967 million people are NOW hungry - World Food Crisis Appeal

967 million people hungry
Rising food prices are putting the lives and livelihoods of millions at risk: 

• 967 million people are now hungry
• Around 24,000 die daily of hunger-related causes

People living in poverty are highly sensitive to price hikes. Around 2.7 billion people live on less than £1 a day. And have to spend up to 80 per cent of this income on food. The rising cost of basic foods (by as much as 300 per cent in some places) is pushing millions of families to the limit.

Many of the world's poorest people are being forced into choices no one should have to make: parents taking their children out of school; farmers being forced to migrate to cities to live in slums; Eating less and lower quality food.

Women are especially vulnerable because they rarely own land and have limited access to credit and other services, but they bear much of the responsibility for feeding and caring for families.

Causes of the crisis

Dubbed 'a perfect storm', the World Food Crisis is the result of a number of complex and interlocking causes. Biofuel policies, high fuel prices, growing global demand (particularly from large, emerging economies of China and India), unfair world trade rules, and climate change are all playing a significant part.

Biofuels
The global push for biofuel crops, which then take food crops out of production, is playing a big role in raising prices. On top of this, high oil prices have led to increases in the cost of fertilisers and other farm expenses, which in turn impact heavily on food prices.
Easy guide to biofuels

Supply and demand 
Growing global demand for products like meat and grain, and a corresponding lack of supply, has made this situation worse. Years of under-investment in agriculture in poorer countries, and unfair trade rules and farming policies that benefit rich countries, are also having a huge impact.
Easy guide to trade

Climate change 
And finally, increasingly unpredictable weather patterns mean that poor farmers are unable to grow as much, and elsewhere have affected the large scale production of crops such as wheat from Australia.
Easy guide to climate change

Related links 

• Oxfam's response to the World Food Crisis
• Explore the Food Map
• What you can do
  
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