On September 14th, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released new statistics on the problems of global hunger. In 2009, over 1 billion people were affected by chronic hunger. That number is reported to have gone down drastically with the new reports. The numbers of chronically hungry people over the globe have gone down by 98 million. That is the good news. Efforts from the World Food Programme, the United Nations, Feeding America, and other outstanding organizations seeking to combat hunger are making a difference.
However, the new reports show that 925 million people are still affected by chronic hunger. Both the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization claim that this number is still unacceptable. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said of the new estimates, "But with a child dying every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems, hunger remains the world's largest tragedy and scandal. This is absolutely unacceptable." Diouf also noted that meeting the new hunger reduction target is at serious risk due to the rising cost of foods on a global scale.
Normally, the WFP and FAO would have released the new figures in October but in the hopes of speeding progress decided to announce the estimates before the September 20-22 Summit in New York where discussions about the United Nations Millennium Goals will be discussed. The first among the list of MGD's is to end poverty and hunger.
In May of last year the 1 Billion Hungry campaign was launched in an effort to get recognition from political leaders all over the world by Diouf. The campaign opens with the bolded words "1,000,000,000 people live in chronic hunger and I'm mad as hell!" and then goes on to encourage visitors to sign a petition. So far the petition holds 776,000+ names. Is your name on the list?
However, the new reports show that 925 million people are still affected by chronic hunger. Both the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization claim that this number is still unacceptable. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said of the new estimates, "But with a child dying every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems, hunger remains the world's largest tragedy and scandal. This is absolutely unacceptable." Diouf also noted that meeting the new hunger reduction target is at serious risk due to the rising cost of foods on a global scale.
Normally, the WFP and FAO would have released the new figures in October but in the hopes of speeding progress decided to announce the estimates before the September 20-22 Summit in New York where discussions about the United Nations Millennium Goals will be discussed. The first among the list of MGD's is to end poverty and hunger.
In May of last year the 1 Billion Hungry campaign was launched in an effort to get recognition from political leaders all over the world by Diouf. The campaign opens with the bolded words "1,000,000,000 people live in chronic hunger and I'm mad as hell!" and then goes on to encourage visitors to sign a petition. So far the petition holds 776,000+ names. Is your name on the list?
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