BALTIMORE, Maryland, USA, Oct 14 (IPS) – World Food Day 2024 World Food Day seems to be a time for celebration. A day to eat delicious meals and enjoy the rich traditions and cultures of food around the world.
But it’s hard to celebrate when conflict, the climate crisis and our biodiversity loss crisis are leaving at least 733 million people around the world hungry. Dr. Evan Fraser of the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute calls these cascading crises. And the results are terrible.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one in eleven people worldwide will face hunger by 2023. And one in five people in Africa are hungry.
If current trends continue, more than 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by 2030, according to the FAO and four other United Agencies, with half of these people living on the African continent. That’s less than six years away, which means we still have a lot of work to do.
Fortunately, we already know what works. The theme of this year’s World Food Day is Right to food for a better life and a better future. Everyone deserves healthy, nutritious, safe and delicious food.
And the United Nations says: “There should be a greater diversity of nutritious food available in our fields, in our markets and on our tables, for the benefit of all.” I would add that we also need a diversity of people, practices and thoughts to help feed the world.
This year, the prestigious World Food Prize will be awarded to Special Envoy for Food Safety, Dr. Cary Fowler, and agricultural scientist Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin. These two individuals are being recognized, according to the World Food Prize Foundation, for “their extraordinary leadership in conserving and protecting the world heritage of crop biodiversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats to global food security.”
And dr. Fowler is working to encourage farmers and governments to grow “opportunity crops” such as chickpeas, millet, sorghum and other ancient and resilient foods. These crops have often been overlooked in favor of corn, rice and other so-called staples, but once again they have the potential to solve a host of problems. They promote soil health and if storage and processing can improve in places like sub-Saharan Africa, they could be profitable.
Another solution – and it should be clear – is to strengthen the position of women and girls. We are systematically underutilizing at least 50 percent of the world’s population. Equal rights for women are not only an ethical and moral imperative, but can also help solve the hunger crisis.
According to the FAO, if women had the same access to resources as men – education, access to credit and financial services, information and respect – they could lift as many as 100 million people out of hunger. And equal rights are good for the economy. And according to Betty Chinyamunyamu of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi, “gender integration makes good business sense.”
Moreover, women often grow the food that is actually nutritious – including the alternative crops, as well as fruits and vegetables that contribute to agrobiodiversity. “Women’s empowerment has a positive impact on agricultural production, food security, diets and child nutrition,” says FAO’s Status of Women in Agrifood Systems. Ensuring that women are empowered in all aspects of their lives is just common sense.
Moreover, farmers – small, medium and large – literally need a seat at the table, from personal input into international dialogues such as COP29, the UN Climate Change Conference, to co-creating technologies with scientists and entrepreneurs that will actually solve the problems . that farmers experience in fields and farms.
For example, Good Nature Agro in Zambia is developing ways with farmers to prevent post-harvest losses and manage their agricultural land more sustainably. And the organization Global Alliance of Latinos in Agriculture aims to create a world where farmers and ranchers worldwide thrive – and they plan to bring hundreds of producers to COP30 in Belem, Brazil next year.
On this World Food Day (October 16), the Arrell Food Institute is bringing together leaders and experts from the agri-food sector to explore solutions such as diversity, empowering women and putting farmers in the driver’s seat to create a safer and more sustainable global food system. create. A food system that works for everyone.
Hopefully, in the not so distant future, World Food Day will actually be a day to celebrate.
Danielle Nierenberg is chairman and founder, Food tankwhich describes itself as a global community that inspires, motivates and activates positive transformation in the way we produce and consume food.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
