Weekend good news (at least in part): global hunger reduced!

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released its annual report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).

From the press release

The good news

Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, demonstrating that progress is possible.

The not-so-good news

However, the improvements remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The report emphasizes cost issues

Healthy diets are essential to achieving SDG 2, but remain economically out of reach for large segments of the global population. In the context of persistent cost-of-living pressures, reducing the cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to enhance diet quality, and thus improve nutrition, health and development outcomes.

The high costs come from what happens after foods are produced

Post-farmgate activities account for 70 to 75 percent of what consumers pay, with up to 40 percent of value chain costs accumulating in midstream processing, logistics and wholesale. Improving efficiency at these stages is essential for lowering the prices of perishable foods that compose
healthy diets.

As for what to do

Public spending is most effective when directed towards the higher-cost food groups. Broad fiscal support to already low-cost staples generates limited improvements in overall dietary affordability.

Comment

We still have lots of work to do.

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