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Celebrating World Food Day with 3 Food-Focused Solutions

  • Date: 16 October 2024

Each year, October 16 marks World Food Day. This year’s theme, Right to foods for a better life and a better future, perfectly summarizes why WWF works on food. Food is not a nice to have, it’s a must have. But access to food doesn’t always come easy for everyone, and of the food we do produce – 40% of it is lost or wasted. By 2050, we’ll have 9 billion people to feed. If we’re going to do that, we need to find ways to improve the efficiency and productivity of how we produce and source our food so we can ensure a healthy future for both people and the planet.

From transformative global solutions, to making small changes in the school cafeteria, to embracing seaweed as a food source, in celebration of World Food Day, here are 3 food-focused solutions to help us rewrite the future of food.

    1. Curbing Environmental Destruction for Food Production: Codex Planetarius is a proposed system of minimum environmental performance standards to improve the sustainability of globally traded food and soft commodities. Codex aims to grow demand for globally traded food while minimizing the negative environmental consequences. Dive into this concept on WWF's Nature Breaking Podcast - listen here.

    “It’s time to wake up and change course. Instead of rewarding the best producers to improve, we must find a way to transform the least efficient producers; these producers are responsible for the lion’s share of environmental degradation, but they have historically been ignored in the conversation.”

    Jason Clay
    senior vice president and executive director of WWF's Market Institute
    close up of skinny kelp at seaweed farm on the coast of Maine

    Seaweed farm in Maine

    2. Embracing Seaweed as a Sustainable Food Source: Seaweed, although often overlooked in Western diets, has been a staple in many Asian cuisines for centuries. This rich source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants is valued for its savory umami flavor. The cultivation of kelp, a popular type of seaweed, has a much lower environmental footprint compared to traditional agriculture on land. As climate change and increasing resource consumption create concerns over food security, kelp is gaining recognition as a food source with a low environmental impact. Learn more about this superfood. 

    3. Turning Cafeterias into Classrooms: The traditional classroom is not the only place where learning takes place. Since 2017, WWF has been turning cafeterias across the US into classrooms –empowering students to understand and act on the environmental consequences of food waste, such as its impact on climate change, water use, and biodiversity loss. Food Waste Warriors incorporates hands-on learning and encourages students to be advocates for sustainable food practices in their schools and communities. Learn more about Food Waste Warriors here and check out what one school in Georgia has been up to in this recent segment from ABC News:

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