The eyes of Aishagul Duganova, a 48-year-old mother of three, light up as she talks about her new greenhouse, which is bringing with it a new stability amidst her family's health problems and money troubles. In the village of Koram, around 150 kilometers east of Almaty in Kazakhstan, Aishagul's life has been marked by her husband’s debilitating injury and the severe illnesses of her elderly parents-in-law.

As part of ongoing efforts to promote global animal health, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the International Alliance for Biological Standardization (IABS) recently hosted a meeting to share advancements and discuss strategies for surveillance in populations vaccinated for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Policy makers, researchers and the public have a new resource to gauge the scale and importance of agrifood systems in providing employment around the world. FAO has launched five new indicators and overhauled the data available on its FAOSTAT portal, the global go-to resource for those interested in agrifood facts and rural livelihoods.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded its impactful participation in the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP16) in Cali, Colombia, where its central message—agrifood systems play a critical role in achieving biodiversity goals—reverberated throughout the two-week event.

The Quadripartite collaboration on One Health – comprising the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – co-organized the G20 High-Level Meeting on One Health on 30 October 2024. This event featured a panel discussion titled "Creating an Enabling Environment for One Health Implementation," emphasizing the critical need for robust governance and multisectoral coordination to advance the One Health approach, supported by real-life examples from various countries.

In Des Moines, Iowa at the 2024 Borlaug Dialogue World Food Prize, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero opened "The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils: Advancing the Global Movement" session at World Food Prize 2024 side event. He addressed the urgent need to invest in creating demand for opportunity crops to help solve the global nutritional challenges we face today.

Acute food insecurity is set to increase in both magnitude and severity across 22 countries and territories, according to a new United Nations report. The report warns that the spread of conflict, particularly in the Middle East – coupled with climate and economic stressors - is pushing millions of people to the brink.

At World Food Prize 2024, FAO Director-General champions ways science and innovation can contribute to transforming agrifood systems and bring people and cultures closer together.

In Gaza, ongoing hostilities have caused the collapse of local food production and contributed to the rapid deterioration of food security. Here, FAO’s distribution of livestock fodder and veterinary kits provides a lifeline amid catastrophic losses.

FAO’s open-access portal for monitoring water productivity through remote sensing, WaPOR, was featured at the OECD Conference titled “Sustainable Agricultural Productivity to Address Food Systems Challenges: Measurement, Data, Drivers, and Policies” on 28 October 2024 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris.

About a quarter of the population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to face acute hunger, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released today. The new data shows that between July and December 2024, approximately 25.6 million people in the DRC, or 22 percent of the population analysed, are experiencing high acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). 

The 48th session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) has commenced in Quebec City, Canada, with first-time Chairperson Dr Parthi Muthukumarasamy presiding.

At this year’s COP16 Biodiversity Conference, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is focused on helping Members move from pledges to plans. While biodiversity goals are often associated with exotic animals, pristine wilderness and nature preservation zones, the key to global success is to ensure peace with nature by not only protecting but ensuring the sustainable management of biodiversity in agriculture and food systems.

The 4th annual World Food Forum (WFF), held from October 14 to 18, brought together thousands of young leaders from around the world to address challenges in agrifood systems under the theme “Good Food for All, for Today and Tomorrow.” This year, American and Canadian youth were well represented among the delegations.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will co-lead the implementation of 21 new projects as part of the second round of funding from The Pandemic Fund. Aimed at enhancing global and local health security, these projects totalling $109 million, will benefit 32  countries across the world.

In a landmark decision, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved funding for two transformative projects valued at $134 million, to support adaptation and enhance the climate resilience of vulnerable agricultural communities in Somalia and Iraq. These initiatives, spearheaded by FAO, will empower millions of farmers and pastoralists to adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change, including droughts, floods, and water scarcity.

The situation in the Middle East is catastrophic, FAO-Director General QU Dongyu said today in his address to the G7 Development Ministers’ Meeting taking place in Pescara from 22-24 October. “If we want to save lives and prevent famine, we urgently need a humanitarian ceasefire and unlimited, safe access to people who are in need and in danger,” he stressed.

QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), called today for an increased focus on Africa amid rising hunger there. Addressing the Meeting of Development Ministers from G7 countries, Qu underlined FAO’s commitment to a key initiative put forward under Italy’s G7 presidency to boost food security on the continent and beyond.

In this interview with the Codex Secretariat, the new Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL), Dr Parthi Muthukumarasamy, talks about his background, his experience with Codex and the agenda of the 48th session of CCFL which gets underway in Quebec City, Canada on 27 October 2024.

In Wayunaikki, the language of the Wayuu Indigenous Peoples, there is no word for “climate change’’. Yet, as the climate crisis undeniably batters their communities, they may just have found a key to resilience: a humble bean. The Wayuu have, for centuries, navigated the challenges of one the world’s most inhospitable climates. La Guajira, their ancestral homeland, stretches across the northernmost tip of mainland South America, bordering Colombia and Venezuela. This vast desert landscape, covering 20 848 square kilometres, is comparable in size to El Salvador and Slovenia.