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In 1984, I brought together the most talented musicians of the time to form a "supergroup" called Band Aid in order to raise funds for the relief of famine in Ethiopia. The following year, an even bigger group was formed for Live Aid, a major benefit concert, and a music-based fundraising initiative that continues today. At the International Forum on Food and Nutrition held last month by the Barilla Foundation, the continuing and urgent need to strengthen food security could not be more evident.
The fate of Easter Islanders illustrates the current problem . In the 12th century, a group of Polynesians found their way to a remote volcanic island where dense forests provided food, animals, tools and materials to build hundreds of complex and mysterious stone carvings. But, little by little, people destroyed these forests, eventually causing social, cultural and physical suicide.
Today, in relative terms, we have collectively only a small portion of forest left – and we are destroying it quickly. We are short of land to cultivate, and the desert is spreading. The food we produce is often wasted, while nearly a billion people do not have enough to eat – a reality that leaves little choice to others than to emigrate.
Most media focus on refugees fleeing armed conflict seeking better economic opportunities than at home (think of Nigeria or Pakistan). But the link between food shortage and migration is stronger than it could seem to those who are not hungry.
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Will we recognize our plight only when our land becomes a desert, when our health systems collapse? When the rich are faced with food shortages, when the freshwater becomes scarce, and when our national shores are violated?
For example, the uprisings of the 2010-2011 Arab Spring, which provoked a mbadive wave of refugees, were triggered by a rise in wheat prices, which led to generalized bread riots that have turned into wider political revolutions.In fact, many armed conflicts, and the mbadive displacements they cause, can be attributed to food insecurity.
that the poor South is dying of hunger, the rich northern gorges.Over two billion of us are overweight, swollen by low energy sugars and processed foods mbad produced and ri According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, only a quarter of the food we throw or waste each year would be enough to feed 870 million starving people. Around the world, one-third of all crops are wasted. Like the Easter Islanders of the past, we are preparing ourselves for frustration.
Moreover, climate change led by humans threatens to intensify existing pressures affecting food supply and migration. In a report published last December, the European Commission's European Policy Center predicted that increasingly frequent droughts and floods will overshadow all other migration factors, with one billion people displaced by the crisis. Global scale by 2050. According to the report, 25 million migrants affected by climate change "would exceed current levels of new refugees and displaced persons".
Admittedly, measures are being taken to remedy food waste and scarcity. For example, this year the European Commission has proposed reductions in agricultural subsidies, which contribute to overproduction. But this approach, framed in terms of "evolution" rather than "revolution" necessary, is not even adequate at a distance
The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is since long very problematic. The CAP authorized the use of taxpayer money to grow surplus food, which was then stored (at an additional cost) and eventually destroyed (at an even higher cost). The system has improved somewhat over the years, but not enough. The farm bill in the United States – the federal government's main agricultural and food policy tool – is also a waste.
What is needed is not just a politically tolerable adjustment of existing policies, but rather a fundamental reform outcome. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether there are politicians up to the task, whether in the polarized and polarized US or in the inefficient European Parliament and the Commission.
The time to intensify was yesterday; the time to adopt a new approach is now. We can discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which include goals such as "halving per capita global food waste and reducing food losses in production and supply chains across the globe." here 2030 ", until we are blue in the face. What matters are well-designed, effective and comprehensive policies that are implemented in a sustainable way.
The Earth has 45 million centuries, but our century is unique because it is the first where a species can destroy the entire basis of its own existence. Yet today's Easter Islanders seem to ignore this existential threat, preferring to build statues rather than sustainable systems for their survival.
Will we recognize our plight only when our land becomes a desert, when our health systems collapse under pressure, even when the rich are facing food shortages, when fresh water becomes rare, and when our national shores are violated? From here it will be too late, and our destiny will be sealed.
The biggest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. Each of us must recognize the seriousness of our situation and demand real action to change it. It means you.
Bob Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter, author, and political activist. He is the founder and chairman of the Africa-based Aid Band Aid Trust, and a member of the Africa Progress Panel.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.
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