The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto,fiat panis,translates to "let there be bread". It was founded on 16 October 1945.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals. Founded in 1961,WFP is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries. As of 2021,it supported over 128 million people across more than 120 countries and territories.
Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients in food that are necessary to support human life and good health. Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty,food security,or a poor understanding of nutritional requirements. Malnutrition and its consequences are large contributors to deaths,physical deformities,and disabilities worldwide. Good nutrition is necessary for children to grow physically and mentally,and for normal human biological development.
In politics,humanitarian aid,and the social sciences,hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the field of hunger relief,the term hunger is used in a sense that goes beyond the common desire for food that all humans experience,also known as an appetite. The most extreme form of hunger,when malnutrition is widespread,and when people have started dying of starvation through lack of access to sufficient,nutritious food,leads to a declaration of famine.
Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable,nutritious food. The availability of food for people of any class,gender or religion is another element of food security. Similarly,household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family,at all times,have access to enough food for an active,healthy life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security includes resilience to future disruption of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as droughts and floods,shipping disruptions,fuel shortages,economic instability,and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security:a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food.
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients,resulting in health problems. Specifically,it is "a deficiency,excess,or imbalance of energy,protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues and form. Malnutrition is not receiving the correct amount of nutrition.
World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year worldwide on October 16 to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with hunger and food security,including the World Food Programme,the World Health Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. WFP received the Nobel Prize in Peace for 2020 for their efforts to combat hunger,contribute to peace in conflict areas,and for playing a leading role in stopping the use of hunger in the form of a weapon for war and conflict.
Catherine Bertini is an American public servant. She is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. She was the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program from 1992 to 2002. She served as the UN Under-Secretary for Management from 2003 to 2005. Currently she is a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs,the Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Chair of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust.
Gerritje "Gerda" Verburg is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and trade union leader
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a non-profit foundation based in Geneva,Switzerland. GAIN was developed during the UN 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. GAIN’s actions include improving the consumption of nutritious and safe foods for all. They are supported by over 30 donors and work closely with international organisations and United Nations agencies. Their activities include improving consumption of nutritious food globally. The organisation has a 20 year history of food system programmes:focusing on adolescent and child nutrition,food system research,fortification,small and medium enterprise assistance,biofortification of crops and reducing post-harvest losses.
Despite India's 50% increase in GDP since 2013,more than one third of the world's malnourished children live in India. Among these,half of the children under three years old are underweight.
Ertharin Cousin is an American lawyer who served as the twelfth executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 2012 to 2017. Following the completion of her term,Cousin became Payne Distinguished Professor at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies,distinguished fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Center on Democracy,Development and the Rule of Law,accepted an appointment as a distinguished fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs,and became a trustee on the UK based Power of Nutrition Board of Directors.
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was established in 1974 as an intergovernmental body to serve as a forum in the United Nations System for review and follow-up of policies concerning world food security,including any and all production,physical,and economic access to food. It was reformed in 2009 to become a multi stakeholder committee. SIRPI constitutes a key role in achieving the UN's SDG No.2.
There were 795 million undernourished people in the world in 2014,a decrease of 216 million since 1990,despite the fact that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone—7 billion people—and could feed more than that—12 billion people.
The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition was adopted on 16 November 1974,by governments who attended the 1974 World Food Conference that was convened under General Assembly resolution 3180 (XXVIII) of 17 December 1973. It was later endorsed by General Assembly resolution 3348 (XXIX),of 17 December 1974. This Declaration combined discussions of the international human right to adequate food and nutrition with an acknowledgement of the various economic and political issues that can affect the production and distribution of food related products. Within this Declaration,it is recognised that it is the common purpose of all nations to work together towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Further,the Declaration explains how the welfare of much of the world's population depends on their ability to adequately produce and distribute food. In doing so,it emphasises the need for the international community to develop a more adequate system to ensure that the right to food for all persons is recognised. The opening paragraph of the Declaration,which remains to be the most recited paragraph of the Declaration today,reads:
Every man,woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties.
The Feed the Future Initiative (FTF) was launched in 2010 by the United States government and the Obama Administration to address global hunger and food insecurity. According to Feed the Future,it is "the U.S. government's global hunger and food security initiative."
2016 was declared as the International Year of Pulses by the sixty eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly on December 20,2013. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has been nominated to declare a year for pulses,more commonly known as legumes.
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries,regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process,including food marketing and food distribution. Fluctuation in food prices is determined by a number of compounding factors. Geopolitical events,global demand,exchange rates,government policy,diseases and crop yield,energy costs,availability of natural resources for agriculture,food speculation,changes in the use of soil and weather events directly affect food prices. To a certain extent,adverse price trends can be counteracted by food politics.
In the early months of 2017,parts of South Sudan experienced a famine following several years of instability in the country's food supply caused by war and drought. The famine,largely focused in the northern part of the country,affected an estimated five million people. In May 2017,the famine was officially declared to have weakened to a state of severe food insecurity.
Sustainable Development Goal 2 aims to achieve "zero hunger". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording is:"End hunger,achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture". SDG 2 highlights the "complex inter-linkages between food security,nutrition,rural transformation and sustainable agriculture". According to the United Nations,there are around 690 million people who are hungry,which accounts for slightly less than 10 percent of the world population. One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night,including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan,Somalia,Yemen and Nigeria.
