Why the ability to feed humanity is becoming one of the foundations of global stability
Peace is often discussed in terms of diplomacy, institutions, security and conflict prevention.
But there is another foundation that is sometimes treated as an economic or humanitarian issue rather than a peace issue:
food.
A society in which people cannot reliably access sufficient, safe and nutritious food faces pressures that extend far beyond hunger.
Food insecurity can affect health, education, productivity, migration, household stability and social cohesion. When combined with conflict, economic shocks or climate extremes, these pressures can become even more severe.
This makes food security more than a question of agriculture.
It is a question of human security.
And ultimately, it is a question of peace.
Zero Hunger is a global commitment
Food security is explicitly incorporated into the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) calls for the world to:
“End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.”
Its targets include ending hunger, ensuring year-round access to safe and nutritious food, ending all forms of malnutrition, improving agricultural productivity and incomes, and developing sustainable and resilient food-production systems.
SDG 2 therefore goes far beyond simply producing more food.
It concerns access, affordability, nutrition, resilience, sustainability and equality.
This distinction is essential.
Humanity already produces enormous quantities of food.
The central challenge is increasingly whether people can reliably access the right food, at the right price, in the right place, at the right time.
The global hunger picture
The latest United Nations estimates show modest global progress, but an enormous remaining challenge.
According to the latest FAO data, approximately 645 million people — 7.8% of the world's population — may have faced hunger in 2025.
That represents improvement compared with previous years.
But the global figure conceals enormous regional differences.
In 2025, approximately:
- 309 million people faced hunger in Africa;
- 292 million in Asia;
- 32 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In Africa, approximately 20% of the population was affected by hunger.
And hunger is only one measure.
Approximately 2.1 billion people — 25.8% of the world's population — experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025.
This means that hundreds of millions of people may not necessarily be starving, but are nevertheless unable to consistently secure adequate quantities or quality of food.
The distinction matters.
A person can be above the threshold of chronic hunger while still living with an extremely fragile food situation.
Food security is about more than calories
Food security has four fundamental dimensions:
Availability.
Is sufficient food physically produced and supplied?
Access.
Can people actually obtain it?
Utilization.
Is the food safe and nutritious, and can people maintain a healthy diet?
Stability.
Can people rely on that access over time?
A country can produce enough food nationally while parts of its population remain food insecure.
A global supply chain can function while a local population faces unaffordable prices.
A supermarket can be full while a household cannot afford a healthy diet.
Food security therefore cannot be measured solely by agricultural production.
It requires an understanding of the entire food system.
The price of food matters
Affordability is one of the most important links between food systems and social stability.
The 2025 edition of the UN's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World reported that approximately 2.6 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2024.
This creates a paradox.
A person may have access to food in a physical sense but still be unable to afford a sufficiently nutritious diet.
The problem is therefore not simply:
“Is food available?”
It is also:
“Can people afford to eat well?”
That question connects agriculture directly to wages, poverty, inflation, transportation, energy, housing and economic policy.
Food security is therefore deeply interconnected with almost every other dimension of human development.
Conflict and hunger form a dangerous cycle
The relationship between conflict and food insecurity is particularly important.
Conflict can destroy farms, livestock, roads, storage facilities and markets.
It can displace farmers from their land.
It can interrupt imports and exports.
It can make humanitarian access more difficult.
And it can destroy livelihoods that families depend upon for food.
The World Food Programme reports that 70% of acutely food-insecure people live in fragile or conflict-affected countries. It also identifies armed conflict and violence as the primary drivers of acute food insecurity in 12 of the 13 hunger hotspots identified by the WFP and FAO.
This creates a vicious cycle:
Conflict → displacement → loss of livelihoods → reduced food production → disrupted markets → higher food insecurity → greater social vulnerability.
And the cycle can operate in the opposite direction as well.
Food insecurity can intensify social pressures that already exist.
It can increase competition over land and resources.
It can deepen poverty.
It can increase vulnerability to political instability and violence.
Food insecurity does not automatically cause conflict.
But when combined with existing political, economic, environmental or social tensions, it can become an important additional source of instability.
Climate change adds another layer
Modern food systems are also exposed to increasingly complex environmental risks.
Droughts, floods, heatwaves, storms and changing rainfall patterns can damage agricultural production and infrastructure.
FAO identifies climate extremes alongside conflict and economic shocks as major drivers of food insecurity.
The challenge is particularly significant because agriculture itself depends on environmental systems.
Food production requires:
- water;
- fertile soils;
- biodiversity;
- stable ecosystems;
- predictable climatic conditions;
- energy;
- transportation;
- storage;
- and functioning markets.
When several of these systems are disrupted simultaneously, the consequences can multiply.
A drought can reduce harvests.
A reduced harvest can increase prices.
Higher prices can reduce household purchasing power.
Lower purchasing power can reduce food consumption.
At the same time, governments may face pressure to subsidize imports or protect domestic supplies.
A local environmental shock can therefore become a regional or even global economic problem.
The importance of resilient agriculture
This is one reason SDG 2 does not focus exclusively on ending hunger.
Target 2.4 calls for sustainable food-production systems and resilient agricultural practices capable of adapting to climate change, extreme weather, droughts and floods while maintaining ecosystems and progressively improving land and soil quality.
Resilience means more than producing large quantities during good years.
It means building systems capable of surviving difficult years.
That may require:
- diversified crops;
- efficient water management;
- improved soil health;
- better storage;
- stronger rural infrastructure;
- agricultural research;
- access to technology;
- insurance and financial tools;
- improved logistics;
- and knowledge transfer.
A resilient food system is one that can absorb shocks without collapsing.
Small farmers are part of the solution
Food security is not simply about large-scale industrial agriculture.
Millions of small-scale producers play a central role in food systems around the world.
SDG Target 2.3 specifically emphasizes improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, including women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers.
Their access to:
- land;
- water;
- seeds;
- technology;
- financing;
- markets;
- knowledge;
- infrastructure;
- and secure property or usage rights
can directly influence the resilience of local food systems.
Supporting agricultural productivity does not necessarily mean maximizing production at any cost.
It means improving productivity while preserving the ecological foundations upon which future production depends.
Water is food security
There is another infrastructure that cannot be separated from food:
water.
Agriculture is one of the world's largest users of freshwater.
Water scarcity can affect crop yields, livestock, food prices and rural livelihoods.
Where water resources cross national borders, questions of water management can also become questions of international cooperation.
This is why food security cannot be separated from SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation.
Nor can it be separated from:
SDG 1 — No Poverty
SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-Being
SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 — Climate Action
SDG 15 — Life on Land
SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
The Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected precisely because the problems they address are interconnected.
Food systems are global systems
Modern food does not necessarily travel from farm to consumer through a single local supply chain.
A product may depend on:
- seeds produced in one country;
- fertilizer produced in another;
- machinery manufactured elsewhere;
- fuel transported internationally;
- agricultural production in another region;
- processing in another country;
- packaging from another supplier;
- and global shipping networks.
This interconnectedness creates efficiency.
It also creates vulnerability.
A disruption in one part of the system can spread through international markets.
That is why food security increasingly requires cooperation across borders.
No country exists entirely outside the global food system.
Trade and cooperation
International trade can help countries compensate for differences in climate, geography and production capacity.
One country may have abundant grain.
Another may have favourable conditions for fruits and vegetables.
Another may have water resources.
Another may possess advanced agricultural technology.
Another may have strong logistics infrastructure.
International exchange can therefore increase resilience.
But excessive dependence on a limited number of suppliers can also create vulnerabilities.
The objective is not necessarily complete self-sufficiency.
It may instead be resilient interdependence.
A resilient global food system should be capable of continuing to function when individual regions experience drought, conflict, disease outbreaks, economic shocks or logistical disruptions.
Technology and the future of food
Technology will play an increasingly important role in this transformation.
Precision agriculture can improve resource efficiency.
Satellite imagery can help monitor crops.
Artificial intelligence can assist with forecasting and agricultural decision-making.
Digital platforms can connect producers with markets.
Improved storage technologies can reduce post-harvest losses.
Biotechnology may contribute to crop resilience.
Renewable energy can support irrigation and agricultural processing.
But technology is not automatically accessible.
The same principle that applies to digital education applies to agriculture:
innovation only produces broad social benefits when people can access it.
Small farmers who cannot afford modern equipment, financing or digital services may remain excluded from technological progress.
Therefore, technological development must be accompanied by access, education, financing and infrastructure.
The relationship between food and education
Food security and education are also deeply connected.
Children who do not receive adequate nutrition may face difficulties in physical development, concentration and learning.
At the same time, education can improve people's ability to understand nutrition, agricultural practices, markets and technology.
This creates another powerful connection with our previous discussion of education and connectivity.
Education supports food security.
Food security supports education.
Connectivity can expand access to agricultural and nutritional knowledge.
Agricultural resilience supports economic stability.
And economic stability can create better conditions for education.
Human development is therefore not a collection of isolated sectors.
It is a system.
Food security and human dignity
At its most fundamental level, food security concerns something extremely basic:
whether people can eat.
This is why food security should not be reduced to a statistical indicator.
Behind every percentage is a household.
Behind every estimate is a human being.
Behind every food-price increase is a decision about what a family can afford.
Behind every failed harvest is a community exposed to greater vulnerability.
The objective of Zero Hunger is therefore not simply to improve a number.
It is to create conditions in which people can live with greater security, dignity and opportunity.
The economics of prevention
There is also an economic argument for resilient food systems.
Food crises can generate emergency costs long after the original shock.
When agricultural production collapses, governments and international organizations may need to provide emergency food assistance.
When families lose livelihoods, social protection needs can increase.
When food prices rise sharply, governments may introduce subsidies or other interventions.
When people are displaced, the economic and social consequences can extend across borders.
Prevention can therefore be less costly than permanent crisis management.
Investing in:
- agricultural research;
- rural roads;
- irrigation;
- storage;
- early-warning systems;
- climate resilience;
- social protection;
- market infrastructure;
- and farmer education
can reduce vulnerability before a crisis becomes catastrophic.
A world that can feed itself
The question facing humanity is not simply whether the planet can produce enough food.
It is whether humanity can build food systems that are:
productive, accessible, nutritious, affordable, sustainable and resilient.
That is a much more demanding objective.
It requires agricultural innovation.
It requires infrastructure.
It requires functioning markets.
It requires international trade.
It requires responsible environmental management.
It requires education.
It requires technology.
And it requires cooperation.
The peace dividend of food security
A more resilient food system can generate benefits far beyond nutrition.
It can support rural employment.
It can reduce economic vulnerability.
It can improve children's ability to learn.
It can strengthen communities.
It can reduce the consequences of climate shocks.
It can make humanitarian crises less severe.
It can reduce pressure on governments during emergencies.
And it can contribute to the broader conditions in which peaceful societies can develop.
Food security is therefore not a substitute for diplomacy, justice or strong institutions.
It is one component of the larger architecture that makes stability possible.
2030 is approaching
The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015.
The deadline is 2030.
Only a few years remain.
The latest data show both progress and enormous unfinished work.
Global hunger declined in 2025.
But approximately 645 million people still faced hunger.
Approximately 2.1 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.
And more than half of Africa's population was estimated to experience moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025.
The direction of travel matters.
So does the speed.
A world approaching 2030 cannot treat food security as a secondary issue.
It is directly connected to poverty, health, education, climate resilience, economic development and peace.
Building systems that can withstand shocks
The food system of the future cannot be designed only for normal years.
It must be designed for difficult years.
For droughts.
For floods.
For pandemics.
For economic shocks.
For disrupted trade.
For conflicts.
For displacement.
For sudden price increases.
For changing climates.
Resilience means preparing before the crisis.
And preparation requires knowledge.
It requires data.
It requires infrastructure.
It requires investment.
It requires cooperation.
It requires institutions capable of acting before emergencies become catastrophes.
Feeding humanity is a peace issue
Peace is not simply the absence of armed conflict.
It is also the presence of conditions in which human beings can live with security and dignity.
Food is one of those conditions.
A child who can eat is better positioned to learn.
A farmer with resilient production is better positioned to maintain a livelihood.
A community with reliable food systems is better positioned to withstand shocks.
A country with diversified and resilient supply chains is better positioned to manage crises.
And a world capable of cooperating to feed its population strengthens one of the foundations upon which peaceful societies depend.
The challenge is immense.
But the objective is clear.
A peaceful future requires more than preventing wars.
It requires building societies resilient enough to withstand the pressures that can make conflict more likely.
Food security is part of that work.
Because ultimately, feeding humanity is not only about agriculture.
It is about stability.
It is about dignity.
It is about opportunity.
And it is about peace.
Zero Hunger is not only an agricultural ambition.
It is part of the infrastructure of a peaceful world.
Sources: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; FAO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026; World Food Programme; FAO Food Price Index.