Investing to address global food insecurity

GRAIN blockades and the Russia-Ukraine conflict made worldwide food insecurity one of the most urgent issues on the agenda at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. This crisis cannot be resolved overnight: with climate change threatening agricultural yields, the need for a more sustainable and resilient global food system should be on every investor’s menu.

Speaking at the WEF’s annual meeting in the Swiss resort town in May, David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), had a dire warning for the global food supply. As a result of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, he predicted massive food processing problems in the next 10 to 12 months, leading to hunger, starvation and a worldwide food availability problem.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management previously flagged food security as a major theme for 2022, and the comments from the head of the WFP make it clear that this will be a multi-year trend. Indeed, improving global food supply is already the target of UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end hunger, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Yet hunger affected over 720 million people in 2020, according to UN data, and climate change is adding to the problem. By 2050, the effects of climate change could displace as many as 216 million people, the World Bank estimates.