East Africa’s locust “air force” could be grounded, as another wave of the scourge takes flight

A locust fighting force assembled by countries in East Africa to combat an invasion of the crop-devouring pest is at risk of seeing its activities grind to a halt as funding to sustain its operations dries up, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned today.
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Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA)

18-22 January 2021

The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) is an international conference on agri-food policy issues. For the past twelve years it has been held at the beginning of the International Green Week in Berlin. Around 2,000 international visitors from politics, industry, science and civil society discuss a central topic/theme; this year's theme is: "How to feed the world in times of pandemics and climate change?"

More info at https://www.gffa-berlin.de/en/ 

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One Planet – FAO’s work on biodiversity, One Health and climate

Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy-Director General, explains FAO’s work on biodiversity, and on protecting our planet, including combating climate change.
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Eradication of Peste des petits ruminants disease in sight

Globally, the number of outbreaks of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, fell by two-thirds in recent years, showing the commitment of the international community to combatting this highly contagious animal disease and raising hopes for meeting the goal of global eradication by 2030.
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Small towns are bigger than we think

Small cities and towns and the rural areas they influence –defined as their catchment areas– play an outsized role in the way people pursue their livelihoods, says “Global mapping of urban-rural catchment areas reveals unequal access to services”, a new FAO paper published by PNAS.
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FAO Director-General stresses crucial role of biodiversity in combating zoonotic diseases

The Director-General welcomed the establishment by France and Germany of a High Expert Council on One Health and the PREZODE initiative, saying it embodies a “global collaborative approach that could play a leading role in the science that drives our decisions and actions at every level.”
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WHO Action framework for developing and implementing public food procurement and service policies for a healthy diet

Every year, unhealthy diets are responsible for millions of deaths and lost years of good health. Urgent action is needed to stop the growing consumption of foods and beverages that lead to unhealthy diets. Of greatest concern are excess consumption of sodium and salt, sugars and fats, particularly trans fats, and low consumption of whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits.

Governments worldwide have a unique opportunity and also responsibility to lead by example through the implementation of healthy public food procurement and service policies, requiring that all food and beverages served or sold in public settings contribute to the promotion of healthy diets.

Healthy public food procurement and service policies can contribute to enabling the population to consume healthy diets and reducing the burden of all forms of malnutrition, in particular, premature death and disability from preventable diet-related noncommunicable diseases. They can also contribute to increased productivity and educational attainment; create purchasing power, which can increase demand for, and availability of healthier food and reduce costs; strengthen local food systems by promoting purchasing from local producers, and improve health equity across populations.

The action framework will support policymakers or programme managers working on public food procurement or service, either at a national or subnational level including at regional, provincial or city level to develop new public food procurement and service policies or to strengthen or expand existing policies. This action framework provides an overview of how to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a healthy public food procurement policy.

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Webinar: The Great Protein Debate

12 January from 13:00-14:30 GMT

The SDG2 Advocacy Hub is hosting in collaboration with the global research partnership CGIAR a conversation about the role of protein in our food systems, tied to the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). 
Opening remarks will be delivered by Lawrence Haddad, UNFSS Action Track 1 Lead and Gunhild Stordalen, UNFSS Action Track 2 Lead. For the panel discussion, we will be joined by Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, CGIAR UNFSS representative, Namukolo Covic, Senior Research Coordinator from IFPRI for the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), as well as Chefs Conor Spacey and Selassie Atadika from the Chefs' Manifesto network.

In order to attend, please RSVP using this link.

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FAO Director-General calls for urgent scale-up of Africa’s Great Green Wall

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today appealed for an urgent scale-up of Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative to restore degraded land, create jobs and address climate change.
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World food prices rise for seventh month in a row in December

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 107.5 points in December, 2.2 percent higher than in November. Over the whole of 2020, the benchmark index averaged 97.9 points, a three-year high and a 3.1 percent increase from 2019 although still more than 25 percent below its historical 2011 peak.
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World food prices rise for seventh month in a row in December

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 107.5 points in December, 2.2 percent higher than in November. Over the whole of 2020, the benchmark index averaged 97.9 points, a three-year high and a 3.1 percent increase from 2019 although still more than 25 percent below its historical 2011 peak.
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