16th October: World Food Day & The Dark History of World Hunger

World Food Day (WFD) is a day that is habitually remembered and carried out every October 16th, undoubtedly as a memory from many years ago and as a warning to us about the necessity of food preservation for life. Living things, whether plants, animals, or humans, require specific nutritional ingredients in order to exist and reproduce. The nutrients required for growth must be present in foods in the proper amounts, such as rice, wheat, and cassava, which contain carbs, tofu, tempeh, and eggs, protein-rich meat, mineral-rich vegetables, and vitamin-rich fruits.

The benefits of food itself include:

• Energy Provider
• Body Growth and Development
• Tissue Maintenance
• Body Tissue Repair (regeneration)
• Regulating Body Processes
• Body Defense Against Disease (antibodies) and many others.

The commemoration of World Food Day dates back to the 20th FAO conference in Rome in November 1976, when it was decided to issue Resolution No. 179 regarding World Food Day. 147 FAO member countries agreed on the resolution. Since 1981, all FAO member countries have observed World Food Day on October 16th. The World Food Day celebration aims to raise international awareness and attention to the need of dealing with food challenges at the global, regional, and national levels. The implementation of the commemoration of World Food Day (WFD) is a consequence of the country’s participation as a member of FAO. The event was held across departments and as a vocal point for FAO.

Why do we need to celebrate World Food Day?

In the dark history of the world’s worst famines, the largest happened in 1907 in the eastern China region, with 25 million casualties as a result of bad harvests caused by a massive flood that impacted 40,000 square miles of fertile agricultural land and destroyed 100 percent of the crop. Food riots broke out on a daily basis as a result, and China was devastated by famine again in 1958-1962, killing 43 million people as a result of communist officials attempting to impose social change. One of them was the prohibition on private property ownership as part of the “Great Leap Forward” doctrine.

The communist regime prioritized iron and steel production over agriculture which eventually resulted in millions of agricultural workers being forced out of the fields and sent to metal-making factories. The next incident occurred in 1783 in India, with a death toll of 11 million caused by Chalisa, a year in the Samvat Vikram calendar used in Northern India where the region endures an extremely dry year as a result of a change from the rainless El Nino weather system.

Due to lack of food and water, all crops withered and died, including livestock, in the Soviet Union throughout 1932-1933, killing 10 million victims, in Bengal India killing 17 million victims, in Russia killing 5 million victims in 1921, in North Korea (1994-1998) killing 3 million victims, in Vietnam killing 2 million victims in 1945, in Ireland killing 1.5 million victims, and famine still haunts many countries today.

This necessitates stimulation and movement to minimise the number of fatalities from hunger through humanitarian initiatives and establishing a sense of love for fellow living creatures, which is one of the government’s efforts to honour World Food Day and other activities.