Harvard Global Hunger Initiative

Background: Global Food Security
963 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union combined (FAO, 2008). This number is expected to increase in the coming years, catalyzed by a complex amalgamation of poor harvests, climate change, competition with biofuels, higher energy prices, heaving demands in the developing China and India, and a blockage in global trade. Developing countries face a dire situation, as food supply and demand fall out of balance, catalyzing political unrest and increasing those affected by chronic hunger and malnutrition.

In the past three years, the price of basic foods, such as rice, corn, and wheat, has almost doubled, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick predicts that “if left unchecked, global food shortages could set the world back seven years in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.” Already, malnutrition is the principal risk to global health and is the cause of more deaths than the pandemics of AIDS, malaria, and TB combined.
In line with the UN Millennium Development Goals, which seek to halve extreme poverty by the target year of 2015, the Harvard College Global Hunger Initiative brings together students from the Cambridge/Boston area in fighting global poverty.

Harvard Global Hunger Initiative is a student-run organization at Harvard College. "Harvard," "Harvard College," the VERITAS shield, and other Harvard University trademarks remain the sole property of the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College and are being used by permission of Harvard University. They may not be copied, redistributed, or otherwise used without prior written permission from Harvard University.