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Speaking at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 12 February 2018, entitled “The First FAO/WHO/AU International Food Safety Conference”, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo highlighted that food safety “is a central element of public health”. He noted that the WTO’s rules, such as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement and the Trade Facilitation Agreement, play a key role in ensuring food is traded safely and called on the international community to harness new technologies and information tools to support food safety and the achievement of the SDGs.
If there’s one item that epitomizes our modern world, it’s plastic. It’s easy to make and use but does untold damage, especially in Asia where rivers, lakes and oceans are literally choking on it.
We are only now learning how pollution impacts the base of our food web and the oxygen-producing plankton (phytoplankton) in our oceans. Phytoplankton use dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) in our oceans to produce around 70% of our oxygen. They singlehandedly remove a third of atmospheric CO2 in this way.
The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Nutrition (JEMNU) was established in 2012 to provide scientific advice to the committees of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme (i.e. Codex Alimentarius) or Member Countries. JEMNU aims to provide relevant scientific advice in an independent and cost-effective manner; therefore, the Meetings will be convened when there is a specific request from a Codex Committee or Member Countries.
On Monday, 4 February 2019, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) will host the second intersessional event of the 2018/19 year, on the topic Promoting youth and women engagement and employment in food systems across the rural-urban continuum. Over the next 15 years, it is estimated that about 1.6 billion people will reach working age in low and middle-income countries. How can food systems and enhanced rural-urban linkages provide more and better jobs for women and youth?