The World Food Day is also celebrated on October 16 across all the member states of the United States. The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded in 1945 and the celebration takes place to honor thus date. The UN celebrates this day to highlight issues on food, poverty, security of food and hunger. The International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Fund also celebrates this day. The main motto of the WFD is to find out ways and take action to eradicate hunger from the society.
History and Origin
Dr. Pal Romany, the Minister of Food and Agriculture of Hungary played an active role in the creation of the World Food Day. In 1945 at the 20th session of the Food and Agricultural Organization Conference, all the member nations decided to establish the day and make it a global observance. It was decided that the day will be celebrated from henceforth across the 150 member nations and spread all over the planet to raise a voice against poverty and need for healthy food.
Celebration with Themes
The World Food Day is celebrated with a different theme each year that revolves around a cause common to all the nations. The epicenter of all the causes is agriculture as it is believed that it is one of the prime driving forces for the economy of any nation. The theme for 2013 was ‘Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition’. The theme of the 2014 will be made public by FAO soon. It will focus on the main reasons of hunger in the world and try to chalk out a plan to end it.
Events and Activities
World Food Day witnesses a lot of conferences, workshops and educational events organized by government and nongovernmental organizations. The main focus of the events is on educating people the need for healthy and good food. In USA, The World Food Day Sunday Dinner is a special event to mark this day. In Europe, the government teams up with celebrities to host events that emphasizes on the need for food security.
The UN forms a World Food Network which comprises of many countries who take up the responsibility to organize WFD campaign in different parts of the world. Awareness is created and people are motivated to join the campaign to end hunger and give the people their basic fundamental right of having a square meal.
In India, the day is also known as Food Engineer’s Day and celebrated with food festivals, food events, street plays, workshops etc. India is known for its wide diversity of cuisine and thus food lovers across the nation take part in a plethora of events to raise voice against genetically modified crops and problems related to hunger. In this nation, almost a million people every day go without food. The WFD creates a platform for people and the government to take action and do something so that the citizens are not deprived of the basic living facility. Healthy and hygienic food is also a great problem in the country and various health organizations use this day as an opportunity to address issues on this to make India a better place for living.