The Elusive Goal of Eliminating Global Hunger: Progress and Challenge—Opening Remarks for the Summit on Global Food Security and Health at George Mason University's School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, October 16th, 2014

• Author: Phil Thomas
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.146
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015

The Elusive Goal of Eliminating Global Hunger:

Progress and Challenge—Opening Remarks for the

Summit on Global Food Security and Health at George

Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and

International Affairs, October 16th, 2014

Phil Thomas

I am pleased to be here today to kick off GMU’s f‌irst Annual Summit on

Global Food Security and Health. It is great to start this new GMU tradition on

World Food Day, commemorating the signif‌icance of the annual effort to call

attention to the urgent need to address the many challenges of global hunger. We

are fortunate today to have a number of distinguished speakers representing

government, academia, and the NGO community. We have three panels focusing

on food access, challenges, and partnerships. It is also encouraging to see such a

large and diverse audience participating in this special event.

As part of my introduction to today’s presentations I would like to provide

some context to “The Elusive Goal of Eliminating Global Hunger,” my 2014

article in World Medical & Health Policy, including the progress that has been

made in recent years and many diff‌icult challenges that remain.

The World Food Summit of 1996 def‌ined food security as existing “when all

people at all times have access to suff‌icient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a

healthy and active life.” Global hunger persists in the wake of world leaders’

pledge at the 1996 World Food Summit to halve the world’s chronically

malnourished population by 2015. The estimated population of 805 million

chronically malnourished people—one in nine worldwide—continues to be a

major challenge to international security and development. According the United

Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the global community needs to

increase food production by at least 60% by 2050, all while facing increasing

pressures on land and water resources from a growing population and changing

climate.

The 2008 global food security crisis precipitated a series of renewed

multilateral and U.S. initiatives to address global hunger. In June 2009 the G-8

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2015

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1948-4682 #2015 Policy Studies Organization

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