News archive 2019

The number of people facing a critical lack of food in South Sudan is the highest ever, three United Nations agencies warned today.

FAO and the Italian innovation global platform Seeds & Chips have joined forces to promote food innovation and education, with a strong focus on strengthening youth engagement and awareness-raising initiatives to fight hunger and malnutrition and achieve sustainable development.

“Digital innovation is a very promising field to help countries implement sustainable agricultural practices,” the DG said in his introduction to FAO’s inaugural International Seminar on Digital Agriculture Transformation.

On World Day Against Child Labour, FAO urged nations to pay greater attention and allocate more financial resources to addressing child labour in domestic and local food supply chains and in subsistence farming where the vast majority of child labour in agriculture occurs.

This was FAO's message at the opening today of a ASTF Round Table of Contributors in Malabo that has brought together heads of states and government, ministers and other representatives of the development community to recapitalize the Fund and launch a more ambitious second phase.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today warned about the important cultural, social, environmental and heritage loss linked to the erosion of sustainable local diets, including the Mediterranean diet.

The food systems of the future must deliver healthy and quality food for all whilst preserving the environment, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today as he called for a transformation of food systems to improve people’s diets.

The FAO chief's remarks came on the first day of the Future of Food international symposium, which included a roundtable with representatives of academia, and also the signing by FAO of partnership agreements with seven universities and research institutions.

Global food prices rose for the fifth consecutive month in May, pushed up by rising prices of cheese and maize due to adverse weather conditions. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 172.4 points in May, up 1.2 percent from the previous month while still 1.9 percent below its level in May 2018.

The first ever celebration of the United Nations World Food Safety Day, to be marked globally on 7 June, aims to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe.