FAO champions food as a human right

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for a renewed commitment to guarantee the right to food for the world's hundreds of millions of hungry people.

"If our planet produces enough food to feed its entire population, why do 854 million people still go to sleep on an empty stomach?" asked FAO director-general Jacques Diouf during a speech at the World Food Day ceremony on this year's theme, "The Right to Food'.

Diouf also said that "a right is not a right if it cannot be claimed".

Currently, there are 820 million undernourished people in developing countries, 25 million in countries in transition and 9 million in industrialised countries.

The President of Germany, Horst Köhler, said that "hunger is not an inescapable destiny, but can be eliminated by wise policies". This requires that governments of developing countries make food security a priority.

"All people have a right to healthy food, produced in a sustainable manner appropriate to their culture," said Köhler.

"Democratic participation by the people is the best guarantee that governments will genuinely understand people's basic needs and will take these into account."

Köhler went on to say 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, with functioning local infrastructure and experience.

Tanzania's President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, said that "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." He also said that the ultimate solution lies in improving agriculture, particularly in Africa.

In a message 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-fulfilment of which is a violation of human dignity.

Commitment to enforce the right of food has been slow, even though the right was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. However, Diouf believes that is changing.

"National commitments to implement the right to food would have been unthinkable only 10 years ago, but such commitments are already bearing fruit," he said. "In Brazil, for example, the right is now firmly entrenched and hunger is in retreat."

FAO has collaborated with governments and non-governmental organisations to promote a set of guidelines aimed at helping policymakers and others realise the right to food.

Italy's Minister for agricultural, food and forestry policies, Paolo de Castro, 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 Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, who also attended the WFD ceremony.