger. Laws and structures that perpetuate inequity must be repealed or dismantled. "10, Agricultural production must increase by 70 percent by 2050 to keep pace with population growth. About half of U.S. residents with incomes below the poverty line are white, but they make up less than 20 percent of the residents of areas of concentrated poverty. Mothers with full-time, year-round jobs are paid 71 cents for every dollar that fathers are paid.34 Mothers are the sole or primary breadwinner in more than 40 percent of all families, and a co-breadwinner in another 20 percent.35 All children who rely on their mother’s income to pay the bills are at greater risk of food insecurity. Aid workers and advocates have the insight and practical information needed to navigate the chaos of armed conflict or a cholera epidemic because in many cases they themselves grew up in the affected community. Stunting and wasting have several common risk factors, but aid workers have traditionally viewed them as occurring under different circumstances. Starvation rates in the United States are generally not recorded due to the relative infrequency of the occurrence. While this is far too large a number, it is a significant improvement over the number at the turn of the 21st century. Because these policies were put in place deliberately, they will not just melt away—they must be dismantled. The necessary investments in nutrition amount to a small fraction of the cost of the lifelong consequences of early childhood malnutrition, which include poor health, difficulty learning, and lower productivity. Wasting has been siloed as a humanitarian issue that is primarily a problem during conflict or emergencies. In Nepal, children are 33 percent less likely to be severely underweight in households where women own land. It was established a decade ago in response to a devastating spike in the prices of staple foods that caused malnutrition among tens of millions of people. Another way to see how people of different socioeconomic classes respond to natural disaster—or the risk of natural disaster—is to study migration patterns. That’s nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5. Even before Hurricane Mark Tran (June 5, 2013), “Malnutrition identified as root cause of 3.1 million deaths among children,” The Guardian. They must feel integrated and believe that a more peaceful and prosperous world is possible. But, in fact, the majority of children suffering from wasting do not live in such environments, and many countries that have been at peace and free of significant natural disasters have nonetheless recorded high rates of childhood wasting, year after year. Engaging young people and giving them reason to believe that a more prosperous world is possible depends on them earning a living. Led by the chief executives of some of the world’s largest companies, the commission defines its mission as making the case "for why business leaders should seize upon sustainable development as the greatest opportunity of a lifetime. Brazil's Fome Zero, or Zero Hunger program, a nationwide strategy for ending hunger and improving nutrition, was launched in 2003 with the goal that all people would be able to access enough of the right kinds of food 4 to meet basic nutritional needs and support health. Malnutrition kills many young children and causes irreversible damage to many who survive. Good policies and strong leadership can ensure solutions leave no one behind. The quantitative evidence showed that access to education for women was far more important in reducing malnutrition than having access to additional food. Read more from Chapter 2: Nutrition. Huizhong Wu (March 20, 2018), “Anemia doubles risk of deaths for pregnant women, study finds,” CNN. Link Nutritious Food with Health. Federal and state governments have also failed to take actions that would enable U.S. “persistent poverty” counties to make progress. 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