CropLife Asia joins call for healthy & sustainable diets
This World Food Day, CropLife Asia proudly joins the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in the call to make healthy and sustainable diets accessible and affordable to everyone – and heralds the innovations of plant science technologies as a key component in realising this pursuit. The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report by the FAO reveals that while more than 820 million people around the world suffer from hunger, over 670 million adults and 120 million boys and girls between the ages of 5-19 are obese. Children under five years old are also part of this troubling trend with over 40 million of them being overweight globally. The paradox of how food insecurity is associated with both undernourishment as well as overweight and obesity is prevalent in Asia, where the majority of the undernourished population (more than 500 million) live. In 2018, Africa and Asia bore the greatest share of all forms of malnutrition by accounting for more than nine out of ten of all stunted and wasted children; while nearly three-quarters of all overweight children worldwide also reside in Asia. “The numbers revealed by the FAO SOFI Report are alarming and suggest a crisis is at hand,” said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia. “Innovations such as crop protection products and plant biotechnology have a role to play in mitigating the debilitating effects of this crisis. These plant science tools are food and nutrition security game-changers that can help Asia’s smallholder farmers not only produce more high-quality food but also mitigate the impacts of climate change.” Biotech crops are developed with improved traits such as increased yield, better resistance to pests and/or improved nutrition, among others. These traits are crucial tools that enable farmers to meet […]