World Food Day – October 16th
guest | October 16th, 2012 in : days of significance, General, social practices
Today is World Food Day, a day to honor the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
1.5 billion live on less than $1 a day
World Food Day is a day to consider questions such as: is there enough food for everybody? Why do people go hungry? Are we eating too much? Are we eating too much meat? What is sustainable farming? What is genetically manipulated food?
Food is a basic human right but nearly one in six people around the world do not have enough food to be healthy and to live an active life. Approximately 1.5 billion people live on less than US $1 a day and every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation states that hunger is “the most critical manifestation of poverty,” and hunger, “undermines the peace and prosperity of nations and traps individuals in a vicious cycle of poor nutrition, ill health and diminished capacity for learning and work that is passed on from one generation to the next.”
Former Head of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Dr Jacques Diouf, speaks of the connection of hunger and poverty and raises a valid point: “While hunger is a consequence of poverty, the opposite is also true: Hunger causes poverty.”
This year’s theme for World Food Day is ‘Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to feeding the world.’ The theme is a part of the larger UN campaign of ‘2012 – International Year of Cooperatives.’
Tags: FAO, hunger, nutrition, poverty, World Food Day
Hello, I'm Deborah Swallow and, for the last fifteen years, I've worked in over thirty countries addressing the complexities of people working internationally across multiple cultures, so individuals and organisations alike can gain an authentic competitive edge and win in international markets. 