World Food Day

Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October to make people aware of the global food problem and to strengthen the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. 

Hunger and undernourishment are problems that have affected the world since time immemorial. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is concerned that people all over the world should have access to food in quantity and quality, and it is working on this by researching the issue and encouraging states to do so.

According to the "State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" report, released by the FAO in the middle of this year, it is estimated that between 691 and 783 million people in the world will suffer from hunger in 2022, 122 million more than in 2019, before the global pandemic. Also, last year, an estimated 148.1 million children under the age of five were stunted because of poor nutrition; 45 million were wasted (morbidly thin); and 37 million were overweight. This means that in 2022, 22.3% of the world's children will not have access to adequate nutrition, which will have irreversible consequences on their growth. 

Food is a basic and inalienable human right.This is why the UN has set "ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition" as a fundamental objective within the 2030 Agenda. 

Food Security is a concept that emerged in the 1980s, becoming very important after the Rome Declaration (1996) on World Food Security. In this declaration, the FAO states that Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life..

To analyse food security, FAO (2006) lists four dimensions:

• AvailabilityFood security: Conceived as the presence of food in sufficient quantities and of adequate quality, provided by the country.
• AccessThat people have access to the resources necessary to obtain appropriate food, and thus to nutritious food.
• UsageFood consumption (biological utilisation), depending on the needs of the individual and the hygienic conditions.
• StabilityFood availability: Refers to the availability of food over time (seasonal and inter-annual).

   

In other words, food security exists when: all people, on a permanent basis, have physical, economic and social access to the food they need for a healthy life.

What can we do to promote food security?

At the personal and local level it would be important to promoting food productionthrough organic home or neighbourhood/school gardens, to ensure access to safe food. Having your own garden can be a great help to have varied, nutritious and fresh food all year round.

Participate in food fairswhere there is an exchange between producers and consumers. Choosing food grown by local producers is a good option, not only for us to buy healthy food, but also to help them to continue producing, preserving their traditions and values.

Improving our diet will be extremely beneficial to our quality of life and health. 

Consuming more fruit and vegetables will help our bodies to have more vitality, as they are rich in: vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, proteins, calcium, fibre, antioxidants and phytonutrients.

We suggest, as far as possible, to choose seasonal vegetables and fruit, as it is healthier, more ecological and more economical: It is healthier because they are usually at their optimum moment of consumption, and as they do not spend so much time in storage they have a better flavour, aroma and colour. It is more economical because they are grown close to our homes, so they do not need so many intermediaries and long transport routes, reducing costs and also lowering carbon emissions, which makes them more ecological, as they have less environmental impact, respect natural production cycles and use less energy to be produced.

At Asoprovida, we believe that it is very important to know about this problem and to raise awareness of the scarcity of food, the importance of good nutrition and the importance of not wasting food.

By. Ing. Agr. Andrea Porporato