Two new reports have been released to highlight the escalating number of starving people in the world - now estimated to be nearly a billion - a sixth of the world’s population.

Oxfam’s report ‘A Billion Hungry People’ and Chatham House’s report ‘The Feeding of the Nine Billion’ call for urgent action in the light of increasing food prices plus an increase in energy and water scarcity which are exacerbating and already devastating situation for the world’s poor.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam Chief Executive, said: “This should be a wake-up call for all those who believe that the food crisis is over. World leaders have a window of opportunity to prevent a worse situation resulting from the triple crunch of the economic crisis, climate change, and energy and water scarcity. They must act urgently to turn their plans into coordinated action that addresses immediate needs and begins to implement long-term reforms. Failure to act will see millions more people falling into hunger.”

Oxfam recommends reform of the humanitarian aid system and calls for poor countries to invest more in agriculture, targeting women and small-scale producers. However, there is little mention of using the resources we already have more efficiently and fairly. The livestock industry wastes precious resources (such as land, water and energy) whilst causing climate change and other environmental damage. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of grain are fed to animals every year instead of to the hungry. A world free of hunger can only exist if we all choose to eat sustainably and equitably, and that does not include animal products.

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Read more about why a meat-free diet is better for the environment and human rights.

Ugandan livestock farmers, concentrated along ‘the cattle corridor’ which runs southwest to northeast across Uganda, are already in conflict due to water scarcity and this will be exacerbated by increased demand and climate change. Oxfam’s recent report ‘Climate Change and Poverty in Uganda’ reveals that:-

“People in Uganda, whose contribution to global warming has been minuscule, are feeling the impacts of climate change first and worst. On the one hand there is more erratic rainfall in the March to June rainy season, bringing drought and reductions in crop yields and plant varieties; on the other hand, the rainfall, especially in the later rains towards the end of the year, is reported as coming in downpours that are more intense and destructive, bringing floods, landslides, and soil erosion”.

Livestock farmers are already being forced to move their animals great distances to find pasture and water, increasing the conflict between them as they encroach on to each others territories.

Renowned British environmentalist Norman Myers coined the phrase ‘the hamburger connection’ in the 1980s to describe how the rapid growth in beef exports in Central America to fast food chains is the US was driving deforestation. Since then we have seen massive destruction of the Amazon for cattle ranching and now the largest meat producer in the world, Tyson, has ambitious plans to enter countries such as Brazil, China and India to introduce and profit from the industrialistion of meat production in those countries.

There is no question that Uganda needs to overcome poverty, but developing a meat export market is not the answer. We have already seen the result of meat exportation in Brazil and other developing countries which has only resulted in further environmental destruction, conflict, poverty and hunger. Forty per cent of children’s deaths in Uganda are caused by malnutrition; they need the resources to feed their own people, not to fulfil the desire for meat in rich nations. If Norway really wanted to make a difference to people in Uganda, and didn’t actually have an alterior motive, that’s what they’d help them to do.

Professor Tim Lang, advisor to the Government on issues such as food security and obesity, marked the UN’s World Food Day with a speech urging people to cut down on meat and dairy.

He said “the world could be eating its way to starvation”, by eating foods which are unsustainable and inefficient because of the amount of resources they require to produce them. In particular, meat and dairy require more resources than any other foods.

He added, “We must transform ourselves from being passive consumers to active consumers. We need to lobby government for change, eat less meat and fewer dairy products, and garden more“.

There are many recommendations for how we can reduce our carbon footprint, and changing our diets is by far one of the easiest. You can do it right now and it involves no extra cost, in fact it is cheaper. Costs associated with solar panels, hybrid cars, insulating your home, replacing electronic goods with energy efficient ones, buying a bicycle etc do not come in to it. All it involves is walking down a different aisle in the supermarket.

And what’s more, if you can start by cutting down and then move to a completely meat-and-dairy-free diet, you can massively reduce your carbon footprint.  The impact is real, and far more significant than the small fixes, such as turning lights off, car pooling orturning the thermostat down. A vegetarian diet is responsible for 50% less greenhouse gas emissions than a meat-based diet, and a vegan diet is responsible for 87% less! (read more). Why not give it a go?

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How come whenever there is a crisis the least deserving are the only ones who actually benefit? With the energy crisis and increased fuel prices, companies such as Shell report record earnings. With the food crisis, it’s McDonalds who are reaping the rewards; due to increased demand they have created 4,000 extra jobs in the UK.

McDonalds are not only responsible for the destruction of tropical forests to make way for soy plantations (used to feed their suppliers’ cattle), childhood obesity and disease through their aggressive advertising aimed at children and climate change caused by all the animals raised and slaughtered to keep their restaurants stocked with burgers but also can be held accountable for the growing number of starving people in the world.

Whilst people in richer nations resort to a meal out at McDonalds in an attempt to keep costs down, people in developing nations are those that bear the real cost. The demand for crops to feed animals, coupled with climate change and biofuels, has resulted in increased food prices to levels that the world’s poor cannot afford. Not only that, but more and more indigenous people are being violently expelled from their land so that massive trans-national corporations can grow soy to feed the animals which end up in the bellies of McDonald’s customers.

We cannot fix the food crisis by dining out at cheap but unsustainable and unethical restaurants. If you can’t afford to eat out somewhere which serves healthy, sustainable, plant-based meals, then cook a delicious meal with friends and family at home.