Food and Agriculture Organization 06.30.2010
About Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was established in 1945 when right after the World War II was ended. It is one of the organizations among United Nations, which works on hunger problems all over the world.
Signatories : 191 countries and EC
Headquarter : Rome, Italy
Number of staffs : around 3,600 in all countries
around 50 in Japan, which is believed to be really small number for an advanced nation
FIAT PANIS... which means “food for everyone” in Latin
FAO's achievements are...?
To improve people's lives
To make people's health better, to develop the technology of agriculture
To reform people's life styles
To contribute to the economic growth.
The Change in Population of Hungry People
It was decreased from 1969 until 1997 favorably; however, because the prices of food increased, the population keeps growing from 1997 up to now. Today, FAO believes the population of hunger is over a billion, which is the highest ever even though FAO tries to decrease.
Pie chart of population of hunger
Hunger map
The reasons why population is increasing
Low level of agricultural productivity
In those countries, where need food, have large number of population, which is also increasing.
Problems of water use and possession of lands
Floods and drought have occurred more often than before
Works at FAO
To supply seeds and fertilizers to countries where need them.
To provide as much information, which can be used to solve problems, as possible.
To share the knowledge about policies in countries and research reports.
To give places where people can discuss about those problems.
To tell people in poor countries the information or knowledge about agriculture.
TeleFood is a way to donate money to poor countries by charity concert or some events. It was started in 1997 by FAO and it has helped more than 130 countries so far. TeleFood has provided seeds of vegetables and helped making the farms. TeleFood has made preserves. TeleFood has also fed the domestic animals to support the families who have them. These activities were able to do because people, who have money to donate, has raised money to TeleFood.
About the Day at FAO
This time was 4th visiting to the international organizations. We visited the office, which I thought it was really small. I was surprised by CITYNET's office, which was also small, but this FAO was a bit smaller than CITYNET, because FAO in Japan has only 8 officers.
On that day, there were lots of students, and I thought it was because FAO is one of the famous United Nations' Organizations. The person who gave a presentation was Japanese man, so I didn't need to listen in English, that was kind of disappointing for me. However, I could understand each details and learned a lot of things. I did not even know the population of hungry people is over one billion and that is the highest number ever. I was very shocked by that fact. In this world, many people eat too much so that they are over-weighted, but much more people cannot even eat once a day. I think we should really think about it. Even though I knew what FAO works on vaguely, I didn't even know seriousness of hunger. I thought I should study about these problems more.
I had a question about the differences between FAO and WFP. These two organizations seem to have same policies, so I asked the person who gave a presentation about it. He said the main difference is to give food or seeds and fertilizers. FAO gives seeds and fertilizers to poor countries and teach them how to cultivate. I wanted to ask one more question, but there were too many other students to ask. I think I am going to ask that question next time.