Today is World Food Day. Humans have basic needs and food is one of them, very important for survival. To promote awareness and action for those suffering from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for everyone, the world food day is celebrated every year on October 16th.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called upon citizens, governments, farmers, corporations, and youth around the world to take action and to make the goal of #ZeroHunger a reality by 2030. Here are
1. 821 million people in the world still suffer from hunger even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone. 60% of them are women.
2. About 70% of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture.
3. Hunger kills more people every year than malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined.
4. Nearly 45% of infant deaths are related to undernutrition.
5. 1.9 billion people (more than a quarter of the world’s population) are overweight. 672 million of these are obese. Adult obesity is rising everywhere at an accelerated pace.
6. 3.4 million people die each year due to overweight and obesity. In many countries, more people die from obesity than from homicide.
7. $3.5 trillion (USD) is the yearly cost of malnutrition to the global economy.
8. By 2050 agriculture will need to produce almost 50% more food, feed, and biofuel than it did in 2012 to meet demand.
9. One-third of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.
10. This years #WorldFoodDay marks the 75th Anniversary of the founding of FAO, with a view to looking towards the future we need to build together and the theme “Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future.”
Resource: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations