Italy: Rome-based FAO celebrates 75 years

Rome: World Food Day 2020 will be marked by the Rome-based United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization on 16 October, the anniversary of the agency’s foundation 75 years ago.

The annual event, marked by more than 150 countries, comes as the world continues to battle against the covid-19 pandemic which has heaped strain on already fragile food systems, threatening to push millions more into hunger.

Under the theme Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future, this year’s World Food Day will call for more resilient and robust agri-food systems, and for global solidarity.

The event will also provide an opportunity to thank Food Heroes: farmers and workers throughout the food supply chain who continue to produce, plant, harvest, fish or transport our food, despite these challenging times.

FAO will host a ceremony with live speeches and video messages from director-general QU Dongyu; Pope Francis; Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella; UN secretary-general António Guterres, among other important figures, with the event being screened by webinar from 14.00-15.00 on 16 October.

Later that evening a video-mapping show featuring food heroes and celebrating FAO’s 75th anniversary will be staged at the Colosseum and the FAO headquarters in the Circus Maximus area.

FAO was founded on 16 October 1945 – a few days before the United Nations itself – to further agricultural knowledge and nutritional wellbeing.

“The UN’s food agency was born in the wake of catastrophe” – said FAO director-general QU Dongyu – “Three-quarters of a century later, its mission has been made more relevant to the world at large by another global scourge.”