FAO’s goal: Healthy food for all, based on sustainable agricultural development

Focusing only on producing more food is not enough, it is also crucial to produce food, that is healthy and nutritious in a way that preserves the environment, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today at the Caritas Internationalis’ General Assembly in Rome.
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Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus calls for a new approach to address hunger and conflict

Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus today called for a complete change in the ways to address the often-related issues of hunger and conflict. He made the appeal at an event at FAO headquarters in Rome highlighting progress made by the FAO-Nobel Peace Laureates Alliance for Food Security and Peace.
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Ag2Nut Webinar – Development of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in Ethiopia, and a Global Review of FBDG

Tuesday, May 21, 2019
9:00am New York
2:00pm London
3:00pm CEST
4:00pm Ethiopia

What is a healthy diet?  This Ag2Nut webinar presents how 90 countries have answered that question, sharing results from a newly-published Global Review of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG). The number of countries with FBDG is slowly increasing, and the newest will be Ethiopia, which is currently in the process of developing FBDG for the first time.  This discussion will give an inside view into how countries define healthy diets that are appropriate for nutrition, culture, and the specific food system of a place.

The webinar will be recorded.

Event page

Register here

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Stronger policy support needed to reap the benefits of growing trees near crops

“Agroforestry can help diversify and sustain (food) production and provide vital social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all scales,” she said in opening remarks at the 4th World Agroforestry Congress in Montpellier, France.
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Stronger policy support needed to reap the benefits of growing trees near crops

“Agroforestry can help diversify and sustain (food) production and provide vital social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all scales,” she said in opening remarks at the 4th World Agroforestry Congress in Montpellier, France.
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Declining bee populations pose threat to global food security and nutrition

The global decline in bee populations poses a serious threat to a wide variety of plants critical to human well-being and livelihoods, and countries should do more to safeguard our key allies in the fight against hunger and malnutrition, FAO stressed today as it marked UN World Bee Day.
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World Health Assembly

20–28 May 2019
Geneva, Switzerland

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the Organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget. The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland.

More information on the seventy-second World Health Assembly will follow.

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Urban Food Systems for Better Diets, Nutrition, and Health

Friday, 17 May 2019 
12:15 pm to 1:45 pm (EDT)
IFPRI, Washington, D.C. 20005

The explosive growth of cities all over the world has led to major shifts in diets, with serious consequences for the health and nutrition of the urban poor, especially in rapidly urbanizing low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia.

 To reverse this trend, we must take into account the realities of urban life and understand what role urban food systems and environments play in shaping food choices. For example, what are the urban poor eating, and where do they source their food—from informal markets, supermarkets, or urban gardens? And how do gender, household structure, time constraints, and personal preferences, among other things, shape these patterns? Designing effective urban food systems policies for healthier diets and optimal nutrition among the urban poor requires answers to these and many other questions. Building this evidence base—in addition to documenting, evaluating, and learning from current and past initiatives and policies—will enrich the dialogue and enhance our efforts to improve the well-being of poor urban dwellers.

 IFPRI speakers will be presenting the Institute’s new research program, Urban Food Systems for Better Diets, Nutrition, and Health. Invited guests will share experiences and provide examples of ongoing initiatives, policies, and partnerships that are successfully tackling issues of urban diets, nutrition, and health among the urban poor.

Unable to attend in person? Click here to watch online.

Register here.

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Healthy diets vital for progress in Lao PDR, say UN food agencies

The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) today concluded a joint visit to the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) with a call for greater investment in nutrition.
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Save Our Soils: Finding ways to stop erosion

“The negative impacts of soil erosion are ever more evident and the need to work jointly ever more urgent,” FAO Deputy Director-General, Climate and Natural Resources, Maria Helena Semedo, said while opening a three-day symposium focusing how to measure soil erosion and its economic costs.
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