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Snapshot 5:Wed, Aug 5, 2026 1:03:02 PM GMT last edited by Edward

El Niño Could Push 49 Million More Into Hunger by 2027

El Niño couldCould pushPush 50m49 peopleMillion intoMore acuteInto hungerHunger beforeby end of next year2027

Above: The U.N. flag atop the World Food Programme's headquarters in Rome, Italy, on Jun. 22. Image credit: Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Spin


The El Niño is barreling toward the world's most vulnerable populations is staggering in scale, and so will its harms if action is not urgently taken. Already, the numbersU.N. areprojects staggeringat least 49 million more people to be pushed into acute hunger by 2027. CountriesIt inis Centralof Americathe utmost importance, southerntherefore, Africafor andcountries Asiato arework alreadywith feeling the damage,WFP and withoutpartners urgentto earlyavert actioncatastrophe, collapsedas harvestsevery and spiking food prices will devastate smallholder farmers who have no safety net. Every dollar spent onnow anticipatorywill actionsave now saves up to seven dollars in emergencydamages response later, making inaction inexcusable.

El Niño's reputation as a global hunger apocalypse is wildly overstated. For for 50 years, it's been the weather system that cried wolf, with agricultural productivity and open trade consistently outpacing its damage. The 2023-2024 El Niño actually dropped prices for corn, soybeans and wheat. The real food security threat isn't a Pacific weather cycle but deliberate policy failures, including fertilizer supply disruptions and trade instability, that are far more controllable and far more dangerous.


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© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 7.4.1

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 7.4.1