World Food Day
Every year, the World Food Day is celebrated on October 16. It is celebrated widely by World Health Organisation, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme.
Origin
The World Food Day was established at the 20th General Conference of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in 1979. Th idea was suggested by a Hungarian Delegation led by former Hungarian Minister of Food and Agriculture.
Why on October 16?
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation was established on October 16, 1945. Thus, every year the World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 to mark the establishment of the organisation.
Significance
The day aims to tackle global hunger. It aims to eradicate hunger across the world.
Why is it important to celebrate World Food Day?
The Agri-food system employs more than one billion people. This number is the highest as compared to any other economic sector. The production destroys natural habitats. It causes species extinction. This inefficiency is costing trillions of USD. Therefore, it is important to build sustainable agri-food systems. Such food systems should be capable of nourishing ten billion people by 2050. The day creates awareness focusing on sustainable agri-food system. Therefore, it is important to celebrate World Food Day. The sustainable agri-food system focuses on safe nutritious food. It ensures that no one is hungry or suffers from malnutrition. It delivers food security to all without compromising social, economic and environmental bases for the future generation.
World Food Day 2021
In 2021, the World Food Day was celebrated under the theme “Our Actions are our future”. It focused on inequalities and injustices in the agri-food systems. According to FAO, around two billion people do not have regular access to sufficient amount of nutritious food. Around three billion cannot afford to healthy diet. The World Food Day also focused on the food wastages. According to FAO, food is wasted during production, transportation and is also thrown into the waste bins of households, restaurants. The third focus was on the greenhouse gases generated by the food wastes. The food wastes piling in landfills emit methane that adds to increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the earth’s atmosphere.
