The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has highlighted the need for all people in the world to have the right to nutritious, safe and affordable food.

In a ceremony marking World Food Day 2024 yesterday (Wednesday, October 17) in Rome, Italy, participants called for universal access to sufficient amounts of diverse, nutritious, affordable and safe food.

The FAO said that this year’s World Food Day comes amid growing global tensions and conflicts, as well as climate shocks, which contribute to the factors causing hunger to hundreds of millions of people all over the world, and preventing billions from being able to afford a healthy diet.

Qu Dongyu, the director-general of the FAO, said that food is a basic human right, and called for a renewed “commitment to build more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agri-food systems that can nourish the world”.

He said that such systems need to support smallholder farmers, family farmers and small business people in the value chain, who he described as being “fundamental to making nutritious, diverse food available to all, and to preserving traditional food cultures”.

Some 730 million people in the world face hunger in the world today, with over 2.8 billion people globally unable to afford healthy diets.

The ceremony yesterday heard a message read on behalf of Pope Francis, which said: “The intrinsic social and cultural dimension of the act of nourishment must not be forgotten.

“In this respect, political and economic decision-makers at the international level must listen to the demands of those at the bottom of the food chain, such as small-scale farmers, and of intermediate social groups, such as the family, who are directly involved in feeding people.”

The meeting was also addressed by UN secretary-general Antonio Gutteres, who said: “Something is very wrong with a world in which hunger and malnutrition are a fact of life for billions of children, women and men.”

Other speakers included Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme and wife of the late US politician and presidential candidate John McCain.

She said: “[The] WFP is partnering with the private sector to harness the potential of science, innovation and technology, and has proven and scalable solutions to hunger, which support long-term resilience and reduce needs over time. But we need everyone on board to help us achieve a future free from hunger.”