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We live in a world of appalling contradictions. One of the worst among them is stated in the title above. Food poverty, hunger and starvation in the world occur simultaneously with the production of huge amounts of surplus food and food waste. For the last half-century, the world has produced 1.5 times more than enough food to feed every man, woman and child on the planet, which has the potential to feed 10 billion people so that no one should have to suffer hunger or malnutrition. However, one-third of all food produced in the world, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes, is lost or wasted every year.

Despite the abundant surplus of food supplies, the last UN Report on State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World made clear that a sustainable development goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade not only won鈥檛 be achieved but the number of hungry people will be the same if not bigger than in 2015 when the Agenda 2030 was launched. The projections are that nearly 670 million people will still be facing hunger in 2030, even if a global economic recovery is taken into consideration (UNICEF, 2022). While almost ten percent of the world population is going to face hunger and starvation in this decade, about a quarter of the people in the world are malnourished in terms of excessive body weight. In 2020, 1.9 billion adults in the world were overweight or obese, while 462 million were underweight; 149 million children under 5 were estimated to be stunted (too short for age), 45 million were estimated to be wasted (too thin for height), and 38.9 million were overweight or obese (WHO, 2021). The global surplus of mostly energy dense and micronutrient-deficient food does not only create an overweight and obese population, but it also contributes to the food waste and ultimately to the global warming. If food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, right behind China and the United States.
How does the current social organization manage this contradiction between vast amounts of surplus food and food waste, and hunger and starvation of hundreds of millions of people in the world?

First of all, we should bear in mind that food is treated as a commodity like every other commodity in the world marketplace. Banks, financial management firms, and large-scale institutional investors speculate with food in agricultural commodity market causing food price peaks that result in increased hunger and famine. By betting, or speculating, on food prices 鈥� buying food commodities at the lowest possible prices and selling them when the prices are the highest 鈥� they make enormous profits of hunger and starvation of poor people in the Global South. In 2021, 570 million people across Ethiopia, South Sudan, Madagascar, and Yemen were on the 鈥渧erge of starvation and death鈥�, which is four times more than the number in 2020 (GRFC, 2022). Food price increases also result in malnutrition of poor people who spend most of their income on cheaper, energy-dense food while being unable to afford healthy nutrition, healthcare and education.

On top of that, we are now facing the global food crisis with a huge decrease in fertilizer supply and the rise of fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine, high-energy prices, and restrictive trade policies. Fertilizers are essential to the world鈥檚 food supply as they provide crops with the nutrients to grow better. We have been informed from the highest places that 鈥渢he effects of this shortage will be felt across the globe, while developing countries are among the worst hit鈥� (World Bank, 2022). The global food crisis, which will increase the hunger and starvation of the poorest people in the world, is mainly caused by militarism and imperialist expansionism of the most powerful states, that inevitably leads to war.

In a world where national states serve the interests of the global capitalist class incomparably more that they attend to the basic needs of their general population, militarism and war are the ways to get rid of the surplus capital produced and accumulated over the years. Global military spending dramatically increased in the last few years and is the highest it has been in the past four decades (SIPRI, 2022). Main business partners of the militarized states are some of the biggest world private corporations that produce armament and fossil fuels. The only institution that can guarantee the spreading of the market and higher profits for the military arsenal and fossil fuels is war as a mechanism for continued capital concentration and growth that brings above-average returns with little risk. War is an economic relief valve for surplus capital that provides investment opportunities for the major financial and industrial giants and a guaranteed return on invested capital. War also serves the repressive function of keeping the suffering masses of humanity afraid and compliant (Phillips, 2018). The fear and compliance of the general population are now spreading all over the world with the energy crisis, 鈥渃ost of living crisis鈥� and global food crisis.聽This incredible waste of vital resources of living and future generations of humankind through militarism and war is also one of the biggest sources of pollution in the world.

The contradiction between civil and military functions of the state has always been managed at the expense of welfare of the general population. We are now witnessing the unacceptable consequence of that kind of governance: global food crisis, hunger and starvation of more than a half a billion people in the world, while world has produced 1.5 times more than enough food to properly feed every man, woman and child on the planet.
Are there alternative forms of social organization that can manage the contradiction between nature and development of human society to the benefit and well-being of humanity and the planet as a whole? If we want to secure a just and sustainable access to resources of living and future generations of human beings, we have to answer positively to that question.

References:

Global report on Food Crises 鈥� GRFC. 2022. Retrieved from https://www.fightfoodcrises.net/fileadmin/user_upload/fightfoodcrises/doc/resources/GRFC_2022_FINAl_REPORT.pdf

Phillips, P. (2018). Giants: The Global Power Elite. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 鈥� SIPRI. (2022). World military expenditure passes $2 trillion for the first time. Retrieved from https://sipri.org/media/press-release/2022/world-military-expenditure-passes-2-trillion-first-time.

UNICEF. (2022). UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/un-report-global-hunger-numbers-rose-many-828-million-2021.

World Bank. (2022). Fertilizer volatility and the food crisis. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/podcast/2022/07/22/fertilizer-volatility-and-the-food-crisis.

World Health Organization 鈥� WHO. (2021). Malnourishment. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition.