A report published this week indicates climate variability and extreme weather events are reducing agricultural productivity and disrupting food supply chains in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The report also notes that the situation is increasing prices, impacting food environments, and threatening progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition in the region.
The 2024 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report underscores the urgent need to accelerate action to build resilience within agrifood systems.
It describes the systems as critical for the region’s progress toward eradicating hunger and malnutrition in all its forms.
In addition, the document emphasises that ensuring the long-term sustainability of agrifood systems is essential.
It identifies economic barriers to accessing healthy diets as a critical issue.
In 2022, 182.9 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could not afford a healthy diet, an improvement of 2.4 percentage points compared to 2021, meaning 14.3 million more people can now afford a healthy diet.
Nevertheless, Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), noted that Overweight and obesity are growing challenges in the region and key risk factors for non-communicable diseases.
“A healthy diet is the foundation for health, well-being, and optimal growth and development,” Barbosa asserted.
In this regard, Barbosa observed that PAHO positions health as a cornerstone for transforming food systems, promoting fiscal policies such as taxes, public food procurement policies, and regulations on advertising, including breast milk substitutes, food safety, product reformulation, and front-of-pack labeling.
The 2024 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition is a joint publication by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).