Inclusion starts with food

In unprecedented times, when several crises interconnect, inequality thrives. This is what is happening now, when the rich are becoming richer while the global number of poor people is rising again for the first time in 25 years.  

According to Oxfam briefing paper “Survival of the Richest,” published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, since 2020, the richest 1% have captured $26 trillion almost two-thirds of all new wealth and nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population, while $16 trillion (37 percent) went to the rest of the world put together.   

Inflation is taking its toll on the poor but does not seem to scratch the wealth of the privileged: billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7 billion a day, even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers, more than the population of India. And this comes on top of a decade of historic gains —the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years.  

While people struggle to buy food and pay their bills, food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022, paying out $257 billion to wealthy shareholders, while at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, and over 800 million people —roughly one in ten people on Earth, are affected by hunger, according to FAO data. 

#Taxation could be an effective tool for reducing inequality, Oxfam claims, but in fact only 4 cents in every dollar of tax revenue comes from wealth taxes, and half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on money they give to their children. A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger, Oxfam says.  

The problem of food security is serious and needs timely solutions. Many people find themselves in the situation of having to choose between paying energy bills or grocery shopping, and the rising cost of living is driving many families to fall back on cheaper and less healthy eating. In Europe, 1 in 4 citizens suffers from at least one form of poverty and 43 million Europeans cannot afford a quality meal every second day.  

This situation is further aggravated by the fact that food loss and waste are reducing food access and availability across the EU and thus are critically undermining food security for disadvantaged parts of the society. Furthermore, access to healthy diets is hampered by lack of awareness and by aggressive marketing on High Food Sugar or Salt (HFSS) products, especially children marketed products. 

SAFE and Food4Inclusion

For this reason, SAFE is engaged with the ESF+ Food4Inclusion project, which strives to make healthy diets accessible through initiatives such as food redistribution or healthy accessible meals in restaurants for people in need, and to improve the quality and transparency of information available on food products to safeguard at-risk populations’ health.

SAFE is also advocating for better affordability of food products across Europe and for the social inclusion of at-risk and disadvantaged population groups. 

The Food4Inclusion Project aims to generate a positive impact on European citizens, especially disadvantaged ones, not only through food distribution and inclusion initiatives, but also by providing independent information, developing relevant training, and encouraging the adoption of a new legislation that will lead to a more inclusive food system.

Inclusion starts with food.