Call for better systems to fight hunger

Better food systems are
required in order defeat hunger
and malnutrition around the
globe was the key message
coming from the observance of
World Food Day at FAO
headquarters.
World Food Day, commemorated
in 150 countries, is also the
anniversary of FAO's founding in
1945.
This year's observance takes
place under the shadow of new
hunger figures that show a total
of 842 million people are
chronically undernourished.
WFD ceremony
In a message for World Food Day,
read by Archbishop Luigi
Travaglino at the ceremony, Pope
Francis said "It is a scandal that
there is still hunger in the world."
The Pope blamed individualism
for creating an "attitude of
indifference" as if hunger and
malnutrition was an unavoidable
fact. "It can never be considered
normal," he said.
On the World Food Day theme of
food systems, he said he saw the
need to change and renew food
systems to bring in the value of
solidarity with the poor. "We
need to educate ourselves in
solidarity ... not only different
forms of assistance," he said.
He called for the elimination of
loss and waste of food products,
which he said affects one third
of global food production.
Broader understanding of
hunger problem
"We cannot improve nutrition
without food security and we
cannot achieve food security if
we don't have the right food
systems," FAO Director-General
José Graziano da Silva told the
ceremony, attended by
government ministers, diplomats,
heads of UN agencies and other
dignitaries.
He said that although food
systems produce enough food
for everyone, over half of the
world's population is affected by
either over- or under-
consumption.
"The economic costs of hunger
are striking. They can amount to
as much as 5 percent of global
income through lost productivity
and direct health care costs," he
said. "The flip side is the huge
economic benefits that could
results from ending hunger and
malnutrition."
Graziano da Silva pointed out
that 62 out of 128 countries that
FAO monitors, have reached the
Millennium Development Goal
hunger target.