As wars spread, the global food system unravels

A family with four children abandoned its farm in Somalia after armed groups arrived and demanded payments for the right to continue cultivating the land. They walked roughly 100 kilometers to a displacement camp. One of the children died along the way.Carl Skau, the acting head of the World Food Program, met the family during a visit to Somalia last week. Speaking at a United Nations Security Council debate on conflict and hunger on Tuesday, he described their ordeal as one example of a broader phenomenon unfolding across war zones: the “vicious conflict-hunger cycle,” in which war produces hunger and hunger, in turn, creates conditions for further violence.In Somalia, farmers are driven from their land. In Sudan, markets have been struck by drones and missiles. In Haiti, gang violence has isolated entire communities. From Gaza to Mali and Myanmar, humanitarian workers have been prevented from reaching people in need.Taken together, the crises point to a dangerous evolution in the relationship between war and hunger. Food systems themselves – farms, ports, markets, storage facilities and shipping routes – are increasingly caught in conflicts whose economic consequences extend far ...