Rome –  While countries in Europe and Central Asia are grappling with conflict and environmental challenges, they are well positioned to pursue the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems and have already taken steps towards achieving many of the core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said Tuesday in remarks opening the 34th Session of the Regional Conference for Europe (ERC).

Rome - Artificial Intelligence and the ongoing digital revolution will inevitably transform the world and its agrifood systems, making it all the more urgent that the transformations they drive benefit everyone and contribute to solving global challenges, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), QU Dongyu, said Friday at the Business Federations of the G7 (B7) meeting in Rome.

Rome - The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for investments to tap into the potential of millets, a highly nutritious and resilient alternative to staple grains that can play a crucial role in ensuring global food security. 

Geneva - The 55th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), held from 26 February to 4 April 2024, witnessed a concerted effort to address pressing global challenges through the lens of human rights. FAO actively engaged in various interactive dialogues, panel discussions, and debates, highlighting the crucial intersections between human rights, environmental sustainability, and food security.

Port-au-Prince/Santiago de Chile - Haiti is in the grip of a worsening humanitarian crisis, with nearly half of the population likely facing acute food insecurity, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) analysis. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns of dire consequences unless urgent action is taken to address the root causes of this crisis.

Rome – Rising international quotations for vegetable oils, dairy products and meat pushed the benchmark index for world food commodity prices up by 1.1 percent in March, its first increase in seven months, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.

Jerusalem /Cairo - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is delivering 150 tonnes, out of a total of 1500 tonnes, of animal fodder to 2 450 livestock-keeping households in the Gaza Strip to safeguard surviving animals and support local production of fresh nutritious food like milk, dairy, eggs and meat amidst an imminent risk of famine.

Brussels, Geneva, New York and Rome – The sixth edition of the FAO SIDS Solutions Dialogue focused on agricultural trade trends, challenges, and opportunities specific to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The hybrid event held online and in Geneva in-person, explored the role of trade in transforming agrifood systems and its contribution to achieving food security and sustainable development.

Rome – Cereal production in the Sudan has been severely affected by the conflict, which erupted in April 2023, likely pushing more people into hunger - the situation requires urgent and at-scale agricultural support ahead of the planting season starting in June, Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Rein Paulsen, warned.

Rabat - Hunger levels in Africa have increased in the past two years, due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, the climate crisis and economic shocks, but the continent’s possibilities are vast and optimism about the opportunities that lie ahead is in order, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today at the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Ministerial Conference for Africa (ARC33).

Geneva and Rome -  The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, UN Environment Programme, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva and Caritas in Veritate Foundation co-organized a hybrid dialogue on 23 April at the Palais des Nations on the key messages of the Laudate Deum, an apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, and the outcomes of COP28 related to agrifood systems. Centered around the Laudate Deum, published in 2023 as a follow-up to the 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ on “care for our common home”, the event addressed the role that religious communities can play in driving action to address climate change.

Rome - According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute hunger in 2023 - a worldwide increase of 24 million from the previous year. This rise was due to the report’s increased coverage of food crisis contexts as well as a sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and the Sudan.

New York – In the face of intensifying El Niño and La Niña weather events, effective anticipatory action is crucial to shield and better equip communities ahead of shocks as it helps to save lives and protect livelihoods by preventing damage and losses to crops, livestock, productive lands, water and infrastructure, said Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Geneva- The Quadripartite, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Word Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), jointly organized a virtual event to celebrate the One Health (OH) Day and present initiatives and programs for implementing One Health in countries and regions.

Geneva- The relationship between trade and food security has gained attention on both the trade and development agendas, with trade recognized as one of the means for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. Understanding agricultural and trade policies' dietary and health implications is crucial to improving nutrition and combating malnutrition globally.

The compelling and intertwined challenges that the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are facing and the need to address them through an agrifood systems approach to strengthen resilience and support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took a central stage at the fifth edition of the FAO SIDS Solutions Dialogue

Rome - Mechanization can be a powerful force for change, but only if it is environmentally sustainable and leaves no one behind, especially women and smallholder farmers, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said today as he opened FAO's first-ever Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization.

Rome – The benchmark for world food commodity prices edged higher in April, as higher prices of meat and modest upticks for vegetable oils and cereals outweighed decreases in sugar and dairy product prices, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.

LOGin is a feature interview series regularly organized by the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG). Through LOGin, we meet with FAO’s leadership and discuss how FAO is supporting its members in transforming agrifood systems. In this edition, we met with Corinna Hawkes, Director of the FAO Division of Agrifood Systems and Food Safety, to discuss  FAO’s work on urban agrifood systems.

Geneva – FAO participated in the 2023 Global Refugee Forum (GRF) that took place in Geneva from 13 to 15 December 2023. FAO actively contributed to the deliberations and jointly organized a parallel high-level event involving a wide range of stakeholders to highlight how agrifood systems and agriculture are central to building self-reliance of refugees in communities, moving away from aid dependency.