2019.10.16. The United Nations (UN) believes that food is a basic human right that all people should have easy access to food. In 2018, one in nine people were undernourished, which is about 820 million people – up from 785 million four years ago.

Every year people from all walks of life and across the globe are inspired to come together to think about how they can promote awareness to worldwide hunger and work towards bringing an end to it.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year. "We waste about one-third of the food produced for human consumption, at a cost of $990bn per year," Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Adding, "You would be hard pressed to find such inefficiencies in other industries."

A key area affected by food waste is the climate. According to Andersen, food waste was currently generating eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions and hence food loss and waste was a "critical tool" for nations in the fight against climate change. The EPA believes 23 percent of landfill waste comes directly from containers and packaging.

How can we bring about change?

Understand and rethink about the way we shop, cook, store, reuse and value food. We need to support local farmers, markets and businesses and avoid our dependence of packaged foods from multi-national corporations. What we eat, or don’t eat matters for the planet.

Pope Francis message for this year’s World Food Day: “Our Actions Are Our Future. Healthy Diets for a #ZeroHunger World”.

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