Obese people now outnumber the hungry globally, but hardship for the undernourished is increasing amid a growing food crisis, the International Federation of the Red Cross warned.
The Geneva-based humanitarian group focused on nutrition in its annual World Disasters Report, released in New Delhi, seeking to highlight the disparity between rich and poor, as well problems caused by a recent spike in prices.
In statistics used to underline the unequal access to food, the IFRC stressed there were 1.5 billion people suffering obesity worldwide last year, while 925 million were undernourished.
“If the free interplay of market forces has produced an outcome where 15 per cent of humanity are hungry while 20 per cent are overweight, something has gone wrong somewhere,” secretary general Bekele Geleta said in a statement.
Asia-Pacific director Jagan Chapagain called it a “double-edged scandal” at a press conference in the Indian capital, adding that “excess nutrition now kills more than hunger”.
The problem of hunger existed not because there was a lack of food globally, he stressed, but because of poor distribution, wastage and rising prices that made food unaffordable.
Food prices have spiked globally in 2011, raising fears of a re-run of the crisis seen in 2008 which led to riots and political instability in many countries.
The rise in food prices, which the IFRC blamed on speculative commodity trading and climate change, among other factors, is seen as having contributed to the unrest witnessed in north Africa and the Middle East this year.
“A new round of food inflation... is plunging many of the world’s poorest people into deeper poverty and situations of severe hunger and malnourishment,” the organisation said.
The World Disasters Report is an annual publication by the group seeking to highlight an area of global concern. Last year’s study focused on urbanisation, while 2009’s was on HIV and health.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in 1919 in Paris in the aftermath of World War I.
The war had shown a need for close cooperation between Red Cross Societies, which, through their humanitarian activities on behalf of prisoners of war and combatants, had attracted millions of volunteers and built a large body of expertise. A devastated Europe could not afford to lose such a resource. It was Henry Davison, president of the American Red Cross War Committee, who proposed forming a federation of these national societies. An international medical conference initiated by Davison resulted in the birth of the League of Red Cross Societies, which was renamed in October 1983 to the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and then in November 1991 to become the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The first objective of the IFRC was to improve the health of people in countries that had suffered greatly during the four years of war. Its goals were “to strengthen and unite, for health activities, already-existing Red Cross Societies and to promote the creation of new Societies”
There were five founding member societies: Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the US. This number has grown over the years and there are now 186 recognised national societies – one in almost every country in the world.