European governments must help combat hunger and malnutrition on a global level, as failure to do so will only boost migration flows and stoke conflicts,FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
“Food insecurity and conflict go hand in hand” he said, noting that extreme climatic events, troubles in Africa and the Near East and now the Ebola outbreak in West Africa tend to spill over national borders and into other regions in a globalized world, often through forced migration.*
Malnutrition, a Public Issue
“Illegal border crossings are an issue of concern in Europe and other parts of the world,” Graziano da Silva said on 30 September 2014 – at the informal summit of European Union agriculture ministers in Milan. “It is our common responsibility to help build alternatives. Sustainable agricultural and rural development in the countries of origin needs to be one of them,”‘ he added.
He urged EU ministers to consider malnutrition a public issue requiring concerted action.
“Hunger is the most deplorable face of malnutrition, but it is not its only face,” he said, noting that five percent of global economic activity is lost annually and that more than 2 billion people, suffer from undernourishment, micronutrient deficiencies or hidden hunger, which can manifest themselves as obesity. (*Source: FAO Release).
Read also:
World Hunger Falls, But Number of Undernourished Remains ‘Unacceptably High’ – UN
Malnutrition Responsible of Half of All Child Deaths Under Five Years of Age
Europe, Central Asia Face Nutritional Deficits
Governments, Civil Society, Private Sector to Enhance Forests’ Contributions to Nutrition
Forests Can Play a Crucial Role in Improving Global Food Security, Nutrition
Food Security Is Still “Touch-and-Go” in Arid, Conflict-torn Somalia
One Third of All Food Produced Is Lost or Wasted Each Year
Lead in Infant Formula, Arsenic in Rice — UN Sets New Food Safety Standards
Mauritania: Sharing Every Bit of Food … Just to Survive
South Sudan: “People are Dying, People are Suffering—This Is a Crisis”
Burkina Faso: Families Eating the Seeds They Should Plant
Sahel: No Food for 18 Million People – Urgent Help Needed for Women, Children
Demand for More Milk and Meat Feeds 13 Big Killers
Rising Voracious Consumption, Living as If We Had Two Planets
Big Business Stealing Seeds, Devouring Life Cycle
Food Inequality Equation: 1.5 Billion Obese; 925 Million Hungry
A U.S. Military Command to Grab Africa’s Natural and Mineral Resources
2014 Human Wrongs Watch
