The excellent Meat-Free Monday e-newsletter from Animal Aid reported today on a new report regarding world hunger and food production.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), nearly 30 percent of the world’s population suffer from some form of malnutrition. And this week, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, states that 25 million more children will go hungry by the middle of this century as climate change leads to a decline in agricultural productivity and food shortages.

The lead author of the IFPRI report stated that ‘we are going to have 50 per cent more people on the surface of the Earth by 2050 and meeting food demands is going to be a huge challenge - even without climate change’. However, according to the FAO, ‘the world already produces enough food to feed every child, woman and man and could feed 12 billion people, or double the current world population’. The main problem is not the amount of food available, but the ways in which the world’s grain harvest is being used and distributed - farmed animals are fed no less than half of the world’s harvest.

Instead of adding to the amount of food available, meat simply creates even more mouths to feed; those of farmed animals. And the return is extremely poor. It takes roughly eight kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef and two kilos are required for one kilo of chicken. It would make far more sense to grow food that humans can eat directly - grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, vegetables and fruits. As resources become ever more scarce, experts now agree that the human population must rely more upon a plant-based diet. Patrick Wall, chairman of the European Food Safety Authority, questions whether it is ‘morally or ethically correct’ to be feeding grain to animals while people starve. We can all take steps to ease the hunger of children and others around the world by reducing the amount of animal products we eat, starting with Meat-Free Monday, or better yet, going completely meat-free.

To sign up to the Meat-Free Monday newsletter, which includes news updates and recipes, and find out more about this campaign visit the Animal Aid website.

This week Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum and former UN secretary general, warned the world of the severe consequences of not taking strong enough action against climate change; which includes millions more people falling in to poverty, loosing their homes and their lives.

The report, titled Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis gives some frightening statistics…

Climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year (equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year)
By 2030, 500,000 will die from climate change per year.

Climate change today seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people.
By 2030, 660 million people will be seriously impacted by climate change, making it the biggest emerging humanitarian challenge in the world, impacting on the lives of 10% of the world’s population.

Economic losses due to climate change already today amount to over $125 billion per year (this is more than the total amount of international aid to developing nations each year).
By 2030, the economic losses due to climate change will be $340 billion annually.

To avert this severe threat to humankind, we must act now. While we all wait for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen and hope that the lobbying efforts of hundreds of thousands of people around the world will ensure the right decisions are made, let’s not forget that we can all take action ourselves regardless of what they decide. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions; by making the right lifestyle choices we can make a difference.

World leaders pledged at the UN food summit yesterday to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production in an attempt to alleviate world hunger. However, many people are disappointed with the outcome of the summit because there was not agreement to stop the continued use of biofuels.

However, there is something far more confusing than the UN’s decison not to ban biofuels. Again and again we are told that there are multiple reasons for the increase of food prices, which include climate change, growing demand for meat and dairy, market speculation and biofuels. It is clear that if we reduce the world’s consumption of meat and dairy we address the issues of inefficient and unethical use of grains, climate change and in turn biofuels as well. So why has this not be included in the declaration?

The truth is, we produce more than enough food, we do not need more food to feed the world. Boosting agricultural production can only lead to more destruction of forests and thus increased climate change, after all, the problem with biofuels is precisely that. Increased production will also mean increased use of fertilisers and water, thus adding to water scarcity and pollution.

What we need is to use our food more efficiently by not feeding grain to animals in China, India and elsewhere and instead giving it directly to the hungry. The animals in the US alone consume more than enough grain to feed the entire population of the world. The solution to world hunger is staring us in the face and yet we continued to turn a blind eye.

This year’s World Environment Day is a day of ongoing discussions by the UN and other world leaders on the food crisis, concluding in Rome today. How times have changed since World Environment Day was launched by the UN 36 years ago. I wonder if they considered then that today climate change and other environmental impacts would have such an impact on world hunger.

Most countries and international organisations recognise that there are many causes for the food crisis, which includes climate change and the use of biofuels. Biofuels have been backed by many governments as a solution to climate change but have, in reality, only caused the destruction of forests and human rights violations.

However, the UN have stated that they do not believe biofuels are the main culprit in the food crisis and instead point at factors such as the increased demand for meat and dairy. When you look at the figures, their conclusion makes absolute sense; 100 million tonnes of grains are used for biofuels each year, whereas 760 million tonnes are fed to animals, therefore, if globally we reduced our consumption of meat and dairy by 14%, we would have enough grains for biofuels without destroying more forests. Imagine the impact on world hunger and climate change if we reduced our meat and dairy consumption by 100%.

The UN have long talked about the impacts of animal agriculture. The UN agency, Food and Agriculture Association, produced the report Livestock’s Long Shadow in 2006 which stated that animal agriculture is accountable for 18% of all greenhouse gases, more than the world’s transport systems.

Head of the UN climate agency, Yvo de Boer, recently said “the best solution would be for us all to become vegetarians”. I hope that the UN sticks to their guns and promotes vegetarianism and veganism as a real solution to climate change and world hunger.

A draft copy of the summit declaration, to be finalised today in Rome, ends with a pledge to use the planet’s resources in a sustainable way. We know that feeding our crops to animals is the least sustainable and efficient use of our food, so a proposal to encourage the transition to a vegan diet is the obvious solution.