It’s World Food Day. Each year, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day to commemorate its founding in 1945.
Ten facts you need to know about Hunger (via FAO)
- The world produces enough food to feed everyone, yet, about 800 million people suffer from hunger. That is one in nine people. 60% of them are women.
- About 80% of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture.
- Hunger kills more people every year than malaria, tuberculosis and aids combined.
- Around 45% of infant deaths are related to malnutrition.
- The cost of malnutrition to the global economy is the equivalent of USD 3.5 trillion a year.
- 1.9 billion people – more than a quarter of the world’s population – are overweight.
- One third of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.
- The world will need to produce 60 percent more food by 2050 to feed a growing population.
- No other sector is more sensitive to climate change than agriculture.
- FAO works mainly in rural areas, in 130 countries. We work with governments, civil society, the private sector and other partners to achieve #ZeroHunger.
At IFSTAL we are building a community of food systems professionals: people who understand their role within the broader food system and people who understand how their actions might affect other actors within the food system. We are equipping students to think about food system issues across a range of domains including political, economic, business, social, cultural and environmental. We believe that the only way that we as a society can tackle food security challenges is by having professionals trained in understanding and implementing a food systems approach.
Find out more about IFSTAL by signing up to the Portal, coming to one of our launch events (Thursday 19 October), or contacting your local Education Coordinator.
Find out more about World Food Day 2017 on the FAO website.
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