WHY

WHY is mobilizing its resources for “Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis,” the theme of the 2009 World Food Day on Oct. 16. Daily headlines show that the global food crisis is growing. With an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, there are now 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of all humanity is suffering from hunger. The crisis is stalking rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's hungry live and work, as well as urban centers, where food rebellions have taken place in many countries. Even in the United States, more than 36 million people are food insecure (and likely far more than that, unfortunately, since this statistic was recorded before the recession hit).

WHY’s work to address the food crisis coincides specifically with this year’s World Food Day. WHY is coordinating the US Working Group on the Food Crisis to provide a unified response to our broken food system from progressive anti-hunger, food, farm, labor, and trade justice movements in the US. Just before World Food Day, the Working Group will meet as part of the Community Food Security Coalition’s (CFSC) annual conference in Des Moines, Iowa on October 10-13, From Commodity to Community: Food Politics and Projects in the Heartland.

This gathering will include the presentation of the first-ever Food Sovereignty Prize to the international peasants network La Via Campesina. Food sovereignty, at its essence, is the democratization of food and agriculture – the ability of people throughout the world to have control over the food they eat and grow. The Food Sovereignty Prize is being awarded to La Via Campesina for its significant work in raising public awareness of food sovereignty and supporting the ability of communities throughout the world to feed themselves. La Vía Campesina is an international movement of peasants, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and farmworkers with members from 56 countries that span Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The Prize is being awarded in the same week as the World Food Prize and is intended to shine a spotlight on grassroots activists working for a more democratic food system to alleviate the problem of hunger in the face of the current food crisis.

For more information on World Food Day 2009, see www.worldfoodday.org. For World Food Day USA and its telecast, see www.worldfooddayusa.org/CMS/2955.aspx.