JUNIOR WORLD FOOD DAY EVENT Speech
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
14/10/2022
JUNIOR WORLD FOOD DAY EVENT
Speech
By
Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
14 October 2022
Dear Young Friends, and Very Young Friends!
1. Welcome to the second edition of the Junior World Food Day event.
2. Today, we look forward to having a conversation with you on the challenges to global hunger, the solutions that exist to address them, and the actions we need to take.
3. I am joined by inspiring speakers today who will share their stories on why they have chosen to work with food, or dedicated themselves to working for a hunger free world.
4. I hope that the real-life stories of these food heroes will inspire you, the youth, who have joined us today in taking action to achieve a world without hunger.
5. You are our most important guests.
6. The future of our planet belongs to you.
7. You are our future leaders, and your participation in important matters like food security is key to a better future.
My Young Friends,
8. We have a collective mission to end hunger and save millions of lives.
9. And also to grow, process and consume our food in a way that respects planet Earth, and its limited natural resources.
10. I am trying to play my part as the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO.
11. Let me tell you a little about how I got here.
12. I grew up in a rice-farming family in the countryside in China.
13. I experienced hunger and poverty first-hand as a child.
14. I was once vulnerable, but thanks to China’s reform, development and transformation, I was given the chance to attend university.
15. I studied horticulture – the art of growing plants to produce food.
16. And then I worked as a research scientist in China.
17. I am proud to have contributed to ending hunger in China, both as a scientist and then a government official.
18. And now my work continues.
19. I am working with countries from around the world, as well as important partners, to transform our global agrifood systems.
20. Do any of you know what an agrifood system is?
21. It is the journey our food takes before it reaches our plates,
22. And it includes all the people that make this happen - from farmers to factory workers and market sellers.
23. Farming, harvesting, fishing, livestock, storage, food processing, transporting, selling, buying, eating and disposing of our food - these are all parts of an agrifood system.
24. The system does not only include food, but also other products that come from agriculture - like cotton and forest products.
Dear Young Friends,
25. Your actions and choices can help these systems become better and more sustainable – friendlier to the Earth.
26. If we make these systems more sustainable, we can achieve the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all.
27. Did you know that 3.1 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet?
28. This is not fair!
29. Billions of people are being left behind.
30. People are dying from starvation and many children cannot have a healthy future due to malnutrition.
31. So we need to work together to build sustainable agrifood systems that offer enough nutritious food at a price that everyone can afford.
32. We need agrifood systems that:
• work with the environment, and not against it;
• that protect the most vulnerable;
• that provide good decent jobs to men, women, young people and Indigenous Peoples;
• that continue to produce food even during crisis and natural disasters;
• and where child labour no longer exists.
33. These are just a few of the actions we need to take.
34. And we must all be part of the change to make things better.
35. You, the young people have the creativity, imagination and strength to overcome challenges and make this transformation happen.
36. The decisions we make in our daily life are important: the way we buy and eat our food; and the efforts we make not to waste our food.
37. We need to value the food we eat, the people who produce it, and our planet.
38. I am asking all of you – here in the room and connected online – to join me today in making a promise together to build a better future for everyone!
39. Thank you.