Global Hunger: The Solvable Crisis

We produce enough food for 10 billion people. We have 8 billion. 735 million are hungry. This is not a scarcity problem.

The Scale

Metric Number Context
Chronically hungry 735 million 1 in 11 humans
Cannot afford healthy diet 2.8 billion 35% of humanity
Child deaths (annual) ~3 million 8,219 per day
Food wasted 30-40% Of all production
10B
Food capacity
8B
Population
735M
Hungry
This is not a scarcity problem. It is a distribution problem.

The Cost

$45B
Cost to end world hunger
$2,240B
Global military spending
$886B
US military alone
$740B
Global advertising
$1,000B
Food waste value

The cost to end hunger = 2% of military spending.

One week of military spending = One year of ending hunger.

Active Crises

The scale of unmet need right now:

Afghanistan
28.3 million
59% underfunded
Democratic Republic of Congo
26.4 million
65% underfunded
Yemen
21.6 million
63% underfunded
Ethiopia
20.1 million
66% underfunded
Sudan
15.8 million
73% underfunded
Total Funding Gap

~$13 billion per year would address the major crises. That's less than Americans spend on pizza annually.

The Pattern

Every major famine in modern history was preventable:

1845-52
Irish Famine: Ireland exported food while millions starved
1943
Bengal Famine: Policy-induced under British rule
1959-61
Chinese Famine: Great Leap Forward policy disaster
1983-85
Ethiopian Famine: Civil war blocked aid
2016-present
Yemen: Blockade creates world's worst crisis

The food existed. Policy blocked distribution.

What Works

Organizations with high efficiency—your donation reaches those who need it:

Organization Program Spending Cost per Meal
Feeding America 98% $0.20
World Food Programme 93.5% $0.65
Action Against Hunger 90% —

The Arithmetic

Production: 10 billion people capacity
Population: 8 billion people
Hungry: 735 million people
Cost to fix: $45 billion/year
Military spend: $2,240 billion/year
735 million people are hungry because we choose this.

Take Action

Donate

Advocate

  • Bread for the World — Policy advocacy
  • Contact elected officials about SDG 2 (Zero Hunger by 2030)

Learn

  • FAO State of Food Security Report
  • UN OCHA Financial Tracking
  • WFP Hunger Map
This briefing contains only verifiable facts from primary sources. The moral conclusions are left to the reader.

Sources

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