39th World Food Day

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrates October 16 of each year, the anniversary of its founding in 1945, as World Food Day. This day aims to increase awareness and action in favor of hungry people in the world and to guarantee food security and healthy nutrition for all. World Food Day is also an important occasion to send a strong message to the public. It aims to improve the understanding of food security issues and to increase the awareness of policy makers, private sector actors and producers to strengthen and implement actions to achieve zero hunger. here in 2030.
This 39th edition focuses on the theme: “Healthy food for a“ zero hunger ”world. Indeed, achieving Zero Hunger is not just about giving food to hungry people. It is also and above all about feeding people a sufficiently diverse range of safe, nutritious and healthy foods.
For decades the world has celebrated the progress made in the fight against hunger. Today, however, the number of undernourished people is on the rise again, to over 800 million, or about one in nine people. It must be emphasized that food security today is not just a question of quantity, but also of quality. Unhealthy diets have become a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality around the world.
In recent years, our eating habits have changed dramatically with globalization, urbanization and rising incomes. We have moved from a predominantly plant-based diet, in season and high in fiber, to high-calorie foods high in refined starches, sugars, fats, salt, processed foods and often excessive meat consumption.
In many parts of the world, ensuring the availability of and access to healthy food remains a huge challenge, especially for people with limited resources, such as smallholder farmers and families in crisis situations due to conflict, disaster. natural and climate change.
The latest figures for 2018 challenge us. In fact, 149 million children under 5 suffer from stunting, while 49 million suffer from wasting.
Paradoxically, more than 670 million adults and 120 million boys and girls (5-19 years) are obese and 40 million children worldwide are overweight.

An unhealthy diet, combined with a sedentary lifestyle, is the main risk factor for disability and death from diseases related to unhealthy eating.

Obesity-related health problems cost national budgets $ 2 trillion a year. 50-90% of these cases are found in low- and middle-income countries, due to increased consumption of processed foods and meat.
In the face of this situation, we need to change our production, supply and consumption patterns. From farm to fork, our current food systems must support the production of high-yielding staple foods.
Besides the impact on our diet, the intensification of food production, associated with climate change, is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity. Today, only nine plant species account for 66 percent of total agricultural production, while humans throughout history have cultivated more than 6,000 species for food. Today, we limit ourselves to just three crops (wheat, corn and rice) which account for almost 50% of our total dietary energy intake. Food diversification is crucial for ensuring healthy diets and preserving the environment.
To counter and reverse this negative trend, it is essential to adopt a comprehensive approach that examines the multidimensional causes of malnutrition, including lack of stable access to healthy activities, balanced, diverse and safe diets; safe drinking water, proper care of infants and young children.
Poor feeding practices, poor hygiene and lack of sanitation, insufficient access to education and health services, monetary poverty, poor agricultural practices, are among other factors contributing to malnutrition.
It thus appears clearly that without permanent consultation between all the actors in the countries, the challenge of a good diet for our populations will be very difficult to meet. The choice of theme therefore reflects a clear desire to mobilize all the energies of all the players, to meet this challenge.