World Food Day is an annual celebration in the honor of the Food and Agriculture Organization founding date launched by the United Nations in 1945. Food Day is a global day of action that focuses on hunger issues. World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16th October across the world. This day is celebrated widely with several other organizations which are the World Food Program, Food Security, International Fund for Agriculture Development, and many others.
Theme of World Food Day 2023
This year the theme of World Food Day 2023 – Water is life water is food. Leave no one behind.Â
On Earth, water is a necessity for survival. It accounts for more than half of our bodies, produces our food, and provides us with a means of subsistence.
However, we cannot afford to continue to take water for granted because its supply is limited. Water is impacted by the foods we eat and the methods used to generate those foods.
Together, we can make a difference by acting on water for food.
To solve water problems, we need collective action from governments, businesses, farmers, universities, nonprofits, and individuals. More food, fiber, animal feed, and biofuel must be produced with less water while protecting aquatic food webs and providing equitable access to water for everyone.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that a different approach is needed immediately. In addition to making it more difficult for farmers – who are already dealing with climatic variability and extremes – to sell their harvests, it has also worsened poverty in cities, causing an increasing number of people to need food banks. Agri-food systems that can feed 10 billion people by 2050 are needed.
In recent times, the result of urbanization, globalization, and income growth has changed our diets and eating habits dramatically. Nowadays we have changed our diet as we moved from fiber-rich dishes to highly refined sugar, fats, starch, and processed foods. We spent less time cooking food at home especially in urban areas and in this case, we only rely on restaurants, street food, supermarkets or fast food outlets.
This kind of lifestyles and unhealthy diets reached to an obesity rate not only in our developed countries but also in low-income countries where both hunger and obesity coexist. Now 120 million girls and boys (aged from 5to 19 years) and 670 million adults are under obesity. Over 40 million children under the age group of 5 are overweight while 820 million people suffer from hunger.
Purpose of World Food Day
The aim behind celebrating World Food Day is to have food security across the world especially in the crises. The initiative taken by the Food and Agriculture Organization by the United Nations has played an important role to accomplish the goal. The celebration of World Food Day helps in spreading awareness about the crucial needs of effective agriculture and food policies which are implemented by governments across the world and to make sure that there is sufficient food available for everyone.
History of World Food Day
World Food Day was established in the 20th General Conference of Food and Agriculture Organization by the members of FAO in November 1979. In the 20th session of FAO conference, Dr. Pal Romany the former Hungarian Minister of Agriculture and Food played an important role he suggested the idea of celebrating World Food Day worldwide and from then it is observed every year. More than 150 countries celebrate world food day by raising awareness about the issues behind poverty and hunger.
FAO organizing a poster competition for children and teens all over the world age group from 5 to 19 years. In this competition children and teens should use their imagination to create a poster that illustrates the idea of what should be done to make a healthy diet available to everyone and how can we improve our diet.
Swikriti Dandotia