World Food Day: Safe Food for All for a Zero – Hunger World


Photo credit: FAO
Today the 16th of October 2019 is the World Food Day and a very important day of action dedicated to tackling the global hunger in a world of growing population. On this day, different people, leaders and organisations from around the world come together again to declare their commitment to eradicate worldwide hunger. The main aim is to create awareness of the importance of food as a basic human right. 

The Theme of World Food Day 2019 is “Our Actions Are Our Future. Healthy Diets for a Zero-Hunger World”. According to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), people need to eat healthy diets for a zero hunger world. 

It is evident from the theme that the FAO identified the current problem in the world and seek to address it. Due to urbanization and our growing busy schedules, our diets and eating habits have changed. Instead of the usual well-prepared vitamin and fibre rich foods and/or plant-based foods, we have shifted to refined and processed foods. There are more demands of street foods, fast foods and ready-to-eat foods. Due to this unhealthy eating habit, there are increased cases of sicknesses such as obesity.  

While a lot of people are dying of hunger, obesity which is caused by the accumulation of excess fat is becoming increasingly alarming. According to FAO, 670 million adults and 120 million girls and boys between the ages of 5 to 18 years are obese and 40 million children under 5 are overweight. Yet, 820 million people suffer from hunger. 

As a result of these, it has become important to emphasize on the classical definition of food security which comprises two aspects: quality and quantity. On this note, the FAO of United Nations reminds the general public, the governments of all nations and the stakeholders in food and agricultural sectors that "Food security in our times isn’t only a matter of quantity. It’s also a question of quality. Unhealthy diets have now become a leading risk factor for disease and death worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone". 

To make a healthy and sustainable diet affordable and accessible to everyone is to eradicate hunger and malnutrition while reducing the rate of overweight and obese people. This requires the joint action of everyone from the government to the consumers. Farmers need to increase crop production including vegetables and fruits with the valued support of the government. The government should also support mechanized farming and develop innovative methods of reducing post-harvest losses and food waste. Women and youths need to be trained on value addition. Food industries must ensure that foods are hygienically processed and labelled without any form of fraud; consumers must ensure safe food handling and zero-waste while the regulatory agencies must generally ensure that foods produced for consumption from farm to fork are safe and of good quality. 

As we mark today's World Food Day, it becomes important that we join hands to eradicate hunger and food-related diseases and sicknesses starting from our immediate environment. We at safe food for all believe that one day we will have a #ZeroHunger world. 

HAPPY WORLD FOOD DAY!

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