1 In Every 8 People In The World Goes Hungry

It seems like the efforts to end world hunger are paying off; in a report on food insecurity, UN agencies found that 868 million people went hungry from 2010 to 2012, less than the estimated 1 billion.

This corresponds to 12.5 percent of the world's population; from 1990 to 1992, the UN estimated that 18.6 percent of the world's population went hungry.

"That is better news than we have had in the past, but it still means that one person in every eight goes hungry. That is unacceptable, especially when we live in a world of plenty," José Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told Reuters.

Unfortunately, given the current economic crisis and the drought, food prices are trending upward, meaning food insecurity will increase.

"Most of the progress in hunger reduction was made until 2006, as food price levels continued to decline. With the rise in food prices and the economic crisis that followed, there have been many fewer advances," Graziano da Silva said.

Furthermore, the majority of the undernourished population resides in developing countries, the report concludes. While hunger has fallen nearly 30 percent in Asia and the Pacific, the number of those going hungry grew in Africa from 175 million in 1990 to 1992 to 239 million in 2010 to 2012.