Red Cross world report says there are more obese people than chronically hungry

17th Monday, October 2011 - 06:39 UTC Full article

Last year the number of obese people totaled 1.5 billion says Red Cross

The Red Cross has come out with a report which reveals that ironically today there are more obese people in the world compared to those who suffer from chronic hunger. The organization reports that last year there were 1.5 billion obese people compared to 925 million undernourished people.

This information was revealed in the Red Cross’ World Disasters Report, published annually and released in mid September. This indicates the growing gap between the poor and rich.

A global spike in food prices has made food access more difficult for the impoverished. Ironically, at the same time excess nutrition leading to obesity is today killing more people than hunger and undernourishment. The Red Cross says lack of food is not the problem, but rising prices, wastage and poor distribution are making food unaffordable for poor people.

Similar to 2008, food prices have risen globally this year too. This has raised fears of a repeat of the 2008 crisis which caused political instability and riots in many nations. The Red Cross blames the food price rise on climate change and speculative commodity trading. This has already caused widespread unrest in the Middle East and North Africa this year.

Food inflation is affecting the poorest people in the world exposing them to deeper poverty, undernourishment and severe hunger, reveals the Red Cross.

This year’s World Disasters Report is dedicated to raising awareness and global concern about undernourishment, hunger and malnutrition among the world’s poor.

