World Food Day to promote awareness of global food issues

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Ministry of Agriculture has declared that this week would be Food and Agriculture Week and has planned a myriad of activities to commemorate the occasion.

In 1979, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations designated October 16 as World Food Day. It is celebrated annually and seeks to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

This year’s theme is “World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bio energy”. The week-long activities are aimed at expanding global awareness in an effort to reduce the effects of increasingly severe climate patterns on agriculture and the impact of bio fuels on food production.

Yesterday (Oct. 12) there was an Agriculture in Context television show on ZIZ, an Agriscope programme on ZIZ radio and a church service at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Lodge at 11:00 a.m.

Today is also an activity-filled day. Not only will there be lectures centred on the theme in all the island’s secondary schools, but the Ministry will also donate garden tools to and plant fruit trees on the farm belonging to Dieppe Bay Primary School.

Public awareness programmes will be conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 14 and 15, respectively), with the annual Farmers and Fishers Awards Ceremony to be held at the Basseterre Abattoir in Lime Kiln at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 16.

Tree-planting activities will occur in primary schools and Belmont Estate throughout the following week (Oct. 17 to 24).  ~~Adz:Right~~

SKNVibes spoke to Agronomist Paul Benjamin, who said the initiative is “a message to get people to take action to improve food security and mitigate the effects of climate change”.

“One way we can do so is by planting as many trees as possible. This will not only increase oxygen production, but we can also eat the fruit that these trees bear. Another way is for our people to eat more local foods, because imports are both expensive and unstable.”

Benjamin identified other methods, including the reduction of carbon emissions by driving less and walking more, and the conservation of water and energy.