famine pandemic. Food is scarce in these countries

Four out of ten people living in countries in the region are not getting enough nutrition and nearly one in ten suffer from hunger, according to the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, released on Wednesday.

The number of people starving in the region, which is increasing for the sixth year, increased by as much as 30 percent in 2020. There are currently 59.7 million people in Latin America who are starving – the most in 20 years.

Last year, 9.1% experienced hunger. The population of Latin America, before the epidemic, in 2019 – 7.1 per cent. This means that the number of people affected by famine or acute malnutrition has increased by 13.8 million.

The region’s GDP declined by 6.8% in 2020. “This is the largest drop in 120 years,” says the FAO report.

This fact has made Latin America the region of the world hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in terms of food security.
– The Argentine newspaper “El Clarin” wrote on Thursday.

The countries with the largest number of people suffering from different degrees of malnutrition are, inter alia, Guatemala – about 50 percent, Honduras – 47 percent and El Salvador – 46 percent

We must state it emphatically and clearly: Latin America and the Caribbean are in a critical situation with regard to their food security.
Julio Berdigo, Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The least number of hungry people is in Brazil, Cuba and Uruguay. According to the data of the Food and Agriculture Organization, in these three countries there are less than 2.5% of people who suffer from hunger, and this does not mean that there is also no phenomenon of “acute malnutrition” there.

A special case among Latin America’s largest economies is Argentina ruled by the centre-left, Peronist government, where as many as 35.8 percent are threatened by malnutrition or starvation. Population. In 2021, the inflation rate in Argentina was 52%. compared to the previous year. It was higher 30 years ago and even higher than in Venezuela, while in other countries in the region it was single-digit.

As “El Clarin” wrote, the precarious situation with regard to food in Argentina affects women more than men: affected 41.8 percent, and the Argentine accounted for 32.2 percent. Men, which was confirmed by the latest research by the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America.

Source: Niezalezna.pl, PAP