The pursuit of better food for all

FAO at 80

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FAO

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Introduction

Hope out of horror. Vision out of waste. And out of ruins, a collective rolling-up of sleeves.

The year is 1945. The end of the war is spurring renewal across the breadth of thought and human endeavour: in economics and governance; in science and social studies; in industry and engineering; in the humanities and the arts. But also, and not least, in the realm of values and aspirations.

A commitment to peace is the new proclaimed creed, coupled with a sense of the possible. Despite the emergence of new divisions in the form of the Cold War, and simmering colonial tensions aside, a new internationalism takes root. With it comes a determination to end, once and for all, the ills that have plagued humankind.

Chief among these are poverty and hunger.

Planet of the famished

Less well known than the mass killing associated with the Second World War is just how much loss of life was linked to food deprivation. Of the 60 million deaths attributable to the conflict, at least a third are estimated to have been caused by malnutrition and associated diseases. In 1943 in Bengal, some three million perished by famine. In (then Soviet) Ukraine, hunger had slain millions even before the war started. Millions more died in China. In Western Europe, in what had been comparatively rich countries, the social and economic fallout of war was unsparingly grim: over the winter of 1944–1945 in the Netherlands, people were reduced to eating tulip

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MORE1945-1965

DEEPER1965-1985

BROADER1985-2005

BETTER2005-2025

Foreword The Directors-General Selected
bibliography

Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations

Required citation:
FAO. FAO at 80 – The pursuit of better food for all. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7132en

This publication is an updated and augmented version of FAO at 75 – Grow, nourish, sustain. Together (FAO, 2020), issued on the occasion of FAO’s 80th anniversary.

Cover illustration and all other illustrations by DelHambre.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

ISBN 978-92-5-140167-5
© FAO, 2025
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