World Summit on Food Security
“World leaders convened at FAO Headquarters for the World Summit on Food Security, unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, permanently and as soon as possible.”
“The countries also agreed to work to reverse the downward trend of national and international funding for agriculture and promote new investment in the sector, improving governance of food issues worldwide in partnership with public and private sectors, and face actively to the challenges that climate change poses to food security.”
The preceding paragraphs were stated in 2009, which they are mentioned in the first line like: “World leaders, unanimously, commitment, permanently and finally as soon as possible”, apart from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who chaired the opening session, did not attend any other leader of the Group of Eight (G -8 group of industrialized nations).
Likewise now in 2016 the World Summit on Food Security is not held by the G8 leaders, where are the words? Permanently, as soon as possible and unanimously …unfortunately this last one is most common practice from G8 leaders, unanimously attached into their interests, not to an exceptional global meeting where actions are clearly definitive on international politics to end hunger.
Some more important but chilling data and factors to consider about this topic that are no usually commented or related directly to end hunger not only by our governments, even in our societies are the following facts like:
Sustainable: how we can keep an ecological balance to sustainable development.
Illegal fishing: cooperate to prevent and combat illegal fishing, including cultural practices on endangered species.
Proper food handling, food safety, sanitation practices and transportation: without doubt and because of the lack of infrastructure is almost impossible to achieve in many places contributing to poor quality and loss of large quantities of food.
In this last point we would like to emphasize food waste in the world includes some of the following factors:
Food loss and waste: Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tons — gets lost or wasted.
Food losses and waste amounts to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries.
Fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food.
Global quantitative food losses and waste per year are roughly 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat and dairy plus 35% for fish.
Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons).
The food currently lost or wasted in Latin America could feed 300 million people.
As a final thought I invite you both world leaders and citizens to think twice before leaving food on our plates as waste, and every action that contribute to increase all those millions of people who do not have the basic right of eating healthy daily basis.
References (FAO, 2016)
FAO. (2016, June). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2016, June). FAO. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/themes/es/
SENSIENT. (2009, November 19). EL EFECTO SENSIENT. Retrieved from http://www.alimentacion.enfasis.com/notas/15019-g-8-no-asiste-la-cumbre-mundial-la-seguridad-alimentaria
