Crisis and the Future of Food Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in early 2020, delivered the sharpest shock to global food security in decades, reversing years of gradual progress. Lockdowns and mobility restrictions disrupted agricultural labor markets, food processing — including notable outbreak clusters in meatpacking plants across the United States and Europe — and transport and logistics chains, while widespread school closures eliminated the school feeding programs that many of the world's poorest children relied on for a significant share of their daily nutrition; the World Food Programme estimated that more than 370 million children lost access to school meals at the pandemic's peak in 2020.