So How Much Food Would It Take To End World Hunger? The Numbers Are Out!

Did you know that over 500 million in our world live hungry? While it may be quite an overwhelming number, it is only one side of the big story. What’s on the other side is the amount of the actual food shortfall. So now, if you’re wondering just how much food it would take to make up the gap? There is now an exact number.

The latest International Food Security report has been released, but it comes with good news and bad news. The good news, to begin with, is that global food insecurity has been falling and, according to the reports, it is projected to continue falling over the next 10 years. But the bad news? It’s not falling everywhere. Sub-Saharan Africa is still standing weak with these gains. But just how much food would it take to close the gap for every food insecure person on the planet so they may have access to at least 2,100 calories a day? The USDA has calculated a figure: 11.8 million tons of grain.

What needs to be understood is that acquiring the food wouldn’t be a problem. Or at least it isn’t the only problem. The main issue is getting the required amount of food to the actual people that are in desperate need of it. That’s why the measurement of how far we’re falling short of solving world hunger is called the “distribution gap,” and not the “production gap.” And that’s a much harder problem to figure out how to solve, more than just producing an extra 12 million tons of grain.