Over the past decade, there has been an increasing focus on climate change and how to address this challenge. Much energy, time, and resources have been spent raising awareness and identifying and implementing solutions. In the face of more frequent extreme weather events, U.S. farmers and ranchers are working to nourish the world’s population in a sustainable manner. That need has been growing.
Food security, defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is the condition in which “all people, at all times, have physical, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food.”
The percentage of the world’s population affected by hunger has increased in recent years. According to the FAO, 573 million people were undernourished in 2017. That figure climbed to an estimated 768 million in 2021, around 10 percent of the world’s population.
In addition to the changing climate’s impact on farming, other factors contributing to the high level of food insecurity include conflict-affected states, which can disrupt food production and distribution, and economic inequality, which can lead to people being unable to afford adequate, nutritious food.