In 2016, Congress passed the Global Food Security Act (GFSA), which authorized a U.S. whole-of-government global food security strategy for two years, with overwhelming bipartisan support. GFSA builds on the success of Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s whole-of-government program to reduce global hunger and malnutrition.
Feed the Future, launched in 2010, grew out of the U.S. response, led by President George W. Bush, to the 2007-2008 global food price crisis. Prices of basic foods doubled or tripled in some countries and pushed an additional 150 million people into hunger and malnutrition.
Feed the Future has enabled significant progress against hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in its focus countries. But the current global context, with prolonged conflicts, a changing climate, and deepening inequalities, has stalled or even reversed progress in vulnerable areas around the world. In 2016 (the last year for which there is data), the number of people living with hunger increased from the previous year to 815 million people.
