Goes on joe biden has all but secured his place is the democratic nominee but can he still trump joining us for continuing coverage of the u. S. Election 2020 on aljazeera. How much of a threat is coronavirus to the worlds food supply is there a serious warnings of a global shortage as the pandemic spread so how can the availability of food be safeguarded and can a famine crisis be averted this is inside story. Hello welcome to the program im. Widespread famine of biblical proportions the u. N. Is warning covert 900 could cause an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe it says the number of people who cant get enough to eat could double by the end of the year thats more than a quarter of a 1000000000 people 21000 people already die of hunger every day and that number could saw if people dont get help Food Supplies are limited by lockdowns and peoples incomes are drying up poor countries affected by conflicts economic crisis and Climate Change are particularly at risk the un says this could drive a wave of refugees and threatens an exponential rise in social unrest the World Food Program has previously been pledged one point 9000000000. 00 and is urging donor nations to live up to their commitments the u. N. And other organizations working on extreme hunger say 55. 00 countries already facing crisis and are highly vulnerable to the impact of the virus and last year 10 suffered their worst food crises to date they include afghanistan venezuela south sudan syria nigeria and haiti yemen now faces the worlds worst among crisis and the number of its people acutely short of food is expected to exceed 70000000 the World Food Program already offers a lifeline to nearly 100000000 people most a trapped in war zones but if they cant be reached the w. S. P. Says 300000 could starve to death every day for the next 3 months the World Food Program says urgent action is needed to avoid a humanitarian disaster. We need all parties involved in the conflicts to give us with an unimpeded humanitarian access to all d communities so that we can get your sister to them that they need regardless of who they are where they are we also did a very general says humanitarian goods and commercial trade to continue for all across the borders because they are the lifeline of global food systems as well as the Global Economy supply chains have to be movement if we are going to overcome this pandemic and get true from where it is produced to where it is needed it also means resisting the temptation to introduce like export bans or in court subsidies which relate price hikes and almost always that ive known food ministers from the group of 20 countries agreed in a Virtual Meeting to guard against any unjustified restrictive measures that could lead to excessive food prize volatility in International Markets and threaten the Food Security and nutrition of large proportions of the World Population emergency measures in the context of the kovac 1000 pound demick must be targeted proportionate transparent and temporary and that they do not create a necessary barriers to trade or destruction to the global food supply chains. So lets introduce the panel in suffolk in the United Kingdom we have jane how the spokeswoman of the World Food Program in qana state in nigeria kabir adamu managing director of the bank of agriculture and lumped in Wales Patrick Holden the c. E. O. Of Sustainable Food trust welcome to you all jane if i may begin with you what is the connection between all the global lock downs were having and the increasing risk of famine help us understand that connection. Well what were worried about at the World Food Program is that this house pandemic could turn into a hunger pandemic not so much because of the effects of the virus but because of the economic consequences because of people are in lockdown we know how difficult it is here in the in the in the in the western world but if youre in a country where you really need to work as a day laborer to get the money so earn the food for that nights dinner youre going to be in a really difficult situation i mean people are really living hand to mouth wired whereas were looking at our store comforts and thinking oh dear what ingredients im not going to use there are people out there who dont have store couplets and they dont have savings and thats why theyre so long ramble and thats why were so worried a could be about particularly something most relevant to africa or to nigeria what is the risk of all these increased lockdowns or producing from it. Only to stroll. d through there actually in you know where the 60 percent of. You know the nation may live on sources tell us i mean about 40 percent of. You know that meeting in the rural areas will be a new lease i mean you have a way or you know it ends in the imputes youre not in a commerce articularly now. If you did all i missed and. You know in the kitchens in that you know you know the food and then you see you know i was at it so i mean season has actually you know set it and now for the imputes 900 seats for to go to continue to meet with the man. In the senate to i bet its. Nice to be moved you know from our location as you know to the michael this is so with this knockdown and that humans are my you know it is it is a great challenge imus and you know you get one single now produce you know to the mike its actually you know that would be innocent for them you know in the 4th. You know put in that it was so its really a great challenge but i know that in that i do have some ways of doing and not certainly dollar weakness and really pronouncements that you know are most will be excused you know from the looking down. And you know cry aloud in and around you know to kind of i mean cities jane do we see the you mentioned day people who subsistence living what they are not day goes to what they eat that night is the risk for them hunger and starvation more of an immediate threat than the coronavirus. I think that we dont really know whats going to happen we dont know whats going to roll out on what what we what we are we know that already in the world there are you know 1821000000 people who just struggle from day to day to get the food that they need to live a healthy life and we know that only this week the global report on food crises came up with a much much higher number for the number of people who are acutely hungry and that was already because of the conflict some of world extreme weather because of Climate Change and the Economic Situation so now we are realizing that as this crisis unfolds the economic consequences could be worse than the actual virus in terms of checking those people who are are most tipping them over in the edge into possible famine and were actually worried out of the 100000000 people that the World Food Program seeds every year in terms of Food Assistance and cash were really worried about 13000000 of those many of them living in conflict zones or in areas where you know that the economy is not working all that well anyway and access for food just distance is difficult those are the really absolutely the people we are most worried about because those people are just hanging by a thread and we would really have to now come together as the world to do something about that to stop them being tipped over the outs so patrick is there a risk as we try and stop the spread of covert do we risk tipping people into starvation to people responding to death when were trying to stop the spread of covert 19 patrick. I think theres no doubt that in the present system which is highly globalized and based on very large Scale Production units very often exporting to other countries the Collateral Damage in the short on workers who are unable to sufficient income as a result of the interruptions bridge to International Trade could be very serious but i think the theres a deeper underlying problem which is that the globalized systems of crude we have are not resilience against shocks and they cope with pandemic illustrated projects here at the prudes systems which currently rely on International Trade the route we buy in supermarkets we have no idea where it comes from who produced it they have no loyalty towards us and as we now know. Countries that are facing challenges in relation to it security will put their own populations crust and rightly so so we need to plan ahead prove different kind of food system structure jane the world is hearts of a hunger crises before because of whether its a weather whether its economic downturn walls political instability what makes this different. Wow. I think its not something thats really been seen since the 2nd world war. You know were used to coping with an emergency caused by a typhoon or a hurricane or an earthquake. We all learned a lot of lessons after the financial crisis of 2008 but its hitting the world at a time when. Instead of you know. Security improving over the last couple of decades we seem to be making quite Good Progress towards eliminating hunger in the mall in the world but then sadly the number started to go into reverse partly because of conflict and the growing. Evident climate shocks that were getting used to seeing now and i think its that its coming its a really bad moment thats what im saying its its coming out so its and thats why when people cant you cant help thinking that of is the perfect storm and. Instead of it just being in one country this virus knows no borders and indeed trade is so interconnected now everything is everything in the world isnt connected you have countries like yemen thats of dependent on so it imports completely so if the shipping goes wrong more truckers get the virus thats going to be difficult for them but then youve also got many countries in africa who depend very much on exports such as oil or copper or commodities and if theres a global recession then they know to get hit that way too in that they will lose their income they will lose their jobs and its that its the its the sort of bad timing of having this the last few years of terrible wars civil conflict storms droughts floods the whole lot just seems to be hitting all at once and i think its true that so far when. A country is confronted like this whether its levy u. K. The us i mean you act to focus on your country 100 percent so its very difficult for the Global Community to plan ahead and think about how we might come together to respond globally compared you get the the idea that this is something on a scale that the african continent has not had to deal with before its had more than its fair share of Food Security crises is this something different. Well i think you know. Its a little lived in illustration you know the problem so its i think we know it will segment of the world. See. Africa. Particularly particularly party unity and now where were going to see this little soul its important to see you know in protecting their Hostile Force i think. 6 you know if you cant condemn tools you can understand and agree you know that the finest exist you know its possible must you for now wait started in china so you know the promise im not actually sure of where the virus is or about you know your skill if you can indiscriminately something that has never happened and that you know they dont understand they dont even believe that it has come to our bostick people are beginning to say look this one is a challenge that has no boundaries and therefore everyone of course couldnt have them was come to give up to see how we protect our war so a more critically you know the promised. You know promise most of them are in the areas. That. You know. That most people that you know socialized you know so much as people in the open areas so yes in you know the. You know this ticket from which and you know i think that you know its something that simply dealing with with our population i dont know that anyone that you know who give money to so much constant knew about what is happening and what the central bank of nigeria it mission it was to give more to them. Or last i believe nuns that you had given to farmers so that you can add more dad you know within which to please i am interested in what was called down by more than 3 digits only and efforts to want it and now you need you know strong and then there are still many others i kid you know that the government has been its just last thing the sense of fun thing is that if your kid millionaire at. Islip household you know small and medium enterprises. And you as a result of. All these things are going competently you know to make sure that you make you know the farmers and the people stronger so that we can have this great obedient nice and also to be able to take all of the excellent as soon as the whole. Lot of patrick is this a problem that we those in the developing world can say of those the developed world can say well its not our problem is not going to affect us this is the sort of thing that only affects africa in asia or are theres a is there a risk to the developed world from Food Shortages elsewhere that. It seems to me this is a challenge for every single country on the planet regardless of whether were a socalled developed country or a developing country the challenges will be different but nevertheless we need to respond in a rather similar way because the 1st and foremost require every nation is to maintain its own crude security and it can best do that by ensuring that as great a possible at the center of the staple proves that proves that that nation can grow easily and consume what a daily basis all produced and consumed in that country and what we have done during my farming like time has moved away from that approach towards a globalized system where people are incredibly vulnerable to something that russians because this happened during the 2nd world war there hasnt happened on but this scale sense and i think just to take the example of an african nation that i visited a few years ago zimbabwe which during the mcgarvie time didnt really get much access to crude and 8 political reasons and in sons of the villages there were large of the traditional who systems which are remarkably resilient because they were telling us they did the pesticides personalizes and they managed their food systems in a traditional way it seems to me that all over the world we need to regard this is a wake up call to move back towards less centralized and more decentralized to systems and redesign the distribution Problem Solved the final can see it in an appropriate way this is a need for every nation on the planet to set jane should we be going down this more decentralized route or does that run the risk of some countries introducing for introducing protectionist measures. Well i think patrick is exactly right you know the system now is global and its all interconnect and i think that actually we may find that People Living in rural areas and are better off than those living in urban slums if you think about you know slums. And the kind of Living Conditions that many people in the poorest of the world are facing you know they dont have the measures that you would use to stop wire or hand washing and social distancing are just very very difficult and dont necessarily have clean water to cook their d food but i just like to come back to you know the example of nigeria i think that its very very interesting to hear how the Nigerian Government is really working to set up some kind of safety net and. Educate people and inform people as to whats going on and for example the World Program were already acting to protect the people that we are helping already and in nigeria were helping about a 1000000 people a month and what were doing is is sort of buying up food and giving people 2 months or if some plates some countries 3 months supplies in the runs so that they can just get through these next few weeks and weather the storm. Because you know we dont know whats around the corner next but weve got to be ready as far as we can in terms of the humanitarian response setting up an infrastructure. Recognizing that in many places there are in our own lines running anymore so we need to be able to fly and help the World Health Organization help other n. G. O. S other government fly and medical supplies i mean already since january weve sent of of medical kit and personal Protection Equipment to 86 countries by. You know that actual sort of infrastructure to set up the Emergency Response to just get us through the next few months and then have those safety nets whether its own meals for children that reach our having to look at giving childrens families takeaways because theres nobody in stool so its like a classic Emergency Response which is which is multiply it and and we have to look at the food system that weve got at the moment and that is completely and connected and globalized because beer if things werent bad enough already we have the uns food and Agriculture Organization warning of new swarms of locusts in east africa they already suffered with that at the earlier on in the year there are now more on the way and thats been the way they deal with that is being affected because theres not possible to spray pesticides partner or get them into the country so how will that new outbreak affect Food Security there as well. Well. You know the knocking. It isnt so much you know problems. You know when. You know look at. Bumps then you know what is on. A mission. I dont see the need. To be in this in that sense the moment the. House of cards we were a lot has been. You know the elites you know as a result will be so definitely things are going to change there with him and the supply chain is going to add up and the mood is going to. Programs like you know with the you know it will you know im going to just you know ive been. Coming out. Of this problem but i can tell you that. Clearly in that area you are so concerned and you know until it is you know the issues are going on to see how these issues can. Patrick do you think that what is happening now is going to be a severe enough of a shock to the system to give us this new way of distributing food more adoptable sustainable that you want to say. I hope so because i think this is a fork in the road its one of these moments where we can either continue on the road weve been going for the last few decades which is. So cold developing countries to develop export markets for commodity food often not very well paid quite low prices to they developed countries such as the u. S. The u. K. And europe where there are markets for these its often at the expense of the security of the exporting nation and i would argue at the expense of the environment on the planet and i think that the new road which needs to be adopted by the in all countries throughout platters is to recognise that actually there should be a form of protectionism protection of the engine as people and their staple Food Supplies and that is an enlightened pool of protection and it should hold the basis of all future International Trade of course that should be traded crude i mean countries like south korea or japan or the yemen who have a structural deficiency of being able to treat themselves will continue to need to import through but as a general principle we should be as crude secure resilient as we can nation by the nation region by region i read a column says to encourage that including the new straight deals which are come going to come for instance and by country after brets it you shouldnt be about youre just unthreatened International Trade there should be restrictions ok well unfortunately we are out of time ladies and gentlemen but thank you very much to all of our guests to jane howard to compare adama and to Patrick Holden and to thank you to watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. Inside story for me Bernard Smith and the whole team here by. As surely as native fauna and flora are accustomed to busch riots this season has been unprecedented landscapes usually left unscathed have been decimated. This bush tries season has burned through millions of hacked as a bland destroying the how the tides of many native animals some of these forests will take decades to regenerate and others may never recover. These baby kangaroos joeys off and then now in care but for many animals who do make it out of the fires they soon face all the problems to cats and dogs and and to crash as surely as famed plants and animals are strong part of the countrys identity many of its species of found nowhere else in the world and the extent of the damage isnt clear again. For those who do survive its a long and painful road to recovery. For 30 years the red cross has provided a lifeline for afghanistans physically disabled one i want to meet through remarkable people risking their lives to help the disabled in war torn afghanistan on aljazeera a history of guerrilla warfare a place on the global stage. The pira gaining strength there revolutionary zeal knowing no bounds but did a series of violent acts by their splinter groups damage the palestinian cause or ensured survival chronicling the turbulent story of the struggle for a palestinian heart p. L. O. History of a revolution on aljazeera. Be the hero the world needs right. The Sleeping Giant new yorks desolate street says the United States puts nearly 3 trillion dollars into fighting the effects of coronavirus. This is al jazeera live from doha with extensive coverage of the pandemic including. Muslims around the world to stick to social distancing guidelines at the start of the fasting month of ramadan
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