The well-fed, affluent nations of the world are skimping on projects that could help feed the globe's hungry, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate has said.

"Our privilege, our affluence … in the long run is ruinous," said scientist Norman Borlaug, who won the Peace Prize in 1970 as father of the "Green Revolution" of high-yield crops that thwarted a predicted famine in Asia.

About 800 million people around the world suffer hunger or malnutrition. In affluent nations, however, a plentiful food supply has dulled interest in agricultural research and in shortages elsewhere in the world, Borlaug said. He also warned that political instability could result from hunger. Without adequate food at home, millions of people "are going to move across national borders, across deserts, and across oceans," Borlaug said.