For as long as humans have walked the planet, catastrophic events have decreased food production and led to mass starvation. Floods, volcanic winter, and multi-continent droughts have all occurred before, and they will almost certainly occur again.

In fact, the risks may be growing. In addition to traditional risks, anthropogenic climate change is increasing the likelihood that extreme weather events will severely impact multiple continents in the same year. Moreover, although technological advances will help in many situations, in some cases they could also make us more vulnerable to a catastrophe or could even cause one, such as a cyberterrorism attack or nuclear winter.

Given population growth, globalization, and our reliance on technology, events that would have been bad in the past may be catastrophic if they happened today. More people will be directly impacted, and locations farther away from the catastrophe would be at greater risk of having food trade disrupted. 

Even some wealthy countries may be at greater risk today than they may have been in previous centuries, as they are less self-sufficient and more reliant on imports. And with global dependence on electricity to distribute and store food, a catastrophe such as an extreme solar storm—which could damage the electric grid—could devastate global access to food.

Not taking action is only the cheapest option until a catastrophe occurs. Without advance preparation, it will be astronomically costly to address a catastrophe. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the colossal human and economic costs caused by the failures of prevention, early warning, preparedness, and response.

ALLFED focuses on resilient food solutions that are the most effective and affordable—we always analyze feasibility before recommending a solution. We also investigate financial mechanisms for funding these solutions. Such mechanisms would help ensure available funding in a catastrophe, and they can be used to fund resilience work today.