Today is the UN’s World Food Day and Ireland has a key role to play in addressing the challenges of world hunger, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
“The global population is forecasted to grow by 2 billion people by 2050 resulting in substantial increased demand for food, while at the same time there will be ever increasing pressure on natural resources such as water and biodiversity.
“Ireland is fully committed to playing its part in addressing these global challenges whether it be through enhanced production of sustainable and healthy food products, enhanced cooperation with poorer countries, partnerships between Irish companies and companies in developing countries and development of new innovative agriculture technologies which can benefit producers around the world.”
Minister Coveney reiterated his belief that Irish family farmers are and must continue to play their part through the production of high quality food and closer cooperation with developing countries.
“I believe that Irish family farmers continue to have an increasingly important role in addressing future global challenges associated with food and nutrition security. The Irish agri-food sector, led by Irish family farmer producers, is and must continue to produce high quality sustainable food to meet the growing global demand, develop innovative production methods which will produce more while using less resources and share its vast range of agricultural expertise and knowledge with agriculture producers around the world,” said the Minister.