Food Rights - Every day, one in six people goes to bed hungry by ActionAid International 1:14pm 3rd Feb, 2012   Every day, one in six people goes to bed hungry. Yet the world produces more than enough food for everybody. We’re tackling the causes of hunger, so that everyone can enjoy the right to have enough to eat.    ActionAid"s work on food focuses on addressing the root causes of hunger, calling for international food policies that benefit smallholder farmers, especially women, and promoting sustainable agriculture that helps farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change.    There are over one billion undernourished people in the world, more than 1 in 10 people in developing countries. The fact that over a billion people still don"t get enough to eat is a scandal.    Every day, one in six people goes to bed hungry. Yet the world produces more than enough food for everybody. We are working to tackle the causes of hunger, so that everyone can enjoy the right to have enough to eat.    ActionAid"s work on food focuses on addressing the root causes of hunger, calling for international food policies that benefit smallholder farmers, especially women, and promoting sustainable agriculture that helps farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change.    There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, but food, and the economic and political power to get it, isn"t equally shared out.    Hunger results from the unequal distribution of food, and the lack of access to and control over resources.    Climate change is already having a devastating impact on hungry people - Floods, droughts and other extreme weather conditions are destroying poor people’s lives.    Global food prices have skyrocketed by 83 percent in the last 2 years (wheat has gone up 181 percent) – The world’s poor, those who already spend betweem 60 to 80 percent of their budget on food, are the hardest hit.    Growing demand for biofuels and large-scale land grabs are driving poor farmers off their land and threatening their livelihoods.    Climate change threatens the livelihoods of many farmers around the world. More long term changes in the patterns of temperature and precipitation from climate change will harm poor smallholder farmers who do not have the means to cope.    Women smallholder farmers in many countries are responsible for not only producing the food but also feeding their families and communities. Yet, they face multiple constraints in ensuring their food security.    Despite its importance for realising the right to food, many poor and excluded communities around the world, especially women, lack access to and control over land due to perverse government policies.    In situations like this, the rural poor are considerably disadvantaged as a result of discrimination and the exclusion from key decision-making processes and access to justice.    Households around the developing world spend on average 70 percent of their income on food. Any increase in food price is therefore likely to have a disproportionate effect on the poor and hungry.    By building solidarity through movements and networks, the International Food Security Network (IFSN) aims to leverage civil society groups’ influence on advocating for pro-poor food security policies at local and global levels. Visit the related web page
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