Zero Hunger

BEST PRACTICES

- BRIAN POE LLAMANZARES

Every Oct. 16, World Food Day celebrates the creation of the United Nations' (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). FAO is a UN specialized agency leading international efforts to combat hunger, enhance nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture, and ensure food security. This year's theme captures the spirit of FAO's mission – "right to foods for a better life and a better future."

Food and nutrition security builds a better life for Filipinos. It's a force multiplier. Investments in food security and nutrition pays exceptional dividends, from the short-term to the long-term, in terms of public health, wealth creation, and overall human development and well-being.

World Food Day aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG No. 2 of ending hunger by 2030. What's so great about this goal is that it's not some impossible dream; it's achievable. In fact, the world economy produces so much food now that the amount is more than enough for the entire human population and for a surplus that could feed another billion people. Questions abound of course. Why do people still suffer from hunger?

Reasons are plenty. Global supply chains are still recovering from the drastic disruptions and many restructurings brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate change has severely altered weather patterns, wiping out whole harvests through unprecedented conflagrations, droughts, and deluges. There's also the interminable cat-and-mouse game among government policies, private sector profit prioritization, and criminal cartels culminating in Filipinos having less healthy food to eat, if at all.