World Food Day is celebrated today all over the world

Heidelberg, 16 October 2013 – On the occasion of today’s World Food Day, FIAN’s worldwide members have organized multiple events and celebrations to point to outstanding issues, promote new legislations and raise awareness on one of the most violated human rights – the right to adequate food and nutrition.

Celebrations started on October 8, when in Rome at the 40th session of the Committee on World Food Security, the yearbook Right to Food and Nutriton Watch 2013 was officially launched. Oliver de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and one of the speakers at the launch, expressed that the Watch presents “credible alternatives” to policies responsible for lack of progress in addressing the chronic undernourishment of millions of people worldwide. These alternatives are emerging “not from the laboratories of food scientists or from governmental agencies – but bottom up, from the initiatives of people who seek to regain control over the food systems on which they depend” de Schutter said.

These alternatives were also discussed and lived in a multitude of events, among others organized by FIAN members and sections around World Food Day. FIAN Brazil has launched, together with FIAN International, a petition on the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities in Brazil. FIAN Philippines calls for the adoption of a comprehensive food policy by the Philippines, claiming an urgent need for a framework law on the right to adequate food. FIAN Switzerland is holding events under the title: “Let’s claim coherence” to launch the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2013 at the national level, and to discuss the issue of food speculation, especially the role of banks and insurance companies. FIAN Belgium, together with other Belgium organizations, is organizing a debate titled “What will be the agriculture of the future?” to discuss what are the connections between European agrarian politics, the reality of Belgian peasants and everyday food. In Bogotá, FIAN Colombia held an international seminar on October 9-11 to discuss on the geopolitical phenomena of concentration and grabbing of land, territories and resources and rural development. In FIAN Ecuador, next to a series of discussion events, World Food Day is filled with festivities, dances, and music, including a parade and a peasants march, an Agroecological and Gastronomic Fair and an exchange of traditional foods at Pamba Mesa.

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Get active and sign the petition to the Brazilian government!

Read the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2013!