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World Food Day 2000
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"A Millennium Free from Hunger" was this year’s theme for World Food Day and TeleFood 2000, an annual campaign of broadcasts, concerts and other events dedicated to mobilizing public awareness and global solidarity to end hunger. In his World Food Day message, FAO’s Director-General Jacques Diouf stated: "The scourges of hunger and poverty are morally unacceptable and have to be defeated. Hunger and chronic undernutrition diminish human life. The lack of physical or economic access to safe, nutritious and healthy food at all times leads to negative consequences for peoples and nations." At the beginning of the third millennium, more than 800 million men, women and children are chronically hungry. Hunger not only cuts short the lives and hopes of individuals, it also damages the peace and prosperity of nations. The depth of world hunger is examined in FAO’s "The State of food insecurity in the world 2000" (SOFI 2000), launched annually on World Food Day. SOFI 2000 calls for urgent action to be taken on many fronts not just to provide food for the hungry, but also to eliminate the underlying causes of hunger worldwide -- rapidly, sustainably and permanently. World Food Day marks the founding of FAO in 1945. At FAO Headquarters in Rome, a major World Food Day ceremony was held. The keynote speaker this year was His Excellency Owen Seymour Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados and there was statements by the FAO Director-General and by His Excellency Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Minister of Agricultural and Forestry Policies of Italy. A message from His Holiness Pope John Paul II was read, a children’s choir performed, and the Director General of FAO awarded prizes to the winners of this year’s United Nations Women's Guild World Food Day poster competition. During last year’s World Food Day celebrations, four world-renowned personalities were named FAO Ambassadors: singers Dee Dee Bridgewater and Miriam Makeba, actress Gina Lollobrigida and Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini. All of them support FAO by using their talents and time to speak out against hunger. This year, two more FAO Ambassadors was appointed: Chinese actress Gong Li and Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour. The World Food Day ceremony and the appointment of FAO Ambassadors is available by web cast.
 FAO Director-General's World Food Day and TeleFood 2000 Message The FAO Ambassadors Programme: Celebrities support the fight against hunger World Food Day 2000 information note in pdf Issues paper 2000: "A Millennium Free from Hunger" World Food Day 2000 video spot World Food Day 2000 audio material FAO focus on "The state of food insecurity in the world 2000" TeleFood -- FAO’s global campaign to build awareness and raise solidarity to end world hunger For more information please contact World-Food-Day@fao.org |
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