14 October 2011 | General, FA
World Food Day

The aim of World Food Day is to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. In 1980, the General Assembly endorsed observance of the Day in consideration of the fact that "food is a requisite for human survival and well-being and a fundamental human necessity". The theme of the 2011 World Food Day is ‘Food Prices – from Crisis to Stability’.

Word Food Day 16 October 2011 Logo

According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty. This year’s World Food Day theme has been chosen in order to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable. Two of the most important objectives of this day are to encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end; and also to encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

Today 40 % of the world population suffers from micro-nutrient deficiencies, leading to malnutrition and consequently a reduced immunity to infectious and parasitical disease or to degenerative illness such as cancer, diabetes, and cardio-vascular diseases. COST recognises the challenge of producing high-quality, safe, and health-promoting food in order to meet an ever-increasing global demand.

COST Action FA0905 ‘Mineral-improved Crop Production for Healthy Food and Feed’ involves over 270 people from both Europe and non-European countries. A high mineral status is an important quality aspect of food and feed, in order to enhance its nutritional value and reduce the need for costly mineral supplementations. This Action seeks to increase the quality of both food and feed; by increasing the levels of bioavailable minerals (iron, zinc, magnesium and selenium) threefold, as well as to decrease the levels of harmful bioavailable minerals such as arsenic and cadmium.

COST Action FA0604 ‘Triticeace genomics for the advancement of essential European crops (TritiGen)’ faced a similar challenge: Triticeae cereals (wheat, barley, rye) are essential to human nutrition and are arguably the most important crops for European agriculture. However, there is again, a need for a quantum leap in yield, sustainability and quality improvement in these crops in order to meet global demand. Major advances in crops will require a broad suite of direct genomics approaches; such a strategy is massively complex and can only be carried out efficiently at the international level. This Action has facilitated the coordination, focus and strengthening of national and pan-European Triticeae genomics research.

An additional threat to global food supplies are plant parasitic nematodes - microscopic worms. They cause significant problems to farmers across the world causing losses estimated at over USD 100 000 million each year. COST Action 872 ‘Exploiting genomics to understand plant–nematode interactions’ is currently addressing the urgent need for new strategies to control nematodes and for innovative tools to facilitate plant breeding.

Further COST Actions are focussing efforts on tackling other forms of parasites destroying harvests and further reducing food supplies: COST Action 862 ‘Bacterial Toxins for Insect Control’ focussed on the availability of new and improved bacterial antagonists and their toxins for use in biological control of insects in both conventional and organic agriculture; while COST Action FA0806 ‘Plant virus control employing RNA-based vaccines: A novel non-transgenic strategy’ aims to strengthen existing networks in order to develop suitable, efficient and cost-effective methods for both a reactive and a proactive response to viral diseases of plants for a sustainable agriculture.

All of these Actions recognise the necessity of an international, multidisciplinary effort in attaining the goal of a hunger-free world.