Brazilian homeless people have temporarily occupied the building of Brazil's stock exchange in the economic metropolis of São Paulo.
The idea is to use the demonstration to highlight the extent of hunger in Brazil while the richest in the country are getting richer, the newspaper "Folha de S. Paulo" quoted the organizers of the "Movement of Homeless Workers" (MTST) and the “People without fear movement” (Frente Povo sem Medo) on Thursday.
The policy of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro is the cause of this process.
In the corona pandemic in Brazil, hunger had returned with full force. 19 million Brazilians suffer from hunger, according to a study by the Brazilian Research Network for Food Security (PENSSAN speech) from April. In addition, homelessness increased enormously in metropolises such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The largest and most populous country in Latin America has repeatedly suffered from hunger. In 2014 it left the map of hunger, also thanks to the social programs of the then head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011). The right-wing populist Bolsonaro, who has ruled since 2019, suspended the National Food Security Council in one of his first official acts. The economic crisis and cuts in social programs left many people behind and hunger. But the corona pandemic only really intensified the development.
In New York, almost at the same time, the United Nations (UN) called for a new view of the world’s food supply. Food should not be viewed simply as a tradable raw material, "but as a right that everyone is entitled to," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday at the first world summit on the future of food. The event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly only took place with the help of video conferences due to the Corona crisis. Hunger and malnutrition had increased significantly on earth again in the past year.
According to a UN report, the number of people affected rose by around 118 million to 768 million. Most of the increase is probably due to the restrictions in the wake of the Corona crisis. On the international markets, food prices in June were a good third above the level a year earlier, as a UN index shows.
Guterres said that food systems should promote the health and well-being of all people, protect the planet and support prosperity.
He spoke of major imbalances that needed to be addressed.
On the one hand, there are billions of people who are overweight.
On the other hand, many millions do not have enough to eat.
A third of the food is thrown away.
At the same time, the production, processing and consumption of food contribute one third to fuel gas emissions.