World Food Crisis
967 million people are going hungry. One child is dying every five seconds of hunger-related causes. The human cost of the World Food Crisis is staggering. With Oxfam, £10 can buy food to feed a hungry family for a month.
Donate now
Real lives
What does the food crisis mean for real people? We went to Cambodia, Haiti and Tajikistan to find out. Watch and listen:
Cambodian rice: twice the price
The price of rice – Cambodia’s staple food – has doubled in the last year. People are fearful of the future. Abbie Trayler-Smith reports.
Hard times in Haiti
In Haiti, the pain of hunger is both physical and psychological. Stephanie Debere explains.
Tajikistan: poor pickings
Drought and high food prices spell disaster for poor farmers in Tajikistan. Jennifer Abrahamson tells their story.
Learn more
967 million people hungry
Rising food prices are putting the lives and livelihoods of millions at risk:
- 967 million people are now hungry
- Around 24,000 die daily of hunger-related causes
People living in poverty are highly sensitive to price hikes. Around 2.7 billion people live on less than £1 a day. And have to spend up to 80 per cent of this income on food. The rising cost of basic foods (by as much as 300 per cent in some places) is pushing millions of families to the limit.
Many of the world’s poorest people are being forced into choices no one should have to make: parents taking their children out of school; farmers being forced to migrate to cities to live in slums; Eating less and lower quality food.
Women are especially vulnerable because they rarely own land and have limited access to credit and other services, but they bear much of the responsibility for feeding and caring for families.
Causes of the crisis
Dubbed 'a perfect storm', the World Food Crisis is the result of a number of complex and interlocking causes. Biofuel policies, high fuel prices, growing global demand (particularly from large, emerging economies of China and India), unfair world trade rules, and climate change are all playing a significant part.
Biofuels
The global push for biofuel crops, which then take food crops out of production, is playing a big role in raising prices. On top of this, high oil prices have led to increases in the cost of fertilisers and other farm expenses, which in turn impact heavily on food prices.
Supply and demand
Growing global demand for products like meat and grain, and a corresponding lack of supply, has made this situation worse. Years of under-investment in agriculture in poorer countries, and unfair trade rules and farming policies that benefit rich countries, are also having a huge impact.
Climate change
And finally, increasingly unpredictable weather patterns mean that poor farmers are unable to grow as much, and elsewhere have affected the large scale production of crops such as wheat from Australia.
Well placed to make a difference
The World Food Crisis goes to the heart of Oxfam’s work. Because of our long experience and expertise on the ground, we are well-placed to have a significant impact on the causes and effects of the World Food Crisis. Oxfam’s World Food Crisis Appeal aims to raise the extra £15 million we need to help tackle this problem.
How we are tackling this crisis
Oxfam is already working directly with poor people affected by the World Food Crisis. We are also using our influence with world and national leaders to campaign for changes to policy and practices that will bring about sustainable reductions in world hunger and vulnerability. You can find out more about our research and recommendations here:
Working with poor communities
We are working to protect people's livelihoods and ensure they have enough food to feed their families. This means projects like cash-for-work schemes, free seeds or fertilisers for farmers, and reduced VAT on staple foods. We always aim to adapt our projects to local conditions. We also support governments in poor countries to set up these schemes. You can explore some specific examples of our work below:
East Africa Food Crisis: Oxfam’s response in Ethiopia
Lobbying leaders and decision makers
We also work at national and international levels, piling pressure on governments and the international community to respond quickly. We're demanding that they:
- invest more in agriculture and rural development
- increase humanitarian aid to those most at risk
- freeze all new biofuels targets and get rid of subsidies that divert food production into fuel
- do fair trade deals that end the dumping of food surpluses
- ensure poor countries are able to promote the rights of their poorest farmers
Share this page
Make a donation
Donate to Oxfam's World Food Crisis Appeal
Latest news
Food Crisis news, stories and analysis:
