Sunday, June 17, 2012

Rio facts to digest

13% of the world's population is undernourished, 19% live without access to electricity, and 21% live on less than $1.25 a day.

In the 1960s, the world's population was increasing by 2 percent per year. That has now declined to a little more than 1 percent per year, and projections by the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau suggest future rates of world population growth are likely to slow even further. World production and use of cereals such as wheat, rice and corn has increased from about 1 billion tons in the late 1960s to more than 2 billion tons today. Production of other types of food also has increased sharply in recent decades. The additional calories needed by the 13% of the world's population facing hunger (850 million people) equals just 3% of the global food supply. That's nothing compared with the 30% of food that gets lost or wasted in the supply chain.

Hundreds of millions of people still do not get enough to eat because of their inability to purchase the food they need.

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