Food security is national security

12 September 2019, Washington, DC – FAO North America Director Vimlendra Sharan joined the Food Tank Live Series on “Food Security is National Security” on Capitol Hill.

Sharan joined panelists Josh Protas, Vice President of Public Policy at MAZON; Beth Dunford, Assistant to the Administrator and Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future, USAID; Kimberly Flowers, Director of Humanitarian Agenda and Global Food Security Project; and Janina Jaruzelski, Faculty at the National War College.

“Two thirds - 72 million - of the people affected by acute food insecurity are from eight countries, seven of which are affected by conflict,” emphasized Sharan. “Food price shocks can trigger conflict, further exacerbating food insecurity and instability,” he added.

Conflict was the key driver of food insecurity for the majority of the 113 million acutely food insecure people in 2018, according to the Global Report on Food Crises 2019. Conflict, economic shocks, and climate change and natural disasters continue to put lives and livelihoods at risk of hunger around the world.

It is simple: “There is no peace without food security and no food security without peace”.

Continuing U.S. support to holistic and bipartisan efforts for peace, food security and building resilient food systems, to provide people with nutritious food, and to end hunger and malnutrition nationwide and globally is therefore at the heart of U.S. national security interests.

Read the Global Report on Food Crises 2019