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The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger participated in the Third International Conference on Agriculture and Food in an Urbanizing Society (AgUrb). The event happened on 17-21 September and gathered multiple actors involved in agri-food issues in order to reflect and debate about new food production, distribution and consumption strategies to be applied to increasingly urbanized societies.<\/p>\n
Academic researchers, civil society organizations and policy makers discussed the need of bringing food and food-related matters to the core of the debates that involve the main issues challenging humanity, such as climate change and its impact on water and biodiversity, the pursuit of alternative energy sources, as well as demographic changes.<\/p>\n
The main theme of the conference was \u201cHealthy food, socio-biodiversity and sustainable agri-food systems: innovations from consumption to production\u201d. The WFP Centre of Excellence sent three representatives to the event.<\/p>\n
Daniel Balaban, Centre\u2019s director, was the moderator of the panel \u201cFood security and sovereignty: challenges to nurture the world\u201d. In his opening remarks, he highlighted that hunger keeps growing in the world. According to the newest edition of the Status of Food Insecurity report, 821 million people are food insecure. \u201cDo we lack the capacity of facing this problem? Is it lack of intelligence, or is it lack of political will? I believe it is the latter\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Albaneide Peixinho, consultant of the WFP Centre of Excellence, was the moderator of the panel \u201cFood systems and inequality gaps: how to end all forms of malnutrition?\u201d. \u201cIn Brazil we still have some populations facing undernutrition, and others facing obesity. These nutrition gaps are a consequence of the lack of access to quality food by these groups\u201d. She stressed that public policies are crucial to advance in fighting the double burden of malnutrition.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e9lcio Carvalho, programme officer of the WFP Centre, participated in the panel \u201cBioEconomy Value chains \u2013 Latin American experiences\u201d. He presented the Beyond Cotton project, a new initiative of the WFP Centre in partnership with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency that aims to support smallholder farmers in four African countries to find steady markets for cotton by-products, such as cotton oil, and associated food crops.<\/p>\n