This committee brought together people from the FSM Departments of Resources and Development, Health and Social Affairs, and Education, together with representatives of Pohnpei State Agriculture, Yap’s Interagency Nutrition and Education Council, and members of the Pohnpei and Kosrae chapters of the Island Food Community.
In response to several events, including the soaring cost of fuel last year and the high tides back in Dec. 2008, President Manny Mori has created a committee to focus on celebrating World Food Day as the main FSM event to highlight food security issues.
World Food Day is an international celebration organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This year, World Food Day will be held on Oct. 16 with the theme of “Achieving food security in times of crisis.”
The focus of World Food Day, as described by the FAO, is to:
• Improve agricultural productivity and enhance livelihoods and food security in rural communities;
• Develop and conserve natural resources
• Expand and improve rural infrastructure and broaden market access
• Strengthen capacity for knowledge generation and dissemination;
• Ensure access to food for the most needy through safety nets and other direct assistance.
This is not the first year that FSM will be participating in celebrating World Food Day.
Jane Elymore from the FSM Department of Health and Social Affairs said that local participation goes back to the 1980’s.
Pohnpei has actively been celebrating it for five years, and other states in the FSM have seen celebrations including Chuuk.
Although each state has some local celebration of food security, this will be the first year that each state will try and focus the event on the same day.
