On World Food Day, UN calls for united front against hunger by United Nations News 1:21am 16th Oct, 2010   Oct 2010    With nearly one billion people still suffering from food shortages around the globe, the world must take a united stand against hunger, the United Nations said today, marking World Food Day.    The number of the world’s hungry has dipped slightly from its record high last year, but “we are continually reminded that the world’s food systems are not working in ways that ensure food security for the most vulnerable members of our societies,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on the Day.    The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is a pillar for achieving all eight of the globally-agreed targets with a 2015 deadline, Mr. Ban stressed.    “When people are hungry, they cannot break the crippling chains of poverty, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases,” he said. “When children are hungry, they cannot grow, learn and develop.”    This year alone, the Secretary-General pointed out, millions have been pushed into hunger by the earthquake in Haiti, the drought in the Sahel and floods in Pakistan, while the twin food and financial crises continue to affect the world’s most vulnerable.    He highlighted the need for global cooperation – bringing together governments, intergovernmental organizations, regional and sub-regional bodies, business and civil society groups – to combat hunger.    “Increasingly, their approach is comprehensive,” Mr. Ban said, covering all aspects of food security, ranging from small farms to feeding schoolchildren.    He urged everyone to press ahead with this approach to build on progress made in reducing the number of hungry people in the world. “Let us unite against hunger and ensure food and nutrition security for all.”    The Day is commemorated every year on 16 October, marking the date of the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945.    The agency’s 1billionhungry.org campaign, which aims to encourage governments to make eliminating hunger their top priority, has surpassed 1 million signatures.    FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called for agriculture’s share of official development assistance to increase and for governments of low-income, food-deficient countries to increase farming’s share in national budgets.    “There is a need for greater coherence and coordination in policy choices for greater assurance of unimpeded access to global supplies and improved confidence and transparency in market functioning,” Mr. Diouf noted.    Also addressing the ceremony was WFP Executive Josette Sheeran, who said that “now is the time for us to make the goal of a world free of hunger into reality,” invoking Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.    “Now it is time for all of us to mobilize an unstoppable movement of humanity to act against the hunger that continues to condemn hundreds of millions of children to unfulfilled lives simply because they have not had access to nutritious food.”    Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD, urged world leaders to boost investments in agriculture to enhance farm productivity.    It is estimated that half of the world’s poor are smallholder agriculturalists, with more than 2 billion men and women in Africa, Asia and Latin America depending on smallholder farms.    “Smallholder farmers can feed the world, but they cannot do it alone,” he told reporters on the sidelines of today’s event. “Greater long-term investment in agriculture is needed, creating conditions to bring rural people out of subsistence and into the marketplace.”    Mr. Nwanze underlined the crucial role of agriculture in fighting poverty.    “Agriculture is the key to food security and a fundamental engine of economic growth and wealth generation,” he noted.    The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food today said there is little to rejoice about on World Food Day, calling for a shift to low-carbon agriculture to ensure there is enough food for all, especially in the face of climate change.    There are nearly one billion hungry people in the world, “but the worst may still be ahead, since current agricultural developments are also threatening the ability for our children’s children to feed themselves,” Olivier De Schutter cautioned.    Current farming methods focus on the provision of chemical fertilizers and a greater mechanization of production. “Such efforts are far distant from the professed commitment to fight climate change and to support small-scale, family agriculture,” he said.    The current approach, Mr. De Schutter stressed, is a “recipe for disaster,” calling for reliance on agro-forestry, better water harvesting techniques and other low-carbon methods to ensure that farming plays a large role in mitigating climate change’s effects instead of exacerbating them.    FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf message on the World Food Day 2010: "United against Hunger".    On 16 October 2010, World Food Day enters its 30th year. The theme of this year’s observance, “United against hunger”, seeks to recognize the efforts made in the fight against world hunger by all actors, at all levels; and urges us to be even more united to do more.    In 2009, the critical threshold of one billion hungry people in the world was reached in large part due to soaring food prices and the global economic crisis. The gravity of the silent hunger crisis is the result of decades of neglect of agriculture and under-investment in the sector.    That is why on the eve of the “Hunger Summit” of heads of state and government held in Rome, in November 2009, FAO launched a petition to reflect the moral outrage of the situation.    This “1 billion hungry project” reaches out to persons to sign the anti-hunger petition and to work together to amplify the message that society has to take special care that no one goes hungry today. Over 1 million people have signed and the project is continuing.    The theme “United against hunger” highlights the need to launch a new green revolution, while emphasizing that the task of increasing food production is a job for everyone as is the goal of ensuring access to food. Partnerships with governments, research institutes and universities, financial institutions and regional development banks, farmers’ organizations, pressure groups, the UN system, civil society and the private sector are needed to work together to achieve food security for all.    World food production will need to increase by 70 percent to feed a population of over nine billion people in 2050. With limited land, farmers will have to get greater yields out of the land already under cultivation.    Smallholder farmers and their families represent some 2.5 billion people, more than one-third of the global population, and it is their crucial contribution to increased food production that we want to highlight.    Collaboration among international organizations plays a key strategic role in directing global efforts to reach the international hunger reduction goals. It is only by working together that we can realize our common objective. United we can defeat hunger.    The "1billionhungry project". (FAO)    People around the world, have signed on to FAO"s 1billion hungry campaign. FAO launched the online petition calling on people to get angry at the fact that around a billion people suffer from hunger.    "The 1billionhungry project" uses strong images to illustrate hunger at its worst. Bold language proclaiming enough is enough.    The online petition calls upon governments to make the elimination of hunger their top priority.    "We should be extremely angry for the outrageous fact that that our fellow human beings continue to suffer from hunger," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.    "If you feel the same way, I want you to voice that anger. All of you, rich and poor, young and old, in developing and developed countries, express your anger about world hunger by adding your names to the global 1billion hungry petition he said.    The "1billionhungry project" is fully supported by a number of civil society organisations including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and a growing list of NGOs who will promote the campaign through their own networks.    "It is a huge injustice that more than one billion people go to sleep hungry every night and we welcome FAO"s focus and commitment on this issue," said Katia Maia, Head of Oxfam"s Food and Agriculture Campaign.    If the world continues at the current pace of hunger reduction, the Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of hungry people by 2015 will not be met.    Of the around one billion hungry people, 642 million live in Asia and the Pacific, 265 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 42 in the Near East and North Africa and 15 million people in developed countries.    FAO estimates that global agricultural production needs to grow by 70 percent if the estimated 9 billion people that will inhabit the planet in 2050 are to be fed.    Events to support the launch of the 1billionhungry campaign were organized in cities around the world. In Yokohama, for example, home of the UN food agencies in Japan, banners have been erected over major landmarks. In Paris, students and NGO supporters campaigned in front of the Eiffel Tower. Visit the related web page
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