With the coronavirus now spreading at a horrific pace through much of Latin America, the executive director of the World Food Programme has declared that nations in the developing world would soon face a mega-famine of “Biblical proportions.” The explanation for this is that while COVID-19 will not directly beget famines, because so many people living in the world’s most fragile economies have no work, they will not be able to pay for food for their families and farmers will have no money for seed or fertilizer.
With so many people and companies clamouring for help, it is easy to understand why the WFP’s David Beasley invoked the Bible at a meeting in Geneva.