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FAO official frames hunger challenge

The director-general of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says it’s time to take “the next big step” in the fight against world hunger.

Speaking at a food conference in Italy, Jose Graziano da Silva said a big part of that effort will involve eliminating food losses and waste.  And he points to “a tendency to excessive consumption in middle and high-income countries” as one of the issues that needs to be addressed.

Graziano da Silva cites figures showing that some 1.5 billion people are overweight, compared to 868 million who are undernourished.   He calls it “one of the great contrasts of our world:  the unequal distribution of food, of income and of opportunities.”

Other steps necessary to meet the U.N.’s Zero Hunger Challenge, according to Graziano da Silva, are to make all food systems sustainable; enable smallholders—and especially women—to double their productivity and income; ensure people have year-round access to nutritious food; and end malnutrition in pregnancy and child stunting.