World Food Day and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) aims to raise nutritional levels around the world and improve productivity. Every year there is a different theme. Some recent themes have been: 

Food Safety

Personally I still think God gave us the best food safety awareness instrument and stuck it in the middle of our faces, right above our mouths just to make sure we couldn't make any mistakes.

However there are many issues effecting food safety other than it having passed its "use by date" especially how it is produced, what we feed the animals in the food chain, genetic modification of produce, harvesting techniques etc. 

Eliminating Waste

 As obesity soars in the western world this year the focus is on healthy sustainable eating.

We can all do our bit even if it is only eliminating waste in our own homes. The amount of wasteage in private homes and supermarkets now we have "use by dates" is sacrilege. Do you know much food is thrown away, approximately 1/3 of everything produced. How can we eradicate poverty and hunger when we through it all away. There must be ways of organising better distribution so food goes to where it is needed and not into landfill which costs tax payers money. I remember a friend who worked for a supermarket telling me in 2010 that each day £25K worth of food was thrown away. That is one store, multiply that by every supermarket outlet in the Uk, and the western world.

821million people stiff suffer from hunger, 60% of them women, even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone and 70% of them live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and the western world throws so much of it away.

There are so many ways in which the each and everyone one of us can help with this problem. I can still remember my mother saying “eat your greens – there are many starving children in Africa and India who need them”. We can each adopt a healthier and more sustainable diet. We can certainly waste less. 

Tomorrow 17 October is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. which has been traced back to 17 October 1987 when over a hundred thousand people gathered in Paris at the Trocadéro, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948. They came together to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. Now it presents an opportunity to both acknowledge the struggle these people have and offer a chance for them to make their concerns heard. Since its beginning the poor themselves have been at the centre of the Day’s events.

“Poverty is not simply measured by inadequate income. It is manifested in restricted access to health, education and other essential services and, too often, by the denial or abuse of other fundamental human rights [...] Let us listen to and heed the voices of people living in poverty. Let us commit to respect and defend the human rights of all people and end the humiliation and social exclusion that people living in poverty face every day by promoting their involvement in global efforts to end extreme poverty once and for all." —
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

Zero Hunger

 Did you know 821million people stiff suffer from hunger, 60% of them women, even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone and 70% of them live in rural areas and depend on agriculture.

There are so many ways in which the each and everyone one of us can help with this problem. I can still remember my mother saying “eat your greens – there are many starving children in Africa and India who need them”. We can each adopt a healthier and more sustainable diet. We can waste less. Do you know much food is thrown away, approximately 1/3 of everything produced. How can we eradicate poverty and hunger when we through it all away. There must be ways of organising better distribution so food goes to where it is needed and not into landfill which costs tax payers money. I remember a friend who worked for a supermarket telling me in 2010 that each day £25K worth of food was thrown away. That is one store, multiply that by every supermarket outlet in the Uk, and the western world.

Vegetarian Awareness month

I notice that World Food day is in the middle of Vegetarian Awareness month and it is a well known fact that if everyone in the world was vegetarian there would be enough food for everyone because much of our food production is actually animal feed. I am not saying everyone needs to become Vegan, but if everyone in the Western world had one vegetarian meal a week, it would have a big impact.