Climate Action 2014-2015

MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
REDUCING WASTE
According to FAO, the food currently lost
or wasted in Latin America could feed
300 million people, almost eight times
the amount of people who suffer hunger
in the whole region. This waste or loss
impacts the sustainability of food systems,
reduces local and global food availability
and generates less income for farmers
while raising prices for consumers.
FAO is organising a regional expert
consultation to draft voluntary guidelines
on food waste and losses, targeting issues
along the food chain. The meeting will
also offer important input for FAO’s
contributions to CELAC’s hunger and
poverty eradication plan, which will
address food loss and waste directly.
As part of the global SAVE FOOD
Initiative, a joint effort by FAO and
Messe Düsseldorf, FAO’s Regional
Office for Latina America and the
Caribbean has launched a regional
campaign aimed primarily at consumers
to raise awareness of food waste, under
the motto Zero Loss Waste/Zero
Hunger. FAO is also supporting projects
around the Caribbean to eliminate food
losses in the production of cassava, and
is giving support for the creation of a
Food Bank in the Dominican Republic
along the lines of institutions that already
exist in Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala,
Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
A COMMON GOAL
The eradication of hunger in Latin
America and the Caribbean is no longer
the dream of individual countries; it
has become a common goal towards
which the region marches together.
The level of commitment that can be
seen gives room for optimism and has
demonstrated concrete results: since
1990/92, 31.5 million people have
escaped the clutches of hunger thanks
to the combination of political will,
productive and social policies and
coordination among all stakeholders.
The road ahead is still daunting and the
challenges are many, but the main factor
that makes zero hunger a possibility
is that food and nutritional security
is no longer a secondary concern for
governments. It is a top priority today.
The right to food has become part of
the constitution of many countries,
making food security a national policy
that no longer depends on the whims of
any individual government.
If steps are taken to face both the most
urgent challenges and underlying causes
of undernourishment, and national,
subregional and regional actions are
stepped up, the goal of eradicating
hunger by the year 2025 set by the
Hunger-Free Latin America and the
Caribbean Initiative can be achieved.
This has the potential to dramatically
change the region’s development and the
well-being of its citizens, especially since
hunger is a glaring injustice in a region
that has become a major player in the
global food market.
Latin America and the Caribbean
are leading the global fight against
undernourishment. Now one final
push is needed to show the world that
complete food security can be achieved
"One final push is needed to
show the world that complete
food security can be achieved
during our life-spans."
"The level of commitment
that can be seen gives room for
optimism and has
demonstrated concrete results."
during our life-spans. Attaining it will
not only mark a historical milestone
for the development of the region, it
will be living proof that hunger can be
overcome by all humanity.
That is our goal as members of the
United Nations, and FAO is dedicating
all its efforts to fulfilling that purpose.
Raúl Osvaldo Benítez is Assistant Director-
General and Regional Representative for
Latin America and the Caribbean, UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
An Argentine, he has had a distinguished
career in economics, agriculture and rural
development. Mr Benítez assumed his
duties at the FAO Regional Office for Latin
America and the Caribbean in Santiago,
Chile, in 2012. He was recently Minister
for Production and Economic Development
in San Juan, Argentina, where he led the
province to the top of the country’s economic
growth list, with the lowest unemployment
rate in 30 years. He has worked in
organisations such as the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), the World
Bank, NGOs and private sector concerns.
He was Assistant Professor of Economics
at the Catholic University of Cuyo, and
Associate Professor of Macroeconomics at
the National University of San Juan. In the
Argentine Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock
and Fisheries, he assumed responsibility for
designing the Programme for Improving the
Incorporation of Argentina’s Small-scale
Farmers into Value Chains.
The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) has the
mandate to raise levels of nutrition, improve
agricultural productivity, better the lives
of rural populations and contribute to the
growth of the World Economy. Achieving food
security for all is at the heart of FAO’s efforts
– to make sure people have regular access
to enough high-quality food to lead active,
healthy lives.
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