Call for renewed global push to tackle child labour in agriculture

On World Day Against Child Labour, FAO urged nations to pay greater attention and allocate more financial resources to addressing child labour in domestic and local food supply chains and in subsistence farming where the vast majority of child labour in agriculture occurs.
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FAO and Korea Telecom team up to advance digital agricultural innovation

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Korea Telecom (KT) today agreed to work together to create more opportunities for youth to engage in smart farming and other forms of agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Renewing solidarity to tackle Africa’s hunger and poverty challenges

This was FAO's message at the opening today of a ASTF Round Table of Contributors in Malabo that has brought together heads of states and government, ministers and other representatives of the development community to recapitalize the Fund and launch a more ambitious second phase.
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Treasuring the cultural and heritage dimensions of the Mediterranean diet

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today warned about the important cultural, social, environmental and heritage loss linked to the erosion of sustainable local diets, including the Mediterranean diet.
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More scientific research is needed to ensure policies that enable access to healthy diets for all

The FAO chief's remarks came on the first day of the Future of Food international symposium, which included a roundtable with representatives of academia, and also the signing by FAO of partnership agreements with seven universities and research institutions.
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The food systems of the future must provide healthy and sustainable diets for all

The food systems of the future must deliver healthy and quality food for all whilst preserving the environment, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today as he called for a transformation of food systems to improve people’s diets.
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International Symposium “The Future of Food”

10-11 June 2019
FAO HQ, Rome (Italy)

While undernutrition persists, we are witnessing an unprecedented rise in obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, including in low- and middle-income countries.

What is wrong with our food systems? How will we feed a growing and urbanizing world population with natural resources that are limited and are being depleted?

FAO is convening a 2-day symposium on The Future of Food, bringing together academics, researchers, policymakers, representatives from civil society and private sector, parliamentarians and government agencies to discuss these questions (and many more) and to explore pathways to a sustainable future of food and healthy diets for all.

A High Level Event on the Mediterranean Diet is organised on Tuesday 11th June, from 14:00 - 15:00 Rome time (GMT+2).

Live-stream is available here.

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Food prices rise amid weak production outlook for maize

Global food prices rose for the fifth consecutive month in May, pushed up by rising prices of cheese and maize due to adverse weather conditions. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 172.4 points in May, up 1.2 percent from the previous month while still 1.9 percent below its level in May 2018.
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Food safety is everyone’s business

The first ever celebration of the United Nations World Food Safety Day, to be marked globally on 7 June, aims to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe.
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ECOSOC 2019 Management Segment

6-7 June 2019
New York

The Management Segment serves the following functions:

  • The review of the reports of the Council’s subsidiary and expert bodies; these include the reports of all Functional Commissions, the Regional Commissions, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, as well as expert and ad hoc bodies. 
  • The system-wide coordination and review of specific development issues, with a view to promoting a more integrated response to specific areas (for example, gender mainstreaming or non-communicable diseases).
  • The consideration of special country situation or regional issues which are on the agenda of ECOSOC (including the work of its Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti). 

On 6th June, in accordance with its mandate, UNSCN will present the Report for 2018.

Draft Programme

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FAO Webinar: Food-Based Dietary Guidelines: What are they? How they are used? What is their potential?

Tuesday 4 June
13.00 (GMT), 14.00 (CET)

Presenter: Fatima Hachem
Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer
Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Group, FAO

In the arena of food and nutrition, consumers around the globe are bombarded with information and advice on how to eat better in order to improve health and well-being. Having dietary guidelines that are food-based, built on scientific evidence and culturally and economically appropriate to the local context is what governments have been engaged in establishing in the last few decades.  Although these guidelines were thought essentially as a consumer education tool, the data and information base on which they are founded goes beyond the nutritional problems at country level to span a wide area of related sectors and policies. This renders the dietary guidelines useful for a range of other usages while addressing the local public health and nutrition priorities, including public procurement, social protection, food subsidies, food security and nutrition and agricultural policies. 

FAO has been actively assisting Member Countries in the development, implementation and revision of their Food-based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) and has been periodically reviewing the progress made in the development and use of FBDGs as well as tracking changes in their overall focus and orientation. FAO also hosts a growing online repository of FBDGs which is proving useful for researchers and policy-makers alike.

Join us for this webinar where we will provide an overview of food-based dietary guidelines focusing on the following questions:

  • What are national FBDGs?
  • How have they been traditionally used? 
  • What is their potential use?

The webinar will also highlight some examples of national FBDGs across the world, and present FAO’s current work in this field.

This is the first of a series of 6 webinars on FBDGs that are organized by the Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Team of FAO

Register here

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FAO chief hails international treaty combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today hailed the countries committed to combating unsustainable and illegal fishing, calling the rapid international adoption of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) a “fantastic achievement”. 87 countries are signatories and another 18 are preparing to adhere.
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