Webinar on SDG 2 - Zero Hunger

Dr Tan during the Q&A session

The Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research (IPSR) organised UTAR International Collaborative Partner (ICP) webinar series. Speaking at the seventh webinar was International Collaborative Partner of UTAR Global Research Network Dr Tan Swee Lian who presented on “Can the world achieve zero hunger?” on 12 November 2020. The webinar was held via Zoom.

Dr Tan introduced the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) blueprint which was set up with the goal to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all in 2015. “I will be addressing on SDG 2 which addresses “Zero Hunger”. SDG 2 strives to overcome the hunger issues by imposing strategies such as wasting less food and supporting local farmers. The facts and figures in 2019 showed that nearly 690 million people are hungry, that is around 8.9 per cent of the world population. Three hundred and eighty-nine million were found in Asia while more than 250 million were found in Africa. Close to 750 million face severe levels of food insecurity. Ironically, there are two billion people who are suffering from obesity. About two billion people have no regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food while 144 million children under five years old are affected with stunted growth. At the current rate, by 2030 it is estimated that more than 840 million or 9.8 per cent of the global population will be hungry. However, the good news is global food production is in fact very efficient and there is enough food to feed around 10 billion people.”

As Dr Tan questioned on why hunger still exists, she said, “There is an uneven distribution of food whereby not everyone gets access to food due to poverty but we also have people with excessive lifestyle from unequal distribution of wealth. Of course, we also have poor or wasteful food handling due to limited access to effective technologies for storage, handling and transportation because of poverty and lack of resources. On another hand, we also have problems like overbuying and the culture of throwing away excess food. The annual global food wastage is 1.3 billion tonnes.”

In the webinar, Dr Tan also presented  the total crop production, global consumption of food types, poverty issues, environmental impacts of food and agriculture, food loss and waste, greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors, aquaponics, urban farming, novel protein sources, underutilised plant species, meat analogues, lab-grown meat and other related topics.

She also spoke about China’s emergence from poverty as an example for tackling poverty for the good of the people; whereby China’s poverty rate fell from 88 per cent in 1981 to 0.7 per cent in 2015 and its income per capita increased 25-fold between 1990 and 2010, from $200 to $5,000. “There was a rapid expansion in the labour market in various industries and the protracted period of economic growth where its citizen could earn more income. There were also a series of government transfer funds such as urban subsidy and the introduction of rural pension. Thus, there has to be a political will to lift people out of poverty in the country,” added Dr Tan.

“The negative impact of livestock production is that those livestock competes with humans for grain and carbohydrate sources and ruminant livestock also produce an estimation of 18 per cent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission,” said Dr Tan as she shared her views on the status of food production in the world.

Dr Tan explaining the environmental impacts of food and agriculture towards the environment

She advised, “For those of us who are privileged to be in the middle-class or higher, there has to be a personal will to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Do not waste food. We can opt to buy less, store less, serve less and eat less. If you still have food waste, do not throw it into the trash, another good way is to compost food wastes so you can use it again. It is advisable to consume less meat to reduce the risk of having diseases such as colorectal cancer, diabetes and others. Be a vegetarian or a flexitarian and choose to eat local foods to reduce carbon footprint.”

“We can achieve zero hunger as we are already producing enough food to feed the world population. There has to be fair and equitable distribution of food as well as no wastage of food. What we need is political will and commitment as well as our personal will and commitment to achieve sustainable food production and consumption systems,” added Dr Tan.

Dr Tan is also a fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. Her research area is on plant genetics (cassava), plant breeding and crop improvement (sweet potato), crop production (Stevia), crop physiology (corn (maize)), horticulture and agronomy.