Today, October 16th, we celebrate World Food Day, a day which commemorates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) in 1945 – and which in turn is celebrated by organizations all over the world that are focused on hunger relief and food security. 

And this week, amid the 2023 World Food Day theme of Water is life, water is food. Leave no one behind, I find myself thinking about the nexus aspect of food – the critical linkage between food, water, and energy systems that we must optimize if we are to provide sufficient nutritious food for ten billion global citizens by 2050 (and beyond) within planetary boundaries.  

At the same time, I am of course reflecting on the severity and scale of global hunger, the entrenched disconnect between excessive food wastage and excessive hunger, and the right to food.

Further, just over two weeks ago we celebrated the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW), a special day on the UN calendar designed to raise awareness of the scope, scale, and impact of global food loss and waste while advancing solutions for reduction in accordance with Target 12.3. 

In my mind, it is more important than ever to recognize the connection between these two special days – because we can’t achieve global food security without achieving sharp reductions in global food loss and food waste. 

And world leaders should be increasing their focus on achieving both.

As UN Secretary General Guterres appropriately noted at July’s UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking session, “in a world of plenty, it is outrageous that people continue to suffer and die from hunger.” 

I applaud his phrasing, because we all need to be engaging on improving food security and reducing food loss and waste at a much higher level, using terms that spur us to challenge the status quo and become change leaders.  We need to leverage a shared sense of moral outrage to fundamentally change mindsets and drive effective action for a sustainable, regenerative, and equitable food system with urgency.

We know that transforming the global food system is one of the single greatest levers that we have to address global hunger, poverty, climate change, and the myriad social and environmental challenges that underpin the Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet sadly, while we suddenly find ourselves at the halfway point in the shared journey to 2030, we are “woefully off track” in terms of achieving them.   

At July’s Summit, UNSG Guterres stated that our global food systems are “broken” and that billions of citizens are paying the price of that dysfunction, as evidenced by the fact that we have more than 780 million citizens going hungry while a third of all food produced is lost or wasted.  In addition, more than three billion citizens can’t afford access to healthy diets while two billion are overweight or obese and 462 million are underweight. 

Clearly, our food system is out of balance. 

Making it Personal

And amid all of these reflections, I’m thinking back to my post from one year ago in which I built upon UNFAO’s theme (Leave NO ONE Behind) and suggested that we all step back and question 1) how our food system can be at this juncture? (where billions are experiencing food insecurity while 30-40% of annual food production is lost or wasted) and 2) what we can do to change it?

Regarding hunger, I suggested that when we think about eliminating hunger by 2030 we should be viewing the challenge at a more elemental level.  I noted that while we have the knowledge and resources to achieve zero hunger, achieving that goal will require an unprecedented level of caring and will.     

I also noted that we needed authentic global commitment to leaving NO ONE behind.  

And I suggested that we needed to personalize the issue of global hunger, with each of us questioning: What if you or I were one of the 800 million being left behind?  What if our family members were left behind?  Or our friends?

Such a personalized approach brings essential motivational perspective, helping to connect us to those individuals who are being left behind today – the millions that are largely invisible to us each day.  I suggested a new frame of non-acceptance in which we demonstrate, through our actions, that we simply no longer accept the idea of hundreds of millions of global citizens living in hunger.  And, of course, we take positive action based on that framing.

Guidance from Pope Francis

Last, I’m thinking especially about a handful of themes this World Food Day that I have covered extensively in recent years – including the need to transition to a culture that properly values food, the need to sharply reduce food loss and waste, and the need to demonstrate a new (and much higher) level of caring and will towards eliminating global hunger. 

And in reflecting on these many themes for World Food Day, I am drawing inspiration from Pope Francis, who covered them so beautifully in his letter to the FAO Director General two weeks ago on the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) – guiding each of us to become active in addressing global hunger and food waste in several ways:

Embracing Visibility:

In his remarks, Pope Franics raised the issue of visibility – noting that “it is the poor and needy of this world, who collect from the trash the food that others haughtily squander” who are watching our actions.

Further, he noted that the world’s young people are “openly calling on us to eradicate once and for all the pernicious effects that food loss and waste have on people and the planet.”

Changing Culture:

He went on to note that “the scourge of food loss and waste is as alarming and disastrous as the tragedy of hunger that so cruelly afflicts humanity,” and he specifically called out the linkage between the two as a result of a single root cause – “the prevailing culture which has led to the denaturalisation of the value of food, reducing it to a mere commodity to be exchanged.”

In other words, Pope Francis is calling us out on our developed world culture of abundance that leads us to easily waste so much of our food supply.

Caring and Will:

He cited our “general indifference towards the indigent” and the “scant care given to creation, with the harmful consequences that this has everywhere” – thus reminding us that we need to demonstrate greater care for our fellow citizens and for the health of the planet on which we all depend.

And he chastised us for the selfishness that leads many to “irresponsibly and immoderately part with basic goods” while at the same time not being “indignant” when we see so many fellow citizens who lack what is needed to live.

Significantly, Pope Franics stated that we can no longer point to world population growth as the cause of our inability to properly feed all global citizens, because in reality that tragic shortcoming is the result of insufficient political will to properly redistribute the world’s resources.

In short, he is challenging us to show that we care by taking action on food security and food loss and waste and demonstrating sustained will.

Acting Responsibly:

He also cited the selfishness of profit-maximizing models that are leading to the “irrational and voracious exploitation of natural resources” – a clear call to business leaders to act more responsibly.  In addition, he pointed to the need for urgent food system (and business model) transformation, noting that “we must all be clear about the urgency of a radical paradigm shift” because we are on an unsustainable path (well overshooting planetary boundaries). 

Right to Food:

Pope Francis reminded us that food has a spiritual basis and that “its proper management implies the need to adopt ethical behaviour,” noting that food ensures “the fundamental right to life and “the basis of the dignified sustenance” of all individuals and therefore must be treated with the utmost respect for the “sacredness that is proper to it.”

And he goes deeper into a critical aspect of the food waste problem – noting that food waste is “one of the most serious forms of waste generation” because it shows an “arrogant disregard” for all of the embedded resources – human and environmental – that go into our food.  

As he powerfully notes, “throwing away food means failing to value the sacrifice, labour, transport and energy costs involved in bringing quality food to the table.”  And it means “disregarding” all of those individuals who labor so hard to bring food to us, only to see much of it going to waste. 

He makes it personal. 

Breaking our increasing disconnect with food, and elevating awareness of all that goes into growing it and bringing it to us, is an essential element in changing our wasteful culture of abundance.

Connecting the Days, Accelerating Action

In closing, Pope Francis provides guidance on how food loss and waste can be stopped – noting that we must make appropriate financial investments, unite wills, and move from “mere declarations to far-sighted and incisive decision making.” 

In other words, we must “close the commitment gap” between pledges and responsible action at scale.

Above all, he notes that “it is essential to strengthen our conviction that wasted food is an affront to the poor” and that “it is the sense of justice towards the needy” that must drive each of us to a “categorical change of mindset and behaviour” toward reducing food waste and eliminating global hunger.

Again, he makes it personal, noting that we must all consider that “the food we throw away is unjustly taken from the hands of those who lack it” – from our hungry citizens who have a right to food “because of their inviolable human dignity.” 

And he referenced Saint Paul, noting that “the abundance of some must compensate for the lack of others” – thus advising us to share our food resources so that all can be fed. 

Pulling it all together, Pope Francis reminds us that we must “rekindle in ourselves the awareness of our common belonging to the one universal human family” and, powerfully, that “the person who goes to bed with an empty stomach is our brother” – and that sharing with our brother is an imperative.

It’s important for us to elevate the connection between these two key days on the UN calendar – the Interational Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) and World Food Day – as we seek to accelerate progress on both food security and food loss and waste reduction.

If we all embrace these twin challenges with truly transformational purpose, and if we make them personal, we can accelerate the needed progress.