World Food Day 2018: Towards zero hunger by 2030

The international community on Tuesday commemorated the 2018 World Food Day (WFD) under the theme: “our actions are our future,” aimed at mobilizing everyone to act responsibly towards achieving food security for the sake of our posterity.

Across the globe, every 16 of October is observed as World Food Day: dedicated to tackling hunger and its dreadful consequences such as malnutrition and undernutrition as well as creating an environment of food security around the world.

The World Food Day was first commemorated by the United Nations in 1945 and coincided with the birth of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) – the specialized UN agency dedicated to fighting hunger. Thus, WFD is also a celebration of the formation of the Rome-headquartered FAO.

Food security is said to exist when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

The global population is currently pegged at 7.2 billion, consuming not less than 216 billion tons of food annually, at the rate of 500g (2150 kilocalories) of food per person per day. By 2050, when the world’s population is projected to reach 9 billion, food production must be increased by 50-70 percent to meet nutrition demands, according to FAO.

FAO’s latest report titled: “On the state of food security and nutrition the world,” shows that hunger is on the rise across the globe, with 820 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment. Ironically, while millions are going hungry, “672 million people suffer from obesity and a further 1.3 billion are overweight.”

To combat global hunger, farmers need to adopt sustainable agricultural methods and leverage technological networks to boost agricultural productivity and income.

In 2015, the world made an incredibly ambitious promise to itself dubbed “A Zero Hunger World by 2030.” SDG 2 which is aimed at “working together to ensure everyone, everywhere, has access to the safe, healthy and nutritious food they need” could only be achieved if we adopt a sustainable lifestyle, partner with others, employ technology and become the change we want to see.