The eyes of Aishagul Duganova, a 48-year-old mother of three, light up as she talks about her new greenhouse, which is bringing with it a new stability amidst her family's health problems and money troubles. In the village of Koram, around 150 kilometers east of Almaty in Kazakhstan, Aishagul's life has been marked by her husband’s debilitating injury and the severe illnesses of her elderly parents-in-law.

In Liberia’s countryside, where the livelihoods of farmers and communities are tightly woven with the health of their livestock, a new chapter in public and animal health is unfolding. Thanks to the support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Liberia has embarked on its first active surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), paving the way for improved health measures and disease prevention.

The only way to reduce carbon emissions and restore nature on the path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to transform our agrifood systems, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today told the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The United Nations Global Nitrous Oxide Assessment reveals urgent need for action to mitigate N₂O emissions to prevent catastrophic climate, environmental, and health impacts.

In this special edition of the FAO North America newsletter, we mark the 20th anniversary of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, or ECTAD. Two decades of accomplishments and partnerships with Member Nations and resource partners, particularly USAID Global Health, merits our congratulations to colleagues and partners for the work that has been done to strengthen animal health care where it is needed most.

As part of ongoing efforts to promote global animal health, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the International Alliance for Biological Standardization (IABS) recently hosted a meeting to share advancements and discuss strategies for surveillance in populations vaccinated for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

The benchmark for world food commodity prices surged to its highest level in 18 months in October, led by a sharp increase in vegetable oil quotations, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.
The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a set of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 127.4 points in October, up 2.0 percent from September and 5.5 percent from its value a year ago. Nevertheless, the index remained 20.5 percent below its March 2022 peak.

A refined study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) involving 156 countries confirms that hidden costs within global agrifood systems amount to approximately $12 trillion annually. Of this, around 70 percent ($8.1 trillion) arise from unhealthy dietary patterns...

On October 16, 2024, global experts, partners, and youth leaders gathered in Rome at the World Food Forum for the hybrid event “Empowering Youth to End Child Labour in Agriculture,” renewing their commitment to eradicate child labour in agriculture. The event showcased diverse perspectives, strategies, and interventions to tackle child labour, which affects an estimated 160 million children worldwide—70% of whom are involved in agriculture under conditions that deprive them of education, safety, and a healthy childhood.

In Wayunaikki, the language of the Wayuu Indigenous Peoples, there is no word for “climate change’’. Yet, as the climate crisis undeniably batters their communities, they may just have found a key to resilience: a humble bean. The Wayuu have, for centuries, navigated the challenges of one the world’s most inhospitable climates. La Guajira, their ancestral homeland, stretches across the northernmost tip of mainland South America, bordering Colombia and Venezuela. This vast desert landscape, covering 20 848 square kilometres, is comparable in size to El Salvador and Slovenia.

In this interview with the Codex Secretariat, the new Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL), Dr Parthi Muthukumarasamy, talks about his background, his experience with Codex and the agenda of the 48th session of CCFL which gets underway in Quebec City, Canada on 27 October 2024.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded its impactful participation in the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP16) in Cali, Colombia, where its central message—agrifood systems play a critical role in achieving biodiversity goals—reverberated throughout the two-week event.

The Quadripartite collaboration on One Health – comprising the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – co-organized the G20 High-Level Meeting on One Health on 30 October 2024. This event featured a panel discussion titled "Creating an Enabling Environment for One Health Implementation," emphasizing the critical need for robust governance and multisectoral coordination to advance the One Health approach, supported by real-life examples from various countries.

Policy makers, researchers and the public have a new resource to gauge the scale and importance of agrifood systems in providing employment around the world. FAO has launched five new indicators and overhauled the data available on its FAOSTAT portal, the global go-to resource for those interested in agrifood facts and rural livelihoods.

In Des Moines, Iowa at the 2024 Borlaug Dialogue World Food Prize, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero opened "The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils: Advancing the Global Movement" session at World Food Prize 2024 side event. He addressed the urgent need to invest in creating demand for opportunity crops to help solve the global nutritional challenges we face today.

Acute food insecurity is set to increase in both magnitude and severity across 22 countries and territories, according to a new United Nations report. The report warns that the spread of conflict, particularly in the Middle East – coupled with climate and economic stressors - is pushing millions of people to the brink.

At World Food Prize 2024, FAO Director-General champions ways science and innovation can contribute to transforming agrifood systems and bring people and cultures closer together.

About a quarter of the population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to face acute hunger, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released today. The new data shows that between July and December 2024, approximately 25.6 million people in the DRC, or 22 percent of the population analysed, are experiencing high acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). 

The 48th session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) has commenced in Quebec City, Canada, with first-time Chairperson Dr Parthi Muthukumarasamy presiding.

In Gaza, ongoing hostilities have caused the collapse of local food production and contributed to the rapid deterioration of food security. Here, FAO’s distribution of livestock fodder and veterinary kits provides a lifeline amid catastrophic losses.