Kokova Magazine

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on 16th October, the day on which the FAO was founded, in 1945.

In the western world most people are lucky enough to be surrounded with an abundance of food - shops open 24/7 and supermarkets full to bursting, with growing food piles to waste at the end of the day.

World Food Day recognises that this is not the case in every corner of the world - in fact, hunger is a major problem in many countries.

This year's theme for World Food Day is 'Food prices - From crisis to stability'.

World Food Day is about helping hungry people to help themselves and not simply a reminder to donate food for them.

"Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime..."

Along with raising awareness of hunger and poverty, the day aims to encourage economic and technological cooperation between different governments and with non-governmental organisations.

Price swings, upswings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries.

Hardest-hit are the poor. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty.

The objectives of World Food Day are to:

• encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end.
• encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.
• encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions.
• heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world.
• promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world.
• strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development.

On World Food Day 2011, let us look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society.
www.fao.org