The Enough Food For Everyone #IF campaign, launched by 100 of the UK’s major charities in advance of the G8 meeting in Britain, aims to tackle world hunger and is the largest coalition of its kind in the UK since Make Poverty History in 2005. The message that the organisers want to spread is that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, if four things are changed :
• IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land, and use the available agricultural land to grow food for people, not biofuels for cars.
• IF governments keep their promises on aid, invest to stop children dying from malnutrition and help the poorest people feed themselves through investment in small farmers.
• IF governments close loopholes to stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries, so that millions of people can free themselves from hunger.
• IF we force governments and investors to be honest and open about the deals they make in the poorest countries that stop people getting enough food.
You can watch the video below to see the message in a more visual way :
It has been predicted that hunger and malnutrition in childhood will trap almost a billion young people in poverty by 2025. As well as the 937 million children and young people (aged 15-40) whose life chances will be permanently damaged by the impact of childhood hunger by 2025, the report estimates that malnutrition will be costing developing countries an annual $125 billion (£78 billion) in lost economic output by 2030.
Great strides have been made in reducing poverty and 14,000 fewer children are dying each day than in 1990. But hunger is threatening to reverse these achievements. Hardworking poor farmers, especially women and their children, vulnerable and ordinary people everywhere face the highest food prices in a generation. In the UK, the numbers of people needing to use food banks has risen sharply. Climate change is making things even worse.
You can see highlights from the launch event for the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign below, which took place at Somerset House in London last week (23rd January) featuring appearances by Bill Gates, Fay Ripley, Tamsin Greig, Lauren Laverne, Bill Nighy, Baaba Maal, Urban Voices Collective and many others.
Desmond Tutu supports Enough Food for Everyone IF and said:
“Hunger is not an incurable disease or an unavoidable tragedy. We can make sure no child goes to bed hungry. We can stop mothers from starving themselves to feed their families. We can save lives. We can do all of this, IF we are prepared to do something about it. IF we challenge our leaders to take action. IF they listen to us. It’s time the world’s decision-makers came to the right decision on hunger. It’s time to end the unnecessary suffering caused by the failure of the current food system. We can make hunger a thing of the past IF we act now.”
Enough Food for Everyone IF events will be taking place across the UK.
In the 12 minutes it will take to show the animation:
• 52 children around the world will die from malnutrition;
• £2.3 million in tax will be dodged by multinational companies operating in the world’s poorest countries,
• The UK will have burnt enough food crops in our cars as biofuels to feed almost 90,000 people for a day.
• Land 25 times the size of the Olympic stadium will be grabbed by multinational companies and foreign governments.
IF enough people join in showing support for ending hunger, world leaders will be forced to act. Add your voice at www.enoughfoodif.org
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