The good business in ending hunger

Ending hunger is a business opportunity waiting to be embraced by corporations, particularly in the areas of developing sustainable small scale agriculture, improving food systems and reducing food waste. 

Ending hunger is a business opportunity waiting to be embraced by corporations, particularly in the areas of developing sustainable small scale agriculture, improving food systems and reducing food waste. 

Business is the only part of society focused on profit and a leader in developing innovative solutions. Ending hunger requires approximately  US$37 billion every year until 2030. If this sector, particularly the food and agricultural industries, are not engaged with this SDG, then it won’t be achieved.

Unfortunately this goal is going backwards: the world is at hunger levels not seen since 2005. Climate change, high food prices, food scarcity, and declining food production meant that in 2022 there were about 735 million people in a chronic state of hunger, and 2.4 billion experiencing moderate to severe food security.

Making profits and doing good can be mutually reinforcing goals. Business needs to realise that society’s problems such as SDG 2 are also business opportunities.

How is it possible to ethically profit from hunger?

The prevailing logic taught in business schools and practiced in Western business is to focus on the market segment with the most money (roughly 3 billion people). But the majority of the world’s population – about 5 billion – are poor. Additionally, the effects of hunger are more profound in these poor people. This is a significant  business opportunity that is not being realised in the context of hunger and poor people.

Making money from hunger – companies are not trained to do that.

To address hunger, we need to understand the situation and perspectives of those who experience it. When researching food well-being amongst poor families in India, I realised the importance of the non-physical nature of food. For example, a person I interviewed said: “Even if I eat, I don’t feel full if my family’s not eating with me.” The family meal is critical to both their physical and mental well being.

Organisations need to consider not just the provision of food, but the context within which food is consumed. The main thing for the poor is eating with family. Organisations need to broaden their food strategy to engage with that process, to satisfy the physical and mental aspects of food consumption in impoverished communities.

Ending hunger is linked to a number of the other SDGs: SDG 1 on eliminating poverty, and SDG 13 on climate change, in particular. Without for-profit business, the world is not going to deal with any of the SDGs because business promotes innovation, it generates the money, and it’s part of society. Historically countering hunger has been the concern of governments and charities. Progress has been slow and we must not look away. Eradicating hunger requires a much bigger collaborative global effort. Of course business should be engaged in this objective.

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