Raj Patel: Climate, Conflict and Capitalism Drive Global Hunger. COVID Made It Worse

With hunger growing across the globe during the pandemic, the United Nations is holding its first Food Systems Summit, but the gathering is facing fierce criticism for giving corporations an outsized role framing the agenda. The United Nations' own experts on food, human rights and the environment released a statement warning the summit could serve the corporate sector" over the needs of workers, small producers, women and Indigenous peoples around the world. U.N. figures show the pandemic has increased the number of hungry people to 811 million, and nearly one in three people worldwide - almost 2.4 billion - lack access to adequate nutrition. When you've got conflict, climate and capitalism compounded with COVID, you see a really apocalyptic situation," says journalist and academic Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World's Food System."