Today October 16th is World Food Day.

The theme for 2020 is “Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together. Our actions are our future”.

World Food Day was designated by the United Nations in 1981 an international day around the world to commemorate the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, 1945. Many commemorative events are held each year by various organizations around the world, including the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. However, it is not well recognized in Japan. 

JIRCAS will hold a symposium on the importance of the world food system and international cooperation to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its founding. Let us all take this opportunity to think about the food problems that the world is facing now.

JIRCAS 50th Year Anniversary International Symposium 2020

Theme: The role of international collaboration in agricultural research to address challenges in the post-COVID-19 global food system

https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/symposium/2020/e20201110

World Food Prize

The World Food Prize is presented annually to those who have made significant contributions to World Food Day. Dr. Rattan Lal (USA, India), a leading soil scientist becomes the 2020 World Food Prize Laureate for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change. His work was distinct from soil fertility strategy of the 1970s, which was highly dependent on chemical fertilizers, and promoted innovative soil restoration techniques by no-till farming, cover crops, crop residues, mulching and agroforestry. At the same time, he established a method that can increase organic matter by storing atmospheric carbon in soil and suppressing the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021

The Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2020 was scheduled to be held in December in conjunction with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in order to accelerate global effort to tackle malnutrition. However, due to the continued global spread of COVID-19, it was decided to postpone the summit for a year until December 2021. 

The thematic areas for discussion at the summit are as follows: 

(1) Health – Making nutrition integral to Universal Health Coverage

(2) Food – Building food systems that promote healthy diets and nutrition

(3) Resilience – Addressing malnutrition effectively in fragile and conflict-affected contexts

(4) Accountability – Promoting data-driven accountability

(5) Financing – Securing new investments and driving innovation in nutrition financing.

References:

FAO World Food Day http://www.fao.org/japan/portal-sites/wfd/en/

World Food Prize：https://www.worldfoodprize.org/

Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021：https://nutritionforgrowth.org/events/

Contributor: KANAMORI Norihito (Research Strategy Office)