Too much to die, too little to live: More than 2 billion people suffer from undernourishment around the world, the latest Global Hunger Index says. Not getting enough calories isn’t the only way to starve.
Is it possible to have food on your plate, but still go hungry? Yes, is the answer, according to the latest Global Hunger Index, compiled by German World Hunger Aid together with the Irish aid and development organization Concern Worldwide and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“Eight hundred million suffer from not having enough to eat, so it is quantity, it is calories,” said Shenggen Fan, general director of IFPRI. “But 2 billion people suffer from lack of micronutrients.”
World map of hunger
“The question is the timing, how soon the people will die. So lack of food, particularly lack of calories, can lead to death very quickly,” Fan said. “But the lack of micronutrients is equally damaging.”