Junior World Food Day: If you have a green lifestyle, you will have a green future, FAO Director-General says to young people at global event
Rome – Today at a ceremony marking the second edition of Junior World Food Day, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu urged young people to start adopting healthy habits in their lives.
Part of the World Food Day 2022 celebrations, the ceremony was held at FAO’s Rome headquarters and attended by students and teachers from Italian and international schools in Rome, along with students connected online from Africa, the Near East, North America, and Asia.
The FAO Director-General reminded the young people in the audience how important it is to assume a green lifestyle today so that the future will also be green. “Be friends to your beloved, to your classmates, to your teachers, to your relatives, to your colleagues in the future,” he said, stressing how important it is to also keep the mind healthy through kindness in order to keep “learning together, working together, contributing together in the future”. “The future is yours,” he concluded.
A vibrant gathering of food heroes to share success stories
Inspiring stories, music, and debate were part of the day’s successful proceedings as was a line-up of special guests who come together to raise awareness for young people to do their part for a world without hunger.
These included Thomas Pesquet, a French astronaut from the European Space Agency and FAO Goodwill Ambassador, who last year spoke from the International Space Center and this year attended the event in person. Pesquet told his story, from when he was a child and dreamed of going to space to when he finally succeeded, spending 200 days in space twice. "Despite the bad news we get every day about conflict, climate change and world hunger, we need to be more optimistic. It's not all negative; the projects that FAO carries out are an example of that. We must continue to work together, each doing our part." He concluded by suggesting that we should always strive to achieve our dreams, trying to do work that we love but that is also useful for others and the planet.
Also sharing the stage was Darine El Khatib, a media professional and FAO Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Near East and North Africa, working in a region where conflict, climate change and a lack of water all impact heavily on food security. Passion is a key element of her work, which is to tell interesting stories, giving voice to incredible life experiences, creating empathy with people, and communicating emotions to the audience. “I am fortunate enough to participate in field visits where I have witnessed first-hand the positive effects of what FAO does for people in need,” she said.
Other special guests included Joan Roca, chef, and Food Hero, who along with his brothers Josep and Jordi are the masterminds behind the Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, winner of three Michelin stars and a Michelin Green Star, an award that recognizes restaurants that are committed to ethical and environmentally friendly practice; and young scientists and innovators Gabriella D’Cruz and Mathias Charles Yabe.
"Leave no one behind" the slogan of this year’s World Food Day was also the title of the inspiring multilingual music video launched during the Junior World Food Day ceremony. The video, produced by Garry McCarthy and Seán Downey, features young people from China, Cuba, Egypt, Ireland, and Rwanda, singing how “we are all connected. So, for the sake of food no-one should be neglected”.
Ahead of the Junior World Food Day celebration, an intergenerational dialogue introduced by the FAO Director-General featured an interactive exchange between Khalid Mehboob, who served as Independent Chairperson of the FAO Council from 2017 until 2021, and young FAO employees.