Zero Hunger in the Spotlight of the World Food Day Celebration

Humanity could eradicate hunger and poverty completely in the course of the next 15 years, with this idea it is celebrated today the World Food Day, with its main activities taking place in Italy.

Milan, where the Universal Exhibition of 2015 is being held, will host the celebration in which the presence of the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon is expected.

Other speakers include the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Jose Graziano da Silva, and the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, officials announcements indicated.

According to FAO, it will be a unique opportunity to “send a strong signal to young people, the Zero Hunger Generation, on the agenda for sustainable development by 2030”.

It will also allow to raise awareness about the challenge of eradicating hunger and poverty permanently within 15 years, the organization said on its website.

At the official ceremony, the 70th anniversary of the founding of FAO will be celebrated and the theme chosen for World Food Day 2015 is ‘Social protection and agriculture to break the cycle of rural poverty’.

According to organizers, the UN’s proposal for the Universal Exhibition in Milan will be highlighted, which is ‘The Zero Hunger Challenge: United for a sustainable world’.

The most recent global report on food insecurity warns that 795 million people still suffer from hunger, a figure quite high, although it represents a reduction of 167 millions, compared to the one of the previous decade.

If the current global situation continues unchanged, by 2030 more than 650 million people will remain undernourished, FAO warned this week while presenting ‘The State of Food and Agriculture’ in 2015.

At the same time, around, 400 million people suffer from obesity or are overweight, and that number increases every year.

While millions live in such conditions, the world produces more food per person than at any previous time and annually about one-third of these products is lost or wasted, UN statistics corroborate.