Op-Ed: U.S. government should do more to address world hunger. A previous act is a start.

Americans are facing “sticker shock” in the local supermarket and many families are struggling. The Russian attack on Ukraine has thrown the global food trade into turmoil. We are coping, but for the world’s poorest, it is not just a matter of money. It's a matter of life and death. They literally cannot afford to eat. Today’s global hunger crisis threatens to push at least 47 million people in 81 countries to the edge of famine.

This is no simple crisis. A complex set of factors — increasingly intense weather, ongoing conflicts and the impacts of the pandemic — came together to start it. Then, the war in Ukraine made a dire situation even worse, as vital exports have been cut off, driving up food prices in vulnerable areas in East and West Africa and the Middle East.

As the executive director of the World Food Programme from 2002 to 2007, I saw hunger up close in the worn faces of mothers going hungry to give their kids their food and in conversations with poor families forced to choose between a meal and medicine for an ailing relative. Nothing can make you feel more guilty and hopeless than the enormous, pleading eyes of a skeletal baby hooked up to a feeding tube. But, I’ve also seen how, with urgent action, we can change course and save lives. The scale of the current catastrophe requires swift global mobilization — and American leadership.

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First, the United States and our allies must fully fund national and international agencies, like the World Food Programme, so they can provide emergency food now. The severity of this crisis requires Congress to mobilize large-scale resources. I know many extraordinary people who are ready to save lives. They simply need the dollars to do it.

Next, Congress has a special opportunity to go a step further on a path to prevent hunger — a path an extraordinary Hoosier put us on. Congress should reauthorize and expand the Global Food Security Act of 2009.

When assessing the global food crisis of 2007 to 2008, my friend U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar said: “It is both a moral and a security imperative for the United States and other wealthy nations to address the root causes of hunger.” Lugar’s Global Food Security Act does just that, and it is due for reauthorization.

The Global Food Security Act, which Lugar first introduced with Sen. Robert Casey in 2008, prevents hunger by developing stronger agricultural systems like those we take for granted here. Today in Indiana, we have safety nets and buffers so we won’t experience widespread hunger. We must make sure that others around the world have those same assurances.

Since it became law in 2016, Lugar’s Global Food Security Act has been at work through a program called Feed the Future. Working with local partners, Feed the Future made over 18 million acres of farmland more productive, trained 7.9 million agricultural workers and provided food to 26.8 million children in 2020 alone.

Lugar may have been the leading legislative architect for these efforts, but Indiana has more than a political role in their success. Hoosiers have participated in farmer learning exchange programs across the world. Indiana companies have been among Feed the Future’s business partners. Purdue University leads the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-harvest Handling. I am proud that Hoosier talent is helping strengthen farmers in countries where hunger looms.

The results of the Global Food Security Act and Feed the Future speak for themselves. This is why, with overwhelming bipartisan congressional backing, former President Donald Trump signed a five-year renewal into law in 2018, and I hope and trust President Joe Biden will do the same.

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Feed the Future is successful, but currently active in only 12 countries. Instead of a routine reauthorization, Congress should undertake an ambitious expansion of the Global Food Security Act to add more countries, so they can feed their people despite threats from mother nature and foreign war. A new Global Food Security Act should promote more technical assistance in school feeding and child nutrition, aid to local non-governmental organizations and farm cooperatives and provide matching funds for worthwhile activities by both U.S. and foreign non-governmental organizations and foundations.

American funding and congressional action can transform the lives of millions starving right now. Our leaders should act with the same urgency and inspiration Lugar did when faced with the same daunting challenge.

Hunger can be halted. Hunger can be prevented. We can win this fight.

Jim Morris is currently the vice chairman of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. He was previously the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme for five years and spent time in Indianapolis city government, notably as the chief of staff for then-mayor Richard Lugar.