Bob Geldof has said the "fight for food is the fight for life" at a global summit in Belfast.
The Boomtown Rats frontman also said sustainability in a finite world is a "myth" and called for new solutions to the global food crisis.
The singer and songwriter opened the plenary session on hunger at the One Young World Summit at the ICC centre.
The summit has brought thousands of young leaders from across the world to the city to discuss global problems.
Geldof, who is known for co-writing the Band Aid hit Do They Know It's Christmas? to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia, said that hunger is an ongoing global issue.
"There are still millions, as we’ve heard all morning, who go to bed hungry at night," he said.
"That is sickening. It disgusts me. It is unnecessary, it is stupid. And it can stop. It is a very easy thing to feed the world."
Geldof said that our current understanding of sustainability would not be able to keep up with the pressure humanity can expect to face in the future.
"Over 820 million people as we keep hearing suffer from chronic undernourishment," he said.
"With the current population growth by 2050, as everyone knows, we will need to produce nearly 50% more food.
"We are asking of the planet more than it has to give. Sustainability in a finite world is an oxymoron. It’s a myth.
"For decades, I’ve attended all the conferences and spoken at most. I’ve heard more or less the same thing everywhere all the time.
"I’d love today to be hearing something different," he stated.
He added: "Is it not the task of One Young World to lead these rooms, and think together, and devise new methods, new thought, just newer ways of doing things?
"Because it's not as simple as just producing more food. Our methods of production, distribution and consumption needs a renaissance of thought and innovation."
Geldof said hunger remained the biggest health issue in the world.
"Right now, the WHO tells us that malnutrition is the greatest single threat to global public health. One in three people suffer from some form of malnutrition," he said.
"At least one in three of us don’t grow, to be able to activate their minds to its highest level. Well, that impacts everything. It’s a pandemic in silence."
He added: "It’s your world. Your fight. The fight for food is literally the fight for life."
The One Young World Summit will continue in Belfast until Thursday.
Source: Press Association
