This publication marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of FAO as a United Nations Agency for Food and Agriculture. This book tells the story of these seven decades of the history of FAO, its protagonists and their endeavours. This is the history in seven decades of an organisation born with one goal: to free humanity of hunger.

This book showcases the archeology, history and works of art of FAO’s headquarters in Rome, through spectacular photographs and informative texts, and reveals the places where world leaders and worldwide experts meet to fight world hunger.

Seventy-five years down the line, FAO’s name, ambition, and spirit remain: everything else has changed, and will change further. Born in 1945 amid the idealism of post-war reconstruction, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations sets out to increase farm output around the world and make famines a thing of the past. Over the subsequent 75 years, FAO’s outlook and body of work acquire new environmental and sustainability dimensions. By 2020, continued success requires strategic re-invention. As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates vulnerabilities linked to conflict and climate change, FAO is looking to advanced research partnerships, digitalization, and wall-to-wall innovation to help end hunger and malnutrition. With ten years to go until the Sustainable Development Goals come due, the race is on for bold answers and dramatic solutions.

This book is a historical review of international food and agriculture since the founding of the international organizations following the Second World War, including the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and into the 1970s, when CGIAR was established and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was created to recycle petrodollars. Despite numerous international consultations and an increased number of actors, there has been no real growth in international assistance, except for the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The book concurrently focuses on the structural transformation of developing countries in Asia and Africa, with some making great strides in small farmer development and in achieving structural transformation of their economies. Some have also achieved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG2, but most have not. Not only are some countries, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lagging behind, but they face new challenges of climate change, competition from emerging countries, population pressure, urbanization, environmental decay, and dietary transition. Lagging developing countries need huge investments in human capital, and physical and institutional infrastructure, to take advantage of rapid change in technologies, but the role of international assistance in financial transfers has diminished. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only set many poorer countries back but starkly revealed the weaknesses of past strategies. Transformative changes are needed in developing countries with international cooperation to achieve better outcomes. Will change in the United States bring new opportunities for multilateral cooperation?"--

At the United Nations Conference of 1943, in Hot Springs, Virginia, a specific plan was drawn up for the establishment of a permanent organization in the field of food and agriculture. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was founded a few years later, on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City, in Canada, and then temporarily established in Washington, D.C., in the United States of America. On 29 November 1949, the FAO General Conference established that the new permanent headquarters would be located in Rome, Italy. Today, around 11 000 people work for FAO, from almost all of the 194 Member Nations. They include agronomists, ichthyologists, and experts in food security and forestry, as well as in politics, law, economics and social development. This purpose of this book is to recount the Organization’s history, its mission and its day-to-day work in achieving its mandate: to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide; eliminate rural poverty; promote the sustainable use of natural resources and encourage the development of more efficient and inclusive agricultural and food systems, through the definition of agreements and standards.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of microorganisms to fight antimicrobial compounds, reducing the efficacy of treating diseases in humans, animals, and plants. AMR risk is outpacing human population growth, owing to misuse of antimicrobials in large quantities in food systems, and is a serious threat to food security and sustainable development. FAO, with the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is supporting countries in developing and implementing their One Health National Action Plans on AMR. The eventual aim is to ensure sustainable use of antimicrobials to minimize AMR risks, in alignment with the Global Action Plan on AMR. The scope of the evaluation covers FAO’s entire work on AMR up to early 2020 and its role in the global AMR architecture. It examines FAO’s organizational and institutional set-up for AMR work. FAO has a strong mandate to work on AMR, implementing activities in 45 countries and providing far-reaching support on AMR National Action Plans (NAPs). FAO’s technical expertise is a key comparative advantage in its work on AMR. It is underpinned by the strong scientific grounding of FAO’s work, engendered in its AMR working groups and supported by its collaboration with research centers, universities, and the Tripartite organizations. Nevertheless, the work is relatively recent and, given the long impact pathways, it has had limited results. A comprehensive strategic and programmatic approach would increase the likelihood of achieving results in combating AMR. FAO should prioritize its work in a long-term strategy on AMR that recognizes the seriousness of the threat and is fully integrated into the Organization’s Strategic Framework. The strategy should set out FAO’s long-term role in combating AMR and that of its divisions and offices, as well as its approach at the country and regional level. FAO should consolidate its work on AMR through a strong programmatic approach with a central coordination and management structure that links with the Regional Offices and is supported by dedicated core funding.

We are at a critical point in human history and that of the planet. In this book, a world leader in agricultural research, Professor Sayed Azam-Ali, proposes a radical transformation of our agrifood system. He argues that agriculture must be understood as part of global biodiversity and that food systems have cultural, nutritional, and social values beyond market price alone. He describes the perilous risks of relying on just four staple crops for most of our food and the consequences of our current agrifood model on human and planetary health.In plain language for the wider public, students, researchers, and policy makers, Azam-Ali envisions the agrifood system as a global public good in which its practitioners include a new and different generation of farmers, its production systems link novel and traditional technologies, and its activities encompass landscapes, urban spaces, and controlled environments. The book concludes with a call to action in which diversification of species, systems, knowledge, cultures, and products all contribute to The Ninth Revolution that will transform food systems for good.Related Link(s)