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It is important that we try for a society during which all people, in every single place, have reliable access to nutritionally adequate and environmentally sustainable food. On 16th October, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) joins its partners and the Caribbean people in observing World Food Day 2022 with the theme “Leave NO ONE Behind”.
We must allude to the undeniable fact that there’s an in depth relationship between dietary health, food security, and food safety. This is obvious in recent events corresponding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ukraine/Russia unrest – these events have exacerbated food insecurity and inflation, which has kept prices at all-time high levels and threatens to proceed until the tip of 2024.
Amidst these crises, the people of the Caribbean, have continued to struggle to earn a living and meet their basic food requirements.
Based on a survey by the World Food Programme, from August 2022, 4.1 million people within the English-speaking Caribbean have been affected by food insecurity, with a major increase of over a million affected since February 2022.
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Moreover, climate change which had a negative effect on the patterns of trade, production, and consumption of commodities.
Over time, weather patterns have impacted agricultural practices, crop production, and food crop dietary quality.
On account of the susceptibility of germs, potentially toxin-producing microorganisms, and other pests to climatic aspects, the consequences of climate change may influence the frequency of some food-borne diseases.
“At CARPHA we implement an integrated One Health approach to make sure protected food, which encompasses a multi-sectoral, multi-collaborative, cross-sectional approach to be certain that integrated food-borne disease surveillance is carried out in our Member States, linking the epidemiological, laboratory, environmental and veterinary elements of foods safety. We encourage stakeholders to work collectively to discover measures that can encourage individual and community food safety initiatives, early detection of potential threats at each link along the farm to table continuum and implement solutions. We’re on the forefront of constructing the Region’s capability through advanced food safety training and certification and enhanced food safety laboratory test capabilities,” stated Dr. Lisa Indar, Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Division.
All of us have a job to play. Thus, CARPHA sends out the decision to all – farmers, research and academic institutions, civil society organisation, private businesses – to extend collaborative and supportive efforts to ensure that the Caribbean’s food safety practices are improved.
Governments are encouraged to employ a unified health policy to advertise safer food options from farm to fork.
Allow us to come together to construct food systems that may withstand the impacts of potential future global disasters.
As a Region we’d like to take a leave nobody behind approach — encourage the production and consumption of nutrient-rich, locally sourced, low-cost foods; make a concerted effort to respect food and the environment by wasting less; and support initiatives that reduce poverty and hunger.
Everyone counts… we must be certain that nobody is left behind.
SOURCE: Caribbean Public Health Agency
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