News archive 2019

Global food prices rose in February, with the FAO Food Price Index averaging 167.5 points, up 1.7 percent from January, driven up by sharp increases in dairy prices.

Incorporating food and improved nutrition as important components of urban planning is key to achieving sustainable development, including Zero Hunger and healthy diets for all, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today at the launch of FAO’s Framework for the Urban Food Agenda: A holistic approach to ensuring sustainable development.

FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, IFAD President, Gilbert F. Houngbo, and WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, met the Italian head of state at his official residence, the Quirinal Palace in Rome.

Five candidates have been presented by FAO Member Countries for the post of FAO Director-General to be elected in June 2019, the agency announced. The five candidates, each nominated by his/her government, are listed in alphabetical order by country: Médi Moungui (Cameroon), Qu Dongyu (China), Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle (France), Davit Kirvalidze (Georgia) and Ramesh Chand (India).

World Wildlife Day 2019, which falls on 3 March, focuses on marine species and aligns closely with the Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Life below water. It is an opportunity to raise awareness about the breathtaking diversity of marine wildlife, the benefits it brings to our everyday lives as well as ways to ensure that it can continue to do so for generations to come.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, declared today by the UN General Assembly, aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems as a proven measure to fight the climate crisis and enhance food security, water supply and biodiversity.

The first-ever report of its kind presents mounting and worrying evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems is disappearing - putting the future of our food, livelihoods, health and environment under severe threat.

Nearly 7 million people in South Sudan could face acute food insecurity at the height of this lean season (May-July), three United Nations agencies warned today, urging for scaled-up humanitarian assistance and better access to humanitarian relief.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today urged cities around the world to redouble efforts to turn global commitments on food security, nutrition and climate change, into local realities.

The right to food requires a new approach that encompasses a right to healthy diets, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General José Graziano da Silva has stressed during a lecture at UCLA Law School.