World Food Day 2013 Demands Action on Sustainability and Food Security Worldwide
Posted: October 16, 2013
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
World Food Day Highlights Sustainability and Food Security
Food Secure Canada (FSC) logo via FSC Twitter page.
Today marks the 32nd year of World Food Day, established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a day to raise awareness, mobilize support, and take action to strengthen the political will to end hunger worldwide.
The official theme of World Food Day 2013 is Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition, which encourages individuals and leaders to consider nutrition, sustainable practices in farming and production, food security, and improving value chains.
Over 230 events will be taking place across Canada and the United States with the aim of ending hunger for the 842 million people across the world who are currently undernourished. The FAO highlights both the urgency of the hunger situation worldwide as well as the need for a comprehensive approach to food systems reform (full statement):
“A food system is made up of the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers.
Every aspect of the food system has an effect on the final availability and accessibility of diverse, nutritious foods – and therefore on consumers’ ability to choose healthy diets. What is more, policies and interventions on food systems are rarely designed with nutrition as their primary objective.
Addressing malnutrition requires integrated action and complementary interventions in agriculture and the food system, in natural resource management, in public health and education, and in broader policy domains.”
Food Secure Canada Highlights the Canadian Perpsective
This year, World Food Day will be marked on the same day that Canada’s Parliament reconvenes for its fall session. Food Secure Canada (FSC) will be hosting a webinar entitled “If Food Were in the Throne Speech,” featuring voices who have worked on the front lines of Canada’s food and farming sector.
The webinar will take place from 1:00-2:30 pm on October 16th and will aim to highlight what is broken in Canada’s food system and how it can be fixed. Registration is available here. More information on the webinar, including presenter biographies can be viewed here.
In addition, FSC has asked members of the public to provide video submissions and give their say on what the government should be doing on food issues. The collected submissions can be viewed here, where individuals from across Canada have called on the government to improve food safety and labelling, protect valuable farmland, reduce waste, and eliminate hunger.
FSC Executive Director Diana Bronson, in an official news release, stresses the need for action given how many Canadians are impacted by food insecurity and growing health issues over the lack of access to healthy foods. Bronson says, “Over 3 million people in Canada are food insecure, more than three in five Canadian adults are overweight or obese, we are losing thousands of family farms every year, and people are unable to access the healthy, local food they want to consume.”
Visit Food Secure Canada and the official World Food Day website to learn more.