UN food chief warns of ‘hell on earth’ food lows

The war in Ukraine, the on-going pandemic, rise in inflation and climate change have led to over 300 million people living on the brink of starvation said the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program David Beasley. As fertilizer becomes more difficult to manufacture and export, countries in Africa and Asia are unable to harvest typical quantities of food. "The world produces enough food to feed everybody on the planet, over 7.7 billion people," Beasley said. "50% of that food is because of fertilizer, so if you don't have fertilizer, you can't have harvest at the yields that you need." Climate change is a compounding factor, contributing to droughts and famine in numerous countries he said. "We're looking at $11 billion shortfall of food production inside Africa alone. Now, I can go to Central America, South America, same issues on droughts. India devastated by heat and drought, and I can go on and on." Beasley spoke to the Associated Press in the U.N. Rose Garden outside of the headquarters in New York during the 77th General Assembly.