Biodiversity Fundamental to Food Safety- FAO Representative

Food and Organization Representative (FAO) to Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas, Hannah Clarendon, has said that biological biodiversity was fundamental to agriculture and food production and stressed that humans were placing increased pressure on a number of species, putting themselves at risk.
She said it was important for the regeneration of these important species to take place for continued sustenance and to ensure that humans had continued access to high quality food in the long term. The FAO Representative was speaking with JIS News recently against the background of this year’s World Food Day focus. “This year’s theme pays tribute to biodiversity’s role in ensuring that people have sustainable access to enough high quality food to lead active and healthy lives,” she stated.
Jamaica like many other countries around the world celebrated World Food Day yesterday, (October 16), under the theme “Biodiversity for Food Security”. The Ministry of Agriculture has planned a number of events to mark this important occasion and among them were a Church Service yesterday at the Kencot Seventh Day Adventist Church, 12 Osbourne Road, and a “Work Day” at the William Knibb High School in Trelawny on October 21.
The “Work Day” will see the World Food Day Committee establishing a school garden, renovating the school’s poultry house, and planting trees near the school’s bee apiary to facilitate continued sustenance of the bee hive.
According to Chairman, of the World Food Day Committee, Marva Allen Simms, planting trees close to the apiary (bee house) was one method of putting into practice the concept of this year’s World Food Day theme, as plants, animals and human beings relied on each other for survival.
The member countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established World Food Day in 1979. It marks the FAO’s continued search for a long-term solution to the problem of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the world. The Day was created with the ultimate goal that food should be available to all and that it should become a right for present and future generations.