Dear Blog Readers, For the past few days I have been covering the Second International Conference on Nutrition at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. I was not planning to write about it on my blog but a blog reader asked me to, so here I go.
Since 1996, I’ve covered several World Food Summits at the FAO headquarters in Rome and I admit that I love immersing myself in the international environment there. There is always an interesting cast of characters — in the past I’ve listened to Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez speaking at the FAO. And after spending so much time covering the Vatican (mostly men in clerical collars and a few nuns and Swiss Guards here and there) and Italian politicians (men in elegant suits and women in pantsuits and spike heels) who live in their own byzantine Italian political world, it is so refreshing to have the wide variety of nationalities and cultures represented at an organization like the FAO. (My cameraman friend Cristiano from Reuters TV told me he loves covering stories at FAO because he has never seen so many beautiful and exotic women in one place)
On top of that, how can anyone disagree with their goals – the importance of feeding the hungry is something we can all agree on. We have sometimes wondered how the FAO seems capable of spending a lot of money on bureaucrats with cushy tax-free jobs, who take forever to come up with elaborate reports on obvious problems, however, overall I think the FAO is a good institution. I am an even bigger fan of the World Food Programme, but more on that another time.
But back to the coverage of the conference. The first nutrition conference was in 1992 and since then, according to FAO statistics, hunger has dropped by 21 percent. That is great news. However 800 million people still go hungry. According to FAO statistics, 2.8 million children under age five die of undernutrition every year. That should not happen in 2014. The conference also addressed the question of obesity. FAO data shows that 42 million children under the age of five are already overweight in 2013, and in 2010 five hundred million adults around the globe were affected by obesity.
Clearly there is a lot to work on.
The conference came out with the “Rome Declaration on Nutrition”, a wide-ranging report declaring some facts about health and nutrition around the globe.
Here are a few quotes from that: Rome Declaration on Nutrition:
–“epidemics such as the Ebola virus disease, pose tremendous challenges to food security and nutrition.”
–“…need to address the impact of climate change and other environmental factors on food security and nutrition”
–“undernutrition was the main underlying cause of death in children under five, causing 45% of all child deaths in 2013”
–“Family farmers and smallholders, notably women farmers, play an important role in reducing malnutrition…”
–“food losses and waste throughout the food chain should be reduced in order to contribute to food security, nutrition and sustainable development;”
The conference also came up with a Framework for Action which included 60 points on how to tackle nutrition issues. These included things from “periodic deworming for all school-age children in endemic areas” and “provide iron, and Vitamin A supplementation for pre-school children” to “Conduct appropriate marketing campaigns and lifestyle change communication programs…”
The days were chock-a-block with speeches from representatives around the world – over 170 countries were taking part, so we had to pick and choose.
The Pope was perhaps the highlight of the event arriving in the plenary hall today in his white robes and delivering a strong speech in which he decried the “primacy of profit” and “market priorities” that have made food a “commodity” and not a basic human right. The Pope insisted that the poor should not be “left at the street corner” and declared, “We ask for dignity, not for charity.”
Pope Francis also spoke about the risk to the health of man when the earth is destroyed and earned a loud applause when he noted that, “God always forgives insults and ill-treatment, yes, God always forgives. Men forgive sometimes, but the earth never forgives. We must take care of Mother Earth so she doesn’t answer with destruction.”
Adding a note of glamour to the event today was Queen Letizia of Spain who wore an elegant tomato-red dress and delivered a passionate speech about the need to combat malnutrition. She concluded recommending a Mediterranean diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and lots of exercise. She also announced Spain’s commitment to the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action agreed to at the conference on Wednesday.
(As gorgeous as she is, she did seem a bit to me like a cookie-cutter copy of the beautiful and talented Queen Rania of Jordan)
FAO officials said they were pleased by the way in which a group with representatives from 170 countries were so unified in their commitment to combat malnutrition. After the meetings today I spoke to FAO’s Chief Nutritionist, Brian Thompson, who said it is not about just food, it is about economic and social factors. “The reasons for the persistently high and unacceptable levels of malnutrition in the world today is because of social exclusion, and economic marginalization.”
Trisha, How do you manage to do it? Yes, your blog and everything else from Lampadusa to the FAO to Turkey. The dissonance of going from Lampadusa to assemblage of powerful and well to do must take a toll, let alone your Mamma role. Anyway your reporting is wonderful and we are the beneficiaries of your energy and insight. The machine wiped out my comments on the 1st Lampaduse blog which were to the effect that the poor and powerless immigrants were in fact slowing reshape of the world as we know it .What we are doing to our earth will only accelerate migration. But enough of that. Thanks for enlarging our world with cogent reports on important and interesting events.
L/D
Thank you Dad. I am not sure I manage too well. As you know, I adore my work and bouncing from reporting on migrants in Lampedusa, to the Vatican, to a conference at the FAO is fun for me. However, a lot of things do slip through the cracks on the home front. I was just going through Chiara’s closet with her which was basically a mountain of piled up clothing and we dug through it and ended up with a garbage bag full of clothes that no longer fit, a huge pile of dirty clothes, a huge pile of clothes with holes that need to be sewn up, and a huge pile of her sister’s clothes that ended up in her closet. Now I have to do the same with Caterina. I think if I were a bit less enthusiastic about all the interesting stories I get to cover, things would run a bit more smoothly at home (but I would be less happy).
So interesting to have this event so close to the Vatican, and yet, not at the center of Vatican interest, despite the Papal moment. And the irony of having the super rich and super beautiful there, advising about the poor and hungry . . . . and where does this advice go? Who is listening back home? Who is the UN speaking to? I guess that has always been a question, whose ear does the UN have and what power.influence does the UN wield. If you could get this group a speech at the G8 summit, or at the Vatican Synod of Bishops, maybe something would happen. Or not. We seem to live in a world where no one listens much anymore – a quick look at DC shows how power is bunkered down . . . thanks for the sharing, and especially the pix of people there.
Who is listening? Who are they speaking to? Those are excellent questions. I am not sure. I mentioned in the post that I am a big fan of the UN’s World Food Programme which, like the FAO, is based in Rome. The WFP is extremely active delivering food to the hungry, to refugees, all over the globe. They send us almost every week videos of work they are doing around the world and I am so impressed. This week they sent me a video of work they are doing in Liberia and Sierra Leone with mothers. They interviewed a mother in Sierra Leone who — along with two of her children– has survived Ebola. She has also lost 3 relatives to Ebola. She is now with her family but struggling to get food — so WFP is providing her with food for her family. I am also a big fan of Medicins San Frontieres — Doctors without Borders — that is another organization where they go to the places where people need help and do something concrete — not a lot of talk, but lots of action. And as a result, no one needs to listen, they can feel the difference.
Another interesting blog and great pictures. Thanks for coverage of a really important topic for the world.
Thank you Joan, it is an important topic and I barely scratched the surface, but I am glad you liked post and pictures.
I wonder if you would’ve made that comment about the Queen of Spain being “cookie-cutter” if she were a King. Aren’t women subjected to enough ridiculous scrutiny?
Elana — In a certain sense you are right. I was being a bit snotty and cynical saying that Queen Letizia seemed to me a cookie-cutter copy of Queen Rania of Jordan. I am actually a huge fan of Queen Rania or Jordan so for me it isn’t such a negative thing. The reason that came to mind was that I saw Queen Rania last spring when I was covering the Pope’s visit to Jordan and to me they really do look similar. (see blog post “Touching the Walls – Pope Francis in the Middle East). I had actually googled images of both Queens and they are similar physically. It also bothers me slightly that the two of them, and Kate Middleton as well, seem so skinny. I think there is enormous pressure on these women to be rail thin. But that leads back to your point — they probably feel a need to remain so thin because they are “subjected to ridiculous scrutiny”. I don’t think I would hold back though when it comes to a King though. I almost always side with women in the limelight when the going gets rough — see my blog posts on Veronica Lario (ex wife of Silvio Berlusconi) (Blog Post : Veronica’s Revenge) and Valerie Trierweiler, ex Premiere Dame of France kicked out by her cheating partner President Francois Hollande (Blog Post: Last Tango in Paris). If Italy has a King I would surely have a thing or two to say– and if Prince Charles ever comes to Rome, I promise to pick on him and not on Camilla Parker-Bowles! Again, my apologies if you thought I was snide about Letizia — I actually found her stunningly beautiful and very articulate!
Perhaps the Pope could free up some of the Vatican billions and help out instead of just talking.
In this case, I would actually defend Pope Francis, I think he is trying to change things at the Vatican so that more money does go to the poor. He is working through the office of the “Almoner” distributing money to the poor in Rome. He has met with homeless in Rome and is now having showers built for the homeless up against the Vatican wall. I truly think this Pope is more action-oriented in terms of helping the have-nots.
Perhaps the Pope could free up some of the Vaticans’ billions and help out in a practical way. Talk is cheap.
Hmmm! As with poverty statistics, same with figures for the malnourished – whilst the situation gets progressively worse these organisations change the goal-posts so that they can claim some sort of success and purpose for their existance and jollies around the world. That priviledged individuals would suggest a ‘Mediterranean diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and lots of exercise’ to some poverty-stricken, half-starved kids rummaging the rubbish tips of the world to exist is a measure of how detached these people and organisations really are.
Alan, you make a good point — it is easy to sing the praises of the Mediterranean diet if your sitting on the patio of your Tuscan Villa enjoying your Brunello di Montalcino looking out at your olive trees and lemon grove. I once visited “Smokey Mountain” in Manila for a story on the people who literally live in shacks on the garbage dump and the children spend their days rummaging through it. I guess people who want to make a real difference need to roll up their sleeves and get dirty — not hang out a conference in Rome. Still, I imagine a lot of people at the conference on nutrition do also get out and do something more concrete to help sometimes.
wonderful and love that line from the pope that the earth never forgives, sharing with a friend of mine who I know will love your work. He and Sam attended the Slow Food conference in Torino. xxx
sending love, sorry I have a flu and have no great insights to offer but I love to hear yours xx
Thanks Lisa, I also liked that line from the Pope. I am awfully worried about Mother Earth these days and all the damage we (humankind) are doing.