World Food Day stresses climate change, bio-energy's impact on poor

Rome - Climate change and bio-energy are the focus of this year's World Food Day activities, expected to involve over 150 countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Friday. The Rome-based FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on October 16, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. 'Global warming is already underway and adaptation strategies are now a matter of urgency, especially for the most vulnerable poor countries,' FAO Assistant Director-General, Alexander Mueller said. FAO estimates that some 920 million people in the world face hunger, including small-scale farmers, fishers and forest-dependent people. 'The will be worst hit by climate change,' Mueller said, stressing the need to develop adaptation strategies including a review of land-use plans, food security programmes, fisheries and forestry policies. The FAO Committee on World Food Security, with representatives from more than 100 countries and a number of civil society organizations, is slated to meet in Rome from October 14-17 to assess trends in the world food security and nutrition situation. The wife of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, Suzanne, is scheduled as keynote speaker at the World Food Day Ceremony in Rome on October 16. Major World Food Day events are planned in Albania, Egypt, Morocco, South Korea and a number of Asian and Latin American countries during October. A third edition of the popular Run for Food will take place in Rome on October 19 involving over 4,000 people with a similar event to be held simultaneously in Italy's financial capital, Milan. Together with the European Professional Football League (EPFL), FAO will also launch its Professional Football against Hunger initiative on 15 October in Rome. This campaign, with a special emphasis on raising awareness among young people, will involve 960 clubs that are EPFL members.