World Food Day 2007 says Food is Human Right

World Food Day 2007 says Food is Human Right



October 2007

 "If our planet produces enough food 
to feed its entire population, why do 854 million people still go to sleep 
on an empty stomach?" demanded Dr. Jacques Diouf today. Speaking at the 
World Food Day ceremony on this year's theme The Right to Food, the UN 
Food and Agriculture Organization director-general said, "A right is not a 
right if it cannot be claimed." 
Although enough food is produced globally to satisfy all the hungry 
people, food supplies are under greater pressure today than ever before. 
Prices of staples such as wheat and milk are rising mainly due to climate 
change weather fluctuations that affect harvests, the switch to biofuels, 
and increasing demand from new and emerging markets. 

Despite the fact that the right to food was included in the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948, 
commitment to enforce the right has been only very gradual. Diouf said 
that while "national commitments to implement the right to food would have 
been unthinkable only 10 years ago, such commitments are already bearing 
fruit. In Brazil, for example, the right is now firmly entrenched and 
hunger is in retreat." 
In a message issued in honor of World Food Day, UN Secretary-General Ban 
Ki-moon said, "The right to food is a human right. Yet, 854 million people 
in the world suffer from chronic hunger, and the figure has been 
increasing since the beginning of the new Millennium. In a world of 
plenty, this situation is unacceptable." 
"We must make the voice of these 854 million people heard. We must work to 
uphold their fundamental human right. We must recognize the role of human 
rights in eradicating hunger and poverty, and the connection between 
development, human rights and security." 
The Food and Agriculture Organization has been working with governments 
and nongovernmental organizations alike to promote a set of guidelines and 
a framework aimed at helping policymakers and others realize the right to 
food. 
At the World Food Day ceremony held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Tanzanian 
President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete said, "40,000 children die every day 
throughout the world due to malnutrition and related diseases. These are 
the people who are being denied the right to food. These are the people 
who are the subject of this year's World Food Day." 

The ultimate solution lies in improving agriculture, especially in Africa, 
said Kikwete. 
German President Horst Köhler told the audience, "Hunger is not an 
inescapable destiny, but can be eliminated by wise policies." 
Calling on governments of developing countries make food security a 
priority, he said, "All people have a right to healthy food, produced in a 
sustainable manner appropriate to their culture. Democratic participation 
by the people is the best guarantee that governments will genuinely 
understand people's basic needs and will take these into account." 
He noted that people should have an adequate supply of food from their own 
fields and the surrounding region, which requires a type of agriculture 
based on "ownership" in developing countries and on functioning local 
structures and know-how. 
In a message from the Vatican read during the ceremony, Pope Benedict XVI 
said that food is a universal right for humankind, without distinction or 
discrimination. He urged all members of society to ensure the right to 
food, the non-fulfillment of which is a violation of human dignity. 
Paolo de Castro, Italy's minister for agricultural, food and forestry 
policies, underlined the importance of the right to food guidelines as the 
most effective means of moving governments as well as civil society 
towards achieving global food security.
"Demographics, climate change and commodity prices appear to be working 
against us right now, threatening to swirl up into a perfect storm of 
overwhelming need. But there is hope to end hunger, and science and 
education are on our side," said World Food Programme Executive Director 
Josette Sheeran of the United States, who also addressed the World Food 
Day ceremony. 
Lennart Båge, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, 
a specialized agency of the United Nations, said, "Three quarters of the 
world's one billion extremely poor people live in rural areas, many 
already suffer from hunger and malnutrition, but new and growing 
challenges such as climate change are making them all the more vulnerable. 
This is why now, more than ever, the world has a pressing moral obligation 
to invest in agricultural development to combat hunger and restore dignity 
to the poor." 

Eleven years after the 1996 World Food Summit, the number of 
undernourished people in the world remains unacceptably high, with 820 
million in developing countries, 25 million in countries in transition and 
nine million in industrialized countries. As a result, promoting the right 
to food is not just a moral imperative or even an investment with huge 
economic returns, it is a basic human right, the Food and Agriculture 
Organization insists. 
For the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, IFOAM, 
the Right to Food also means that life cannot be patented. "Patents on 
life support the monopoly control of genetic resources by few, thereby 
extensively undermining peoples' right and access to food," the 
organization said in a statement today. 
IFOAM believes that "the Earth's gene pool cannot be claimed as 
commercially negotiable genetic information or intellectual property by 
governments, commercial enterprises, other institutions or individuals." 
IFOAM Executive Director Angela Caudle said, "Since food is directly 
connected to communities and cultures, the right to food is also connected 
to community and rural development. There needs to be space for 
development that is not created by donating chemical fertilizers, but 
rather supports the regeneration and improvement of indigenous and local 
knowledge." 
World Food Day is commemorated annually in 150 countries. 

Highlights of this year's events include a worldwide candlelight vigil 
starting October 22 in the southwest Pacific and moving around the globe 
to draw attention to the problem of world hunger; musical events in Cairo, 
Rome, Bamako and other cities; sporting events such as the Run for Food 
race in Rome and Turin and professional soccer games dedicated to 
increasing awareness of World Food Day by Spain's professional soccer 
league. 
On the occasion of World Food Day 2007, universities in Italy, Ireland and 
Iran are establishing institutes or launching university courses on the 
right to food. 
In Des Moines, Iowa, the four day long World Food Prize Award Ceremony and 
Symposium opens today on the theme Biofuels and Biofood - Global 
Challenges. 
Dr. Philip Nelson, Purdue university researcher, will receive the 2007 
Prize worth $250,000. Announced in June, this year's prize honors Dr. 
Nelson for his innovative technologies which have revolutionized the food 
industry, particularly in the area of large-scale storage and 
transportation of fresh fruit and vegetables using bulk aseptic food 
processing. http://www.worldfoodprize.org/ 
For a list of World Food Day events, visit: 
http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/CMS/2950/17742.aspx 

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