Event > World Food Day 2009 Published: 10/15/2009 12:00:00 AM

Assuring Food for All: Food is in the headlines again, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations hosting a global food summit, the World Food Prize meeting in Des Moines Iowa, and World Food Day on October 16. These activities all focus on the challenge and opportunity for assuring that every person in the world has access to a sufficient supply of affordable, safe and nutritious food to support their lives and livelihoods (a goal known internationally as food security). These activities also provide a forum for discussions on the imbalances of the food supply: i.e. the superabundance of food available in the developed world compared to the thousands of people who die of malnutrition and starvation in the developing world. Potential avenues for successfully managing this dilemma will be debated: the role of food aid, agricultural development and biotechnology. Political, corporate, philanthropic and religious leaders will share their perspectives and their commitments. The Global Initiative For Food Systems Leadership (GIFSL) is committed to developing teamwork and leadership skills to empower coalitions and partnerships to collective action toward the goal of food for all. Notes from World Food Day: · Tomorrow October 16th the world will celebrate World Food Day at a time when there is increasing concern over issues of food security and food safety. The ever burgeoning world population will place significant strains on the resources of our planet. · The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) emphasizes the fact that the crisis is stalking the small-scale farms and rural areas of the world, where 70 percent of the world's hungry live and work, mostly in developing countries. · In his address marking World Food Day, FAO Secretary General Jacques Diouf said “the current economic crisis that had forced 105 million more people into hunger was “historically unprecedented” as it directly followed the 2008 world food price crisis.” · It is not all doom and gloom, Diouf indicated that a number of countries had successfully decreased the number of under nourished persons within their borders in the last five years such as Malawi, Mozambique, Viet-Nam, and Turkey. http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/ http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/36350/icode/