Hunger and malnourishment are increasing around the world as the coronavirus crisis pushes more people into poverty and limits access to healthy diets, according to the United Nations.
Almost 690 million people were undernourished last year, the most since 2009, and the pandemic could tip as many as 132 million people into chronic hunger by the end of this year, the U.N. said in a report. At the same time, obesity has been on the rise as healthy foods remain out of reach for billions of people, a problem that will be compounded by the economic fallout from the virus.
"The pandemic is creating a problem not of food availability, but of food access, because people will have less income because of the recession,” said Maximo Torero, chief economist of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which co-authored the report. More people are shifting to cheaper, less healthy food, which could boost overweight and obesity levels, he said.