2 ZERO HUNGER
What are the causes of hunger? What drives people to hunger? If we misjudge the root causes of hunger, we will make the wrong decisions and take the wrong actions. To find the right actions, we must look at both the direct causes of hunger and the underlying structural factors.
Hunger is caused by natural disasters, conflict and poverty. The causes of poverty are the lack of wisdom and education to get out of poverty, the social system that promotes poverty, greed and scramble due to the monetary economy, and natural and man-made disasters. People living in poverty often have poor sanitation, inadequate health care, poor education, and are vulnerable to epidemics, fraud, disasters and conflict.
In order to achieve the goal of "Zero Hunger", it is necessary to help those who are currently facing hunger and eliminate the causes of hunger in the future. It is also important to give people the wisdom to escape hunger by themselves.
Even in corporate activities, we must eliminate activities that indirectly cause hunger. At the same time, it is important to take concrete actions to prevent the cause of the cause.
Concrete actions to prevent starvation are as follows: ``predict natural disasters more accurately and take measures to protect yourself from them''; "to prevent conflicts and man-made disasters", "to change the social system so that poverty and economic hardship do not directly lead to hunger", "to encourage people to escape hunger by themselves". "Giving wisdom to go on.”
In some cases, corporate activities indirectly cause food shortages and hunger, such as hoarding of grains, switching from farming to livestock farming and manufacturing, which are more profitable businesses, damage to crops due to pollution and other factors, and the disposal of unsold food.
Companies are required to check whether their activities are causing hunger problems and review their actions.
Business activities that cause hunger include, for example, direct or indirect exploitative activities aimed at the poor, and activities that are not aimed at the poor but are the main cause of the spread of poverty and the occurrence of hunger. In order to achieve the goal of "Zero Hunger", companies themselves should not engage in such activities that cause hunger, and transactions such as buying goods and services from companies engaged in such activities It is important to try not to do it.
The United Nations has set eight specific targets for “Zero Hunger”. In order to actually achieve the goal of "Zero Hunger", let's take a look at these targets and think about them.
2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
Widespread hunger threatens people's lives and health. Eradicating hunger is an important issue for protecting people's lives and health. In order to end hunger, we must first supply the people who are currently hungry with the food they need. In addition, a stable and affordable supply of high-quality food is necessary to ensure that the poor and vulnerable people in particular have access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. In order to achieve this target, it is necessary to create a social system that provides free or inexpensive high-quality food to people in hunger, poverty and vulnerable situations.
However, if the number of people facing hunger continues to increase rapidly, it will not be easy to cope with it even if we create a social system. If the poor and vulnerable continue to rely on free food, society will have to continue to pay to support it. Along with providing direct relief to those facing hunger, we must also work to reduce the number of people at risk of starvation. In order to reduce the number of people who are at risk of starvation, it is important to provide support that "provides them with the wisdom to survive" so that they can obtain food on their own without receiving assistance.
Fighting hunger is an issue that must be addressed at the national level. The government should control and manage food stockpiles and supply chains, and directly provide relief to people who are starving. It is important to disseminate and cultivate a spirit of mutual help.
Of course, the state and society should not do things that cause hunger. Societies that are prone to wars and man-made disasters, societies that widen inequality and increase the number of the poor, and societies where people in vulnerable positions are prone to poverty must be changed.
In order to prevent the occurrence of hunger in the future, it is necessary to provide material and intellectual aid to those who are starving or who are at high risk of starvation, and to eliminate the causes of hunger. Even in corporate activities, we will be required to cooperate with the issues that the nation and society as a whole must address in order to eradicate hunger, and to act positively.
2.1 Draft Course of Action
・"Cooperate and support the construction of a social system that provides free or inexpensive high-quality food to people facing hunger, poverty, and vulnerable people, and share wisdom and help each other to prevent hunger. Along with contributing to community building, we will contribute to the creation of a mechanism that will not cause hunger in the future.”
2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
Stunting is a condition in which a child is unable to grow sufficiently due to chronic malnutrition, in which the necessary nutrients are not obtained on a daily basis. Insufficient nutrition during the growing period can have a significant negative impact on physical and mental development. Also, wasting disease here is thought to refer to wasting or debilitating conditions that exacerbate malnutrition. It is necessary to eliminate all forms of malnutrition, including these serious problems, and to meet the nutritional needs of young girls, pregnant and lactating women, and the elderly. Malnutrition among young girls, pregnant and lactating women causes stunting and disease in their children. Malnutrition among the elderly, who are in a vulnerable position, is also an issue that requires countermeasures.
To overcome malnutrition, it is important to maintain a good diet every day so that you get the nutrients you need. Even at home, it is desirable that at least one person learns about nutrition well and maintains a good diet so that the whole family does not become malnourished.
As a nation, it is important for society as a whole to provide opportunities for young girls, pregnant and breastfeeding women to learn about proper nutrition, and support them so that they do not fall into malnutrition. As a company, for example, there are various advertisements aimed at women in order to sell diet products. It is hoped that such advertisements and promotions will also provide information that will enable them to correctly understand nutrition. Advertisements that misunderstand nutrition and cause them to go on diets that lead to malnutrition should not be used. If necessary, as a nation, we will have to regulate advertisements and propaganda that disseminate incorrect information about nutrition.
In some cases, direct food supply to poor and vulnerable people, such as children and the elderly, will also be necessary. It may be effective to improve logistics and improve home delivery services.
2.2 Draft Course of Action
・Promote awareness and publicity activities to increase opportunities to learn about nutrition and cooking so that people can maintain good eating habits. We will work to provide support for direct food supply, improvement of logistics, and enhancement of home delivery services.”
2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
Within the goal of ending hunger, this target focuses on the productivity and incomes of smallholder food producers.
Improving the productivity of small scale food producers is also a related challenge to food supply, poverty and hunger.
Small-scale producers often lack advanced technology and knowledge, face financial difficulties, and are unable to introduce machinery and equipment, and suffer from low productivity and low profit margins. When disaster strikes, fuel prices soar, or the market price of their produce plummets, the producers themselves may find themselves in poverty and even starving.
Smallholder producers play an important role in ensuring a stable food supply. Their suffering, financial distress and eventual disappearance increase the risk of food supply. Ensuring that small-scale producers can continue to produce food in a stable manner is important for the stable supply of food and the eradication of hunger.
In order to enable small-scale producers to continue producing food in a stable manner, it is necessary to increase their competitiveness so that they will not lose out to large-scale producers, and to provide support when they are placed in difficult situations such as disasters. In order to increase competitiveness, we need to improve productivity and profit margins through technology and marketing knowledge, etc. In order to support difficult situations, we need investment, financial services, support with ideas to increase added value, or income other than food production.
If the productivity of small producers increases, if incomes double, will hunger disappear? Efforts to increase the productivity of small-scale producers will lead to the emergence of successful producers. In some cases, there may be some producers whose income increases many times over. Conversely, there may be some producers who fail to improve productivity and whose incomes do not increase and even decrease. The gap between winners and losers will widen among small-scale producers, and in some cases, the number of people suffering from hunger may increase.
Enhancing the productivity and income of smallholder producers is an important issue. However, it is necessary to be very careful, as there is a danger that inequality will widen and hunger will increase if we act carelessly.
2.3 Draft Course of Action
・"Invest in knowledge and efforts to improve added value of small-scale food production and improve production efficiency. Work on support services such as temporary employment and finance for food producers, or purchase or lease of machinery and equipment."
2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
Establishing a reliable food production system is important for the stable supply of high-quality, safe food at a low cost. What is desired is the establishment of a system with high productivity and large production volume.
However, rapid increases in productivity and production often destroy ecosystems and degrade soil quality. In order to emphasize efficiency, there are many companies and countries that promote large-scale and standardization of agricultural production. However, if the same crops are uniformly produced, it will be susceptible to severe damage all at once due to disasters such as climate change and drought. When building a food production system, we must strive to spread risks in order to minimize the damage caused by disasters, and at the same time, we must be careful not to cause destruction of ecosystems and deterioration of soil quality, which could become major problems in the future.
So what kind of food production system is desirable? How can we create a sustainable food production system that is more productive, produces more, sustains ecosystems, is more resilient to disasters, and improves land and soil quality?
What kind of food production system is desirable depends on the soil and climate of each region, the water sources available, the crops to be grown, and the ecosystem of the region. The type of system to create will depend on the food needs of the region, and the way of thinking about creating a system will also differ depending on whether the emphasis is on short-term productivity improvement or medium- to long-term stability.
However, no matter what kind of food production system is created, it will be an important task to take these targets into consideration.
2.4 Draft Course of Action
・Investment in research and development of food production systems that maintain ecosystems and improve soil quality, even if only little by little, without deteriorating soil quality. We will support the establishment of the system.”
2.5 By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
Seeds, seedlings, bulbs, and livestock sperm and eggs are important resources for food production. Neglecting or carelessly tampering with germplasm has serious consequences for future food security. Food producers would like to use cheap and profitable genetic resources if possible.
Suppose one type of seed turns out to be the cheapest and most profitable, so all producers use only that type of seed for food production. Food production would then be devastated when a disease to which the seed is susceptible hits an epidemic. In order to minimize the impact of disease epidemics, it is important to cultivate a wide variety of crops using as many different seeds as possible, rather than relying solely on a single type of seed for production. . That way, even if one seed is killed by disease, other crops can be expected to be harvested. Rather than chasing short-term profits, we must also manage risks.
If we aim to improve productivity and added value, it is essential to improve breeds and cultivation and rearing. However, as a result of continuous breeding, cultivation and breeding in pursuit of efficiency, the food produced by such improvements may cause environmental destruction and cause allergies in people. Breeding and cultivation/rearing improvements do not necessarily cause environmental destruction or people's allergies, but there is a strong relationship between the production of food by unnatural and artificial methods, environmental destruction, and allergies.
How should we handle genetic modification technology? Whether genetic modification technology should be treated in the same way as "traditional knowledge" or strictly managed as something completely different is an important issue that must be considered at the national or international level.
2.5 Draft Course of Action
・"We will support efforts to improve production systems that aim to improve both productivity and profit margins of food production and risk management. Investigate the impact of environmental destruction and the occurrence of allergies due to improved breeding and cultivation and breeding, and we will support the efforts to countermeasures.”
2.a Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
Here, we call for increased investment to strengthen the agricultural production capacity of developing countries. Certainly, if investment in agriculture in developing countries expands, it may become easier to improve their production capacity. But perhaps we should start by examining the current investment in developing countries. In fact, we do not know whether the investments being made now are helping to improve the lives of people in developing countries. Rather, investment may accelerate the widening of inequality in developing countries, resulting in more people facing hunger.
nvesting in developing countries is important. However, expanding investments without examining their impact is not a good idea.
2.a Draft Course of Action
・"Poverty and hunger eradication is one of the important objectives of investing in developing countries. If you are already investing in developing countries, examine the current situation and impact of the investment, and We recommend a review of investments to eliminate them and increase effective investments.”
2.b Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
Japan is a food importing country, and it is extremely important to advance international negotiations for trade liberalization of agricultural products. However, if Japan's national interests are to be considered, it is necessary to look at trade as a whole. If we think in line with the purpose of the SDGs, in promoting trade liberalization, we should not only eliminate hunger in our own countries, but also review and review systems so that we can move in the direction of alleviating hunger in trading partner countries and developing countries.
2.b Draft Course of Action
・"We will promote liberalization of food trade and support efforts to eliminate hunger problems not only in our own country but also in trading partner countries and developing countries."
2.c Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
Stabilization of food prices is essential for people's livelihoods to stabilize. Extreme volatility in food prices has a great impact on people's livelihoods. Whether food prices plummet or skyrocket, they have a serious impact on people's lives.
If food prices soar due to inflation, the lives of the poor will be hit hard. Even if food is available, if it is too expensive to buy, the poor will suffer from hunger.
Conversely, if food prices crash, producers who rely heavily on food sales will not be able to survive. Some people will abandon food production such as agriculture if they cannot make a living. If a large number of people abandon food production, there will be food shortages, prices will skyrocket, and people will suffer starvation because they cannot afford to buy food.
In conducting corporate activities, it is important to view fluctuations in food prices as a risk factor, and to promote efforts to stabilize food prices or secure stockpiles as a risk countermeasure.
2.c Draft Course of Action
・"We regard food price fluctuations as a risk factor in conducting corporate activities, and support efforts to stabilize food prices or secure food stockpiles."
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