Did a stock take today. Yes, there is a chance of a second lockdown because of the beach craziness and the protests. But I am optimistic – after the first protests there was a blip in the new cases of about 500 but people seem to be paying more attention to the need to socially distance since then. I guess we might see another blip in a couple of days after the right wing protests this weekend. If you look on the positive side all of this will only lead to 100 or so deaths, not enough to cause another lockdown.
Something that struck me was the amount of some of the foods I had. I have just topped up on cereals – I have enough for a couple of weeks. Thinking about it – I’m fat – I really could do with not having as much food. So it was quite fitting to see that the SDG for today was Zero Hunger.
This goal was doing reasonably until 2015, when the trend started going in the wrong direction. The targets for this goal are:
- By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
- By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
- By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
- By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
- By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
- Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
- Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
- Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.
Around 250 million people are on the brink of starvation, 3 million children under 5 die each year as a result of poor nutrition. In the developing world the 500 million small farms produce 80% of the food consumed.
So what can we do about this. I remember listening to Mike Bernars-Lee talking about the amount of food on the planet. His work showed we have enough food to feed everybody two or three times over. Like the graphic says we waste around a third of the food on our planet. In one city in India they have a law that means anybody failing to finish a meal at a restaurant gets a fine.
Here we have food waste bins that are collected each week. Some people put their waste food in compost bins. Not only is this a waste of food, but it adds to global warming. We need to avoid throwing food away, either in waste bins or on compost heaps. I find soup is a really good option for dealing with fresh food getting toward the end of life.
The other thing I do is to support an organisation working with the small farmers in Nicaragua. You can make a donation through Amos Trust. As the effects of coronavirus sets in supporting small farmers is one of the measures the UN World Food Programme are suggesting we should take.