Scorching heat and drought shriveling up crops in the Midwest and eastern Africa. A continued pandemic. War in Ukraine. Rarely has the world seen such a confluence of disasters, threatening the ability of nations to feed the hungry, this year and beyond.
Food prices were rising even before the war in Ukraine, hurt by pandemic-related disruptions on top of devastation from more frequent and severe weather catastrophes. Nearly one in three people worldwide—or 2.3 billion people—didn’t have access to adequate food in 2021, up 350 million from prepandemic levels, according to the United Nations. An estimated 702 million to 828 million people in the world faced hunger, up 150 million from pre-Covid levels.
