Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Hunger Increasing

At its biennial conference held in Rome, Italy from 3-8 July, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) noted that the world is facing it’s worst food crisis since World War 2.

“I wish I could announce here today some good news regarding the global fight against hunger…but, unfortunately, it is not the case,” said FAO’s Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva to member states at the opening of the meeting.

FAO has identified 19 countries facing severe food crises due to a combination of conflict and climate change including South Sudan, Northeast Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen where nearly 20 million are affected.

60 percent of hungry people around the world live in areas affected by conflicts and climate change. With no relief to be seen, many turn to migration, contributing to the doubling of global displacement, said Graziano da Silva.

“To save lives, we have to save their livelihoods. We cannot save people and put them in camps,” said Graziano da Silva. "...Vulnerable people, rural people cannot be left behind…we have to build the conditions for them to thrive, for them to have hope, for them to exercise their human right to food,” Graziano da Silva concluded.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the 40th conference "Only a humanity free from hunger will be able to pursue the universal values of peace, justice, equality, and will be able to conserve the planet we live on for future generations," Gentiloni told participants at the conference running through July 8. "To deny food is to deny justice, equality, freedom," Gentiloni said. "We cannot deny that current... models have been able to produce large quantities of food for global markets," Gentilini said. "But we must also recognize that those same systems continue to have... adverse effects on the environment and human health."

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