The problem of food insecurity affects the world’s small-scale farms and rural areas the most. This is because these places are also where ‘70 percent of the world’s hungry live and work.’ As the world commemorates World Food Day on October 16, some depressing statistics confront the governments of the world: an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, and that there are 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world today. This means that ‘almost one sixth of all humanity is suffering from hunger.’

As the majority of the world still reels under the devastating pressure of a global economic downturn, the world’s poorest suffer an exacerbated crisis in the form of food insecurity. While experts solve recession, the hungry just got more marginalized in their condition. The problem of world hunger is already at a most critical level.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hopes to enjoin the governments of the world, both developed and developing countries, to eradicate hunger through the World Summit on Food Security that will be held in Rome on November 16-18 of this year.

According to FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf, “The silent hunger crisis — affecting one sixth of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world.”

The world summit on food security is being convened in recognition of the fact that ‘the global food insecurity situation has worsened and continues to represent a serious threat for humanity’ and that ‘the number of people suffering from hunger has been growing relentlessly in recent years.’ Food prices continue to skyrocket especially in developing countries. Also, in the light of the current global recession, ‘the global economic crisis is aggravating the situation by affecting jobs and deepening poverty.’

Via FAO