October 16, World Food Day

World Food Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in November 1979. FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on October 16th, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945.

The official World Food Day theme, announced each spring by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, gives focus to World Food Day observances and raises awareness and understanding of approaches to ending hunger.

“Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world” is the formal wording of the 2012 theme. It has been chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger.

Interest in cooperatives and rural organizations is also reflected in the decision of the UN General Assembly to designate 2012 “International Year of Cooperatives.

World Food Day 2012 This World Food Day, you can help to change the life of a child like Molly at no cost to you. All you need to do is watch. At the end of the video, please take a few minutes to take Molly's quiz, http://www.wfp.org/molly

Hungry Planet Episode 20 - Special Report

Presented in this video are three reports on agricultural cooperatives, a key to food security.

• In Guatemala, farmers making a living from small plots of land struggle to produce bigger crops, become better connected to markets and earn more money.
• In Afghanistan, as foreign troops prepare to leave, an unexpected kind of peace building is taking place thanks to the rise in dairy cooperatives.
• In Southern Niger, agricultural cooperatives gain access to better seeds and better farming techniques to fight the region's severe droughts.

World Food Day Poster Design Competition - The Winners!

The first-ever World Food Day Poster Design Competition, for children and young people, drew some 3,621 posters from 72 countries around the world.

The winning posters were announced on World Food Day – Tuesday, 16 October 2012 – by FAO and the United Nations Women’s Guild in Rome, Italy, organizers of the international contest.

Contestants were asked to interpret the 2012 theme of World Food Day: “Agricultural cooperatives: key to feeding the world.”

Posters were drawn, painted, sketched, or created digitally. The judges selected the top 3 entries in each of 3 categories: ages 5-8, ages 9-12, and ages 13-17.

Take a look at this year’s winners!

The objectives of World Food Day are to:

*Encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end;

*Encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries;

*Encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions;

*Heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world;

*Promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and

*Strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development.

To learn more about World Food Day, visit the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).