To overcome this crisis, there is not going "back to normal".
Twelve years after the food price crisis in 2007/2008, the world finds itself in the midst of one of the most dramatic global, multifold, crises of our times. The pandemic of COVID-19 is not only leading humanity to an unprecedented health emergency, where the shortcomings of our health care and social systems are being most exposed, but it is also exacerbating hunger and malnutrition.
The impacts of the pandemic and the measures to stop contagion are intensifying ongoing human rights violations that prevent people’s access to adequate food. Those who are already in situations of marginalization and vulnerability due to low socio-economic status, racism, sexism and other types of discrimination are facing a higher risk of food insecurity.
Albeit triggered by COVID-19 and the preventative measures that have been put in place to contain it, the emerging food crisis finds its foundations in decades of neoliberal policies and practices that have been exacerbating disparity and discrimination. This is why not only targeted measures are needed to face this pandemic, but also public policies that fundamentally change the way in which our societies are organized and the economic system operates. To overcome this crisis, there is no"going back to normal".