Free the hungry billion!

Liberata is one of the billion people worldwide who will go to bed hungry tonight. She is a small-scale farmer but cannot afford the seeds to grow enough food to feed her family.

What's the problem?

  • Over one billion people are going hungry right now. That's nearly a sixth of humanity.
  • In 2008, a food price crisis pushed 100 million more into hunger. Poor people ate less frequently and cut back on the nutrient-rich food they need most. 
  • Local food prices remain much higher than before, so hungry families have to make a horrible choice between buying food and doing without healthcare or school for their children.
  • And this is just the start, as the expansion in biofuels and the effects of climate change threaten to push millions more into hunger.
  • There is enough food in the world to meet everyone's needs, but not everyone gets a fair share.


Who is suffering most?

  • The problem is worst in rural areas, home to 75 per cent of the world’s poor. 
  • Poor people lack control over land and access to other basic farming resources like water.
  • Women are particularly disadvantaged. While women in poor countries grow more than 60 per cent of the food, they own less than 1 per cent of the land. 
  • In some African countries, yield from rain-fed agriculture is predicted to drop by as much as 50 per cent by 2020 because of climate change.
  • Poor people in rural communities can feed themselves if they have the right support, but the current system isn’t working.


What's the solution?

  • There is enough food in the world to feed everyone - the problem is political. And that means it can be fixed.
  • A UN study found sustainable agriculture increased crop yields in Africa by an astonishing 116 per cent.
  • Industrial biofuel production could push 600 million extra people into hunger by 2020 unless we take urgent  action.

Gifts in Action

Jacqueline Lafaye, farmer, Haiti

Buy a present from Gifts in Action and give people like Jacqueline the tools to dig and sow their way out of poverty

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