On October 16 we celebrate
World Food Day
World Food Day, a date proclaimed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) in 1945 to promote awareness of the global food problem and ensure healthy food in every corner of the planet. This year’s slogan, “Leave no one behind,” highlights this very idea, advocating the need for the entire world’s population to benefit from human development, innovation and sustainable economic growth.

According to FAO data, 3.1 billion people worldwide cannot afford healthy food, putting them at risk of malnutrition and starvation. In addition, hunger continues to increase and has affected up to 828 million people in 2021, an increase of about 150 million people since 2019. In terms of food insecurity, the number of acutely food ins ecure people has risen from 135 million to 193 million in just two years.

The report on “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World“(FAO, 2022) warns about the impact of this problem on the new generations, since in 2020 around 22% of the world’s population will be affected. under 5 years of age all over the world suffered stunted growthand 6.7 malnutritionThe most common among the poorest households in rural areas. Likewise, according to 2019 data, 571 million women between the ages of 15 and 49 (almost one in three women) suffered from anemiaThis situation also affects women living in rural areas and in the poorest households, as well as those who have not received a formal education, to a greater degree.

FAO also points out that the world food problem is not a question of production shortages, since it is estimated that enough food is produced to feed the entire planet. Instead, it is more of a lack of availability and access for certain people, due to factors such as armed conflicts, international tensions, the environmental degradationInequality, climate change, economic downturns, rising prices and, in the last two years, the health crisis caused by the COVID-19.

In this context, the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) contributes to promoting a more sustainable future in which healthy food is guaranteed for all people, through different initiatives that pursue sustainable production and applied innovation in various food sectors.

Thus, the
Empleaverde Program
Program, co-financed by the European Social Fund, supports projects closely linked, among other things, to sustainable agri-food. This is the case of the training project
Engrana
launched by the Germinando cooperative, with the aim of consolidating employability in the local and sustainable agri-food sector, through the promotion of business management and the collective articulation of needs among different entities.

For its part, the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture and Agroecology (SEAE) develops the project “Training in organic production for the promotion of green jobs and agroecological transition“. Through these free courses on organic production, the aim is to contribute to the improvement of professional skills in agro-ecological production in key sectors that require additional training to promote the ecological transition, such as livestock, catering or specific crops such as citrus. In this way, some of today’s major challenges, such as depopulation in rural areas, biodiversity loss and climate change, are also being addressed.

Another project supported by the Empleaverde Program is “Surcando Futuro“, carried out by the Association of People with Disabilities of Lanzarote (ADISLAN). This initiative seeks to generate a double impact in the area of sustainable and organic productionon the one hand, expanding qualification and training of the participants, through the acquisition of competencies demanded within the green economy; and, on the other hand, favoring the promotion of the primary sector, the sustainable economy and the island’s biodiversitycontributing to the rescue of farming systems and native ecosystems that have been abandoned in recent decades.

In addition, the Biodiversity Foundation supports transformative scientific-technical projects to promote the bioeconomy and contribute to the ecological transition, within the framework of the
Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR)
funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture is carrying out the following project Pro-Biodiversity Livestockwhich seeks to promote a profitable and sustainable extensive livestock farmingand to contribute to generate quality food and sustainablemaintaining ecosystems and biodiversity threatened by rural abandonment, maintaining and creating jobs in areas affected by such abandonment, among other areas.

Likewise, the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife) is implementing the “Secanos Vivos” project, which seeks to make profitable and promote the bioeconomy of rainfed agrosystems (cereal and vineyards), which are currently at risk of disappearing, but which have an important environmental and social value and are favorable for biodiversity. To this end, sustainable production and innovation models are implemented in the development of a value chain based on biodiversity and resilience to climate change. In addition, the project seeks to contribute to the implementation of different strategies and public policies, both at the European level (e.g. the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy or the Biodiversity Strategy) and at the national level (with special attention to the current and future Common Agricultural Policy).