Hunger is ‘an avoidable tragedy’ in a world of plenty: Türk

More than a quarter of humanity struggles to get enough food, even though the world produces enough for everyone, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday, blaming injustice and the denial of human rights for hunger in a world of plenty. Addressing the UN-hosted Committee on World Food Security in Rome, the High Commissioner said that while the right to food has found its way into treaties and laws, “for too many people, it has yet to find its way onto their dinner plates”. Global food supply now exceeds 3,000 calories per person per day – a historic high – yet hunger reduction has not kept pace. “Too much of that abundance is swallowed up by injustice and the denial of human rights,” Mr. Türk said. Waste, inequality and warEvery day, households alone throw away more than one billion meals, he said. Just one per cent of the world’s farms operate more than 70 per cent of global farmland, while women farmers and Indigenous Peoples often lack government support and access to land. Conflict is also driving acute hunger in 12 of the 13 current hunger hotspots, the High Commissioner said, with restrictions on humanitarian aid and attacks on aid workers “cutting off the last lifel...