Giving Compass' Take:

• Leah Rodriguez reports that global agriculture is not producing enough fruits and vegetables for everyone in the world to reach their recommended servings. 

• Global hunger is usually thought of as a problem of food distribution, how can funders help to grow awareness of the issues of unbalanced agricultural production? 

• Learn about the relationship between climate change and global hunger. 

If the world’s population is going to follow a healthy diet, farmers need to start producing way more fruits and veggies, HuffPost reports.

A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE found food production isn’t keeping up with global nutritional needs. The research, conducted by the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, revealed the world is producing one-third of the amount of produce nutritionists suggest everyone should eat. Meanwhile, grains, sugar, and fats are heavily overproduced.

Even with all that excess, over 821 million people were malnourished in 2017, according to the UN.

Researchers compared the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate (HHEP), an internationally recognized nutritional model, to the United Nations’ 2011 agriculture production report. The HHEP suggests people consume 50% of their calories through fruits and vegetables, 25% through whole grains, and 25% through protein, fat, and dairy. The study acknowledged that there’s endless debate over the exact breakdown of how much of each food group a person should consume, and noted the Canadian Food Guide suggests people consume 27% less produce than the HHEP.

For every person in the world to meet HHEP’s standards, global agriculture would have to churn out 15 servings of fruits and vegetables a day — right now it’s only producing five. Protein production is also not quite up to standard. HHEP recommends people eat three servings a day, but only five are being produced.

Read the full article about fruits and vegetables by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.